“and I also provided this information to people in the criminal division specifically Bruce Swartz, Zainab Ahmad, Andrew Weissmann.” Bruce Ohr, closed-door House interview, as published by Fox News
Bruce Ohr, then a senior Justice Department official, sat for a closed-door House interview in August 2018. Fox News later published his answer about whom he told after meeting Christopher Steele, the author of the anti-Trump dossier. Ohr said he provided the information to FBI officials including Andrew McCabe, Lisa Page, and Peter Strzok, “and I also provided this information to people in the criminal division specifically Bruce Swartz, Zainab Ahmad, Andrew Weissmann.” A published transcript excerpt has Trey Gowdy asking for names and Ohr answering: Swartz; Ahmad; “and a third person who was working on some of these matters I believe was Andrew Weissmann,” then “He was the head of the Fraud Section at the time.”
That is sworn congressional testimony about a 2016 briefing — before Mueller was appointed. It is not, by itself, a finding that Weissmann committed a crime or hid a formal conflict.
On March 1, 2019, Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows sent Attorney General William Barr a letter asking whether Weissmann and Ahmad disclosed those Ohr contacts when they joined the Special Counsel’s Office. The House Oversight release quotes the letter: Ohr “testified he also conveyed Steele’s information to Weissmann and Ahmad in 2016—well before Special Counsel was appointed.” The Daily Wire (Ashe Schow, March 19, 2019) reported Barr had not answered by the committee’s deadline. The Daily Caller (Jan. 17, 2019) named Weissmann among attendees in its Ohr-testimony piece.
Allegation Jordan and Meadows argued the contacts “put into question their impartiality.” That is a congressional allegation about conflict, not a DOJ Inspector General finding that Weissmann was disqualified. This draft did not locate an on-record Weissmann denial of the Ohr conversation itself. Fox reported that the special counsel’s office declined comment when asked whether the contacts had been fully disclosed.
Jeff Carlson (The Epoch Times, March 28, 2019) later reported Ohr’s testimony that he met in September or early October 2016 with Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Bruce Swartz, Zainab Ahmad, and Andrew Weissmann. The article spells the last name Weissman, and once Weismann. Carlson wrote that Ohr was unsure whether Weissmann was at that meeting or a later one, and that Weissmann and Ahmad later joined Robert Mueller’s team. That is reporting of Ohr’s testimony. It is not a finding that Weissmann ran Spygate.
The Washington Times (May 24, 2020) tied Horowitz Inspector General notes on pre-special-counsel meetings — Ohr, Swartz, Ahmad — to speeding Manafort work at MLARS. American Thinker (September 2018) asked why Fraud Chief Weissmann was kept “in the loop” on Steele/Ohr material and, in a second piece, argued Ohr’s testimony showed he knew the dossier’s political origin while leading Manafort work. RealClearInvestigations’ May 8, 2019, hired-guns profile listed a Steele/Fusion briefing among the staff facts. Those pieces are commentary and secondary reporting on the same Ohr testimony already quoted above. They are not an IG finding that Weissmann committed a crime.