State Department official cited Steele in emails with Ohr after flagging credibility issues to FBI,

closeVideoShortly after the 2016 presidential election, then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec and Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr discussed new allegations concerning the Trump campaign's Russia connections that were sourced to British ex-spy Christopher Steele, according to documents made public Wednesday.The previous month, in October 2016, Kavalec had met with Steele and documented his political motivations in writing -- particularly that he was "keen" to see his anti-Trump materials "come to light" prior to the election. Kavelec forwarded her written notes, in which she also pointed out that some of Steele's claims were apparently false, to a senior FBI executive. Despite Kavalec's concerns, the FBI used Steele's information to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant targeting former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page just weeks later. The email correspondence between Ohr and Kavalec highlighted Steele's influence in the DOJ and State Department even as concerns about his reliability mounted, and shed new light on a pivotal period in federal authorities' probe of the Trump team. The documents were unearthed this week as part of a transparency lawsuit by the group Judicial Watch. On Nov. 21, 2016, Kavalec began by thanking Ohr for stopping by to discuss the OCDETF (Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force), then added: "Regarding the person I mentioned, Simon Kukes, below are a couple of links to the story I mentioned." DEEP STATE OF PANIC: DISPUTE ERUPTS OVER WHETHER BRENNAN, COMEY PUSHED STEELE DOSSIER The first was a Mother Jones piece entitled, "A Major Russian-American Oil Magnate Is Putting Big Money Behind Trump’s Campaign." The second was an OpenSecrets article, "Russian-born oil magnate gives big to Trump Victory."  Information on Russian-American oil magnate Simon Kukes, provided by Christopher Steele, was discussed at high levels of the DOJ and State Department, new docs show -- even after Steele's credibility was questioned. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)  The articles reported that Russian-American oil magnate Simon Grigorievich Kukes had donated $150,000 to the Trump campaign and a related committee, his first donations in a federal election campaign. "On this campaign donation story, I just wondered what, assuming this is true, the original source of the funding might have been," Kevalec wrote, noting that State Department colleague Tom Firestone had previously introduced her to Kukes personally. Ohr responded: "Thank you for taking the time to meet with us. I really hope we can get something going here." Ohr did not specify exactly what he meant. "This is very interesting -- I may have heard about him from Tom Firestone as well, but I can't recall for certain," Ohr continued. "We will take another look at this. Thanks again, and I look forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting." In a follow-up email, Kevalec said she was "re-looking" at her notes from her October 2016

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