Washington(CNN) President Donald Trump's lawyer said he believes a special counsel should be appointed to investigate a Justice Department official's ties to Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm behind the controversial Trump dossier.
Attorney Jay Sekulow told CNN that an investigation should be held to look into Bruce Ohr, who was removed from the deputy attorney general's office last week.
The demand for a special counsel comes after Fox News reported that Ohr was demoted last week over 2016 meetings with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson and Christopher Steele, the British intelligence officer who assembled the Trump dossier. On Monday, Fox News also reported that Ohr's wife, Nellie Ohr, worked for Fusion GPS during the 2016 election, according to House Intel Committee investigators. It is unclear what her role there was. While he has been stripped of his position within the deputy attorney general's office, Bruce Ohr remains director of the Justice Department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces.
Nellie Ohr did not immediately return a request for comment.
Fusion GPS had this response: "Fusion GPS frequently works with highly credentialed subject matter experts. Nellie Ohr is a widely-recognized scholar on Russia and the former Soviet Union. She speaks fluent Russian and holds a B.A. in Russian history and literature from Harvard and a PhD in Russian history from Stanford; she has been a Russia scholar at the Wilson Center and taught at Vassar College."
Sekulow said the Fox News reports raise questions that should be addressed by special counsel as to whether the dossier should have been used by the Justice Department to obtain FISA warrants. CNN reported earlier this year that the FBI used dossier allegations as part of the justification to win approval to secretly monitor Carter Page.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions told reporters Tuesday morning that a senior attorney in his office is reviewing whether more resources are needed for certain cases and whether a special counsel should be established. Sessions has previously told Congress he has appointed prosecutors to look at cases in response to calls for creating a special counsel.
"I believe that's the appropriate action for me to take at this time," he said.
Sessions added that the Justice Department has received "a number of calls" about the Ohr case "from Congress and other places."
Department of Justice Director of Public Affairs Sarah Isgur Flores told "Fox and Friends" Tuesday morning that several congressional committees have asked to speak with Ohr.
"We're going to make him available for that, so I expect he'll talk to Congress in the next week or two here," she said.