Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch is suing the Justice Department for records connecting Bruce and Nellie Ohr to Fusion GPS and the Steele dossier.
Fox News reports:
The suit was filed Monday, following the Justice Department’s failure to respond to Judicial Watch’s December 2017 Freedom of Information Act requests about the couple and their connection to research firm Fusion GPS.
Judicial Watch’s first lawsuit, related to their FOIA request from Dec. 7, 2017, seeks records of contact or communications between Ohr, Steele, and Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, along with any other Fusion GPS employees; calendar entries, and travel requests for Ohr.
The second suit is connected to the group’s Dec. 12, 2017 FOIA request, seeking emails, text messages and chats between Justice Department officials in the Attorney General’s office and Nellie Ohr.
Bruce Ohr, who has since been demoted from a top post at the Justice Department, was a close contact for British ex-intelligence agent Christopher Steele, who compiled the dossier on behalf of Fusion GPS.
Recently, experts have begun to ask if Fusion GPS used Mrs. Ohr to influence top government officials. If the answer is “no,” then why did the recently demoted Ohr hide his wife’s Fusion GPS compensation from ethics officials?
Daily Caller reports:
Bruce Ohr, the Department of Justice official who brought opposition research on President Donald Trump to the FBI, did not disclose that Fusion GPS, which performed that research at the Democratic National Committee’s behest, was paying his wife, and did not obtain a conflict of interest waiver from his superiors at the Justice Department, documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation show.
The omission may explain why Ohr was demoted from his post as associate deputy attorney general after the relationship between Fusion GPS and his wife emerged and Fusion founder Glenn Simpson acknowledged meeting with Ohr. Willfully falsifying government ethics forms can carry a penalty of jail time, if convicted.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) hired Fusion GPS to gather and disseminate damning info about Trump, and they in turn paid Nellie Ohr, a former CIA employee with expertise in Russia, for an unknown role related to the “dossier.” Bruce Ohr then brought the information to the FBI, kicking off a probe and a media firestorm.
“Payments from Fusion GPS to Bruce Ohr’s family, funded by the DNC, have the appearance of a ‘government for hire,’ i.e. bribing a DOJ official to push the case,” says the Daily Caller’s Luke Rosiak.
Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said more attention should be paid to Bruce Ohr in relation to the dossier drama.
“The fact that the Senate Intelligence Committee is bringing in Bruce Ohr, this Justice Department official involved with Fusion GPS and the Clinton dossier, shows you where the collusion scandal is,” Fitton told OANN‘s John Hines last December.
“It’s with the Clinton campaign, the DNC, the FBI, the Justice Department,” said Fitton before asking, “how did they use this dossier?”
“How did they use this dossier? Was Mueller using this dossier? Was it used to justify to a court to get warrants to spy on Trump and his team?”
“That’s the collusion,” added Fitton.
“Bruce Ohr is the first indication that we have that the Justice Department was involved in this dossier that’s been so controversial.”
Video credit: Judicial Watch
Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson recently admitted in a court document that his firm hired Nellie Ohr, the wife of Bruce Ohr to investigate then-candidate Donald Trump.
