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Russia Investigation Official Bruce Ohr Resigned From DOJ: Spokeswoman

Australian Universities Protest New Foreign Interference Law

Universities are pushing hard against new proposed laws that will give the Commonwealth the power to scrutinise, and potentially veto, collaboration with foreign governments or entities. Representatives from Australia’s top universities have fronted a senate inquiry into the Foreign Relations Bill, with many opposing the new measure. Vicki Thomson, CEO of the Group of Eight (Go8) universities, described the bill as a fishing expedition “casting a net far and wide to ascertain what can be scooped up.” Ensnaring universities in the net would damage the economy, she told the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee on Oct. 13. Students walk around Sydney University on April 6, 2016. (Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)“It will damage the potential for future technologies, future manufacturing, future jobs,” Thomson said. “The Go8 can’t afford such a hit, and neither can…

Russia Investigation Official Bruce Ohr Resigned From DOJ: Spokeswoman

A former Department of Justice official who was criticized by the agency for concealing his discussions with former UK spy Christopher Steele during the investigation into 2016 Russian election interference resigned last month, according to a spokesperson.

Bruce Ohr retired from the Department of Justice on September 30, 2020. As such, he is no longer an employee of the Department,” Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement on Wednesday.

Kupec said Ohr resigned after his lawyers were told that “a final decision on a disciplinary review being conducted by Department senior career officials was imminent.”

Ohr had served as an intermediary between Steele and the FBI team that investigated President Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016. Steele wrote an infamous dossier that likely played a role in the opening of an investigation into Trump’s campaign, codenamed Crossfire Hurricane. Years later, former special counsel Robert Mueller concluded there was no evidence of collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

The FBI also relied heavily on the dossier to get Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against Carter Page, a Trump campaign aide, at the time. Later, the Department of Justice’s inspector general found “significant errors and omissions” in the FISA probe.

Ohr’s wife, Nellie, worked as an analyst for FusionGPS, an opposition research company that hired Steele for the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The inspector general’s report found that Ohr and Steele met in 2010, but it said he displayed a “lapse in judgment” by not speaking with the Justice Department about his interactions with the FBI and Justice Department.

“Despite having been closed for cause, the Crossfire Hurricane team continued to obtain information from Steele through Ohr, who met with the FBI on 13 occasions to pass along information he had been provided by Steele,” Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in a report in December. He noted that Ohr couldn’t recall the FBI asking him to take action on Steele, saying that “the general instruction was to let [the FBI] know … when I got information from Steele.”

Last year, Attorney General William Barr tapped U.S. Attorney from Connecticut John Durham to probe the origins of the Russia-Trump investigation, including Crossfire Hurricane and Mueller’s investigation. Some of Trump’s allies have called for the findings of Durham’s investigation to be released before the November election.

Durham’s investigation has led to one criminal charge, coming against former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who plead guilty to altering an email related to the Carter Page surveillance operation.

The DOJ hasn’t responded to a request for comment.

Catherine Herridge of CBS News first reported on Ohr’s resignation.

Focus News: Russia Investigation Official Bruce Ohr Resigned From DOJ: Spokeswoman

Twitter to Pay Fine of $100,000 for Campaign Finance Violations

Twitter has been fined $100,000 by Washington state for campaign finance violations, the state’s attorney general said on Tuesday. According to the judgement filed in King County Superior Court (pdf), Twitter unlawfully failed to keep records of some $194,550 worth of political ads from 2012 through 2019. The ads were paid for by at least 38 Washington candidates and committees. “Twitter unlawfully failed to maintain for public inspection records about Washington political ads that ran on its platform from 2012 until Nov. 22, 2019. On that date, Twitter implemented a ban on all political advertising,” read the announcement from Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office. The state’s campaign finance disclosure law, adopted in 1972, requires that political advertisers retain records to the political ads so that they are available for public inspection.…