By Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH)
As the new year launches, there are 18 top questions to be answered about Russia and the FBI.
The American people deserve to know whether or not top FBI officials put their fingers on the scales of justice. The American people deserve to know whether or not the FBI worked to protect one presidential candidate while harming another. The American people deserve to know the extent of Russian interference into our free elections.
This is not about partisan politics. This is about equal treatment under the law, justice, and self-government — that is why the American people deserve answers to these questions:
1) Did the FBI pay Christopher Steele, author of the dossier?
2) Was the dossier the basis for securing FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrants to spy on Americans? And why won’t the FBI show Congress the FISA application?
3) When did the FBI get the complete dossier, and who gave it to them? Was it:
• Dossier author Christopher Steele?
• Fusion GPS?
• Clinton campaign/DNC?
• Sen. John McCain’s staffer?
4) Did the FBI validate and corroborate the dossier?
5) Did Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, or Bruce Orr work on the FISA application?
6) Why and how often did the Department of Justice lawyer Bruce Orr meet with dossier author Christopher Steele during the 2016 campaign?
7) Why did DOJ lawyer Bruce Orr meet with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson after the election? To get their story straight after their candidate Hillary Clinton lost, perhaps? Or to double down and plan how they were going to go after President-elect Donald Trump?
8) When and how did the FBI learn DOJ lawyer Bruce Orr’s wife, Nellie Orr, worked for Fusion GPS? And what exactly was Nellie Orr’s role in putting together the dossier?
9) Why did the FBI release text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page? Normally, ongoing investigation is reason not to make such information public.
10) And why did FBI release only 375 of 10,000 text messages? Were they the best? Worst? Or part of a broader strategy to focus attention away from something else? And when can Americans see the other 96 percent of the texts?
11) Why did Lisa Page leave special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe two weeks before Peter Strzok? This was two weeks before FBI and special counsel even knew about the texts.
12) Why did the intelligence community wait two months after the election to brief President-elect Trump on the dossier (Jan. 6, 2017)? Why was former FBI Director James Comey selected to do the briefing?
13) Was the briefing done to “legitimize” the dossier? And who leaked the fact the briefing was about the dossier?
14) The New York Times reported last week that George Papadopoulos’ loose lips were a catalyst for launching the Russia investigation. Was President-elect Trump briefed on this?
15) Why did Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson meet with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya before and after her meeting with Donald Trump Jr.?
16) Why was FBI general counsel Jim Baker reassigned two weeks ago? Was he the source for the first story on the dossier by David Corn on Oct. 31, 2016? Or was it someone else at the FBI?
17) Why did the FBI stonewall Congress for months before agreeing at the last minute to hand over Trump-Russia probe documents to the House Intelligence Committee?
18) And why would Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., leader of the Democratic Party, publicly warn President-elect Trump on Jan. 3, 2017 that when you “mess with the intel community they have six ways from Sunday to get back at you?”
It does not work that way in America. We are not ruled by unelected bureaucrats, police forces, or intelligence agencies.
In America, We The People ELECT the officials who govern.
Rep. Jim Jordan, the five-term Republican representative from Ohio’s 4th congressional district, co-founded the House Freedom Caucus and is the former chair of the Republican Study Committee. He serves on the Judiciary and Oversight committees.