House GOP schedules interview with former FBI general counsel Jim Baker

Former FBI general counsel Jim Baker is expected to meet with congressional investigators next week as part of a joint probe examining the decision-making of FBI and Justice Department (DOJ) officials during the 2016 election, The Hill has learned.

Baker’s appearance on Capitol Hill is slated to take place next Wednesday, a spokesperson for the House Judiciary Committee confirmed.

The meeting comes after House Republicans threatened this month to subpoena Baker if he did not agree to voluntarily testify before the House Judiciary Committee and the Oversight and Government and Reform panel, which are conducting a joint investigation.{mosads}

There were plans for Baker to meet with the committees in August, but he asked to postpone the interview, citing health issues, according to a congressional source.

Baker is set to follow a string of other FBI officials who have met with the committee this year, including high-profile GOP-targets like former counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, former FBI lawyer Lisa Page and Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, among others.

House Republicans, who are leading the probe, are also eager to talk to Bruce Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr. She is scheduled to meet with the committee on Oct. 19, House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte told Fox News recently.

The Ohrs have come under increasing scrutiny by Republicans and the White House for their ties to a controversial dossier that makes a series of salacious and unverified allegations about President Trump, including possible ties between Trump and Russia.

Republicans have seized on the Ohr’s ties to the dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele as further evidence to support their claims that the top brass at the FBI and DOJ were biased against Trump during the 2016 election.

Republicans have alleged that Nellie Ohr could have passed the dossier on to her husband, then a top official within the DOJ, when she worked for the opposition research firm Fusion GPS as a contractor during the 2016 campaign. A lawyer on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign retained Fusion GPS during the election to dig up dirt on Trump, who was then a Republican presidential contender.

Conservatives argue that Bruce Ohr’s ties to Fusion GPS through his wife support their claims that there was bias against Trump within the FBI and DOJ. Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPS, had hired Steele to help compile the memos about Trump’s ties to Russia.

Democrats on the two committees describe the Republican attacks against the FBI and DOJ officials as political theater, accusing their colleagues of seeking to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference by targeting these federal agencies.