Wife of demoted DoJ prober worked for Fusion GPS

Bruce G. Ohr, a senior DoJ official who was demoted last week for concealing the fact that he secretly met with the men behind the anti-Trump "dossier," from the company known as Fusion GPS, also concealed the fact that his wife worked for that company during the 2016 presidential campaign, Fox News learned exclusively.

It was Fusion GPS that was responsible for the highly charged document of oppositional research on Trump.

Investigators for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) contacted Fox News and confirmed that Nellie H. Ohr, wife of Bruce Ohr, worked for the oppositional research company last year.

In psychotherapy terms, it's called a conflict of interest, and I'm sure that discipline is not alone in that way of thinking.

It isn't clear what Nellie Ohr's duties were at the firm, whether she actually worked on the dossier herself, but she's published works available online showing she has written extensively on Russia-related subjects.

HPSCI has confirmed to Fox News that she was paid by Fusion GPS through the summer and fall of 2016.

Woah Nellie!

The company received close scrutiny for a year because Republican lawmakers are probing as to whether the dossier, which was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee,  was used as the basis for the Department of Justice and the FBI to obtain FISA surveillance in 2016 on a Trump adviser, Carter Page.

Chairman of the committee, Devin Nunes (R.- Calif) told Fox News, "The House Intelligence Committee is looking into all facets of the connection between the Department of Justice and Fusion GPS, including Mr. Ohr."

The last time Ohr smiled

At first, DoJ officials were silent about Ohr's demotion. Then they said that his wearing two hats (holding two job titles) was "unusual." Finally they confirmed he had withheld his contacts with Fusion GPS people from his superiors.

Former FBI Director James Comey described the dossier as a compendium of "salacious and unverified" allegations about then-candidate Trump and his associates, including Mr. Page, who was working as a foreign policy adviser. The document was given to the FBI in July 2016, just before Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination.

Comey testified afterward that it was the same month the FBI began its counterintelligence probe of alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

The day prior to Fox News reporting that Ohr held secret meetings in 2016 with Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, and Christopher Steele, a former British spy who compiled the dossier, the DoJ stripped Ohr of his deputy title and demoted him.

When Fox News disclosed that Ohr held those meetings it showed how the far reach of the dossier's creators. Steele, a longtime FBI informant is one of Ohr's contacts that dates back a decade. Ohr may have been the guy to put Fusion together with the FBI through Steele. 

Ohr's wife working for Fusion is, as Joe Biden might say, "a big f**k**g deal."

This is a developing scandal, so please stay tuned.


Tweet

Top DoJ official no longer tops in officialdom

A senior Justice Department official was quietly demoted this week amid an ongoing investigation into his contacts with an opposition research team responsible for the anti-Trump "dossier." This information was given and confirmed by Fox News.

Bruce G. Ohr held two positions at the Justice Department: associate deputy attorney general and director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), "the centerpiece of the attorney general's drug strategy," according to the department's description.

Those positions were stripped from him on Wednesday morning.

While he will keep his OCDETF title, his higher post was taken from him--he was ousted from his fourth floor office of "Main Justice."

At first, senior department officials couldn't give the reason for his demotion, but it was later learned that evidence collected by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), shows that Ohr met during the 2016 campaign with Christopher Steele, the former British spy who authored the "dossier."

The DOJ later told Fox News, "It is unusual for anyone to wear two hats as he has done recently. This person is going to go back to a single focus--director of our organized crime and drug enforcement unit. As you know, combatting transnational criminal organizations and drug trafficking is a top priority for the Attorney General."

It was also discovered that Ohr met shortly after the election with the founder of Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson. This is the opposition research firm that hired Steele to compile the anti-Trump dossier with funds supplied by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, a known crime organization specializing in fraud and sexual misconduct.

By this point, the dossier had been in the possession of the FBI for five months, and the surveillance on Page had begun more than two months prior. The FBI, of course, exists under the auspices of the DOJ.

Former FBI Director James Comey, testified before the House in March and described the dossier as a compendium of "salacious and unverified" allegations against then-candidate Donald Trump and his associates.

Committee Chairman Devin Nunes' panel has been investigating whether DOJ, under then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch, used the dossier to justify a foreign surveillance warrant against Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser. If so, this puts the dossier and FBI in a bad light.

Contacts between Ohr and Steele, and Ohr and Simpson, have not been publicly disclosed nor shared with HPSCI staff to avoid embarrassment. 

The panel has issued many subpoenas for documents and witnesses related to the dossier but say the DOJ and FBI have "stonewalled," and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R.-Wis.) agreed to that assessment publicly in October.

The agencies claim that they've cooperated extensively with Nunes and his team, but it was only last weekend they agreed to make available to the committee for questioning Peter Strzok (pronounced "Strzhzhokztlmfk") the high-ranking FBI official who seemed to be the guy involved in all the interviews involving political scandals and texted his mistress with anti-Trump messages and how he promises to one day leave his wife for her etc.

Strzok was removed from the staff of Special Counsel Robert Mueller who is probing allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Strzok was demoted to the FBI's position of Urinal Cake Installer.

Ohr's demotion marks the second one with a few months where the DOJ and FBI disciplined staff for misconduct.

At least it wasn't sexual misconduct . . . that we know of.


Tweet