Tag: Nellie Ohr

Commentary: Abandon the Swamp and Let it Rot

Admin

Suppose a document drops in the wilderness and no one is around to hear it. Does it make a sound? I submit that John Durham just tested this Bishop Berkeleyesque query. The special counsel spent four years beavering away in the forests of the deep state and what did he produce? Three hundred pages telling us what, for the most part, we already knew and with the result that exactly nothing, apart from a little hand wringing, will happen. 

Read the full story

Ex-DOJ Official and Wife Had Bigger Roles in Dossier than Known: Durham Report

RealClearWire

While it’s bad enough the debunked dossier the FBI used to spy on the Trump campaign was paid for by the Clinton campaign and authored by a foreign FBI informant and his carousing researcher, the newly released report of Special Counsel John Durham strongly suggests a top Justice Department official and his wife had an early hand in shaping the political rumor sheet.

According to the 306-page report, former Justice Department prosecutor Bruce Ohr’s wife Nellie Ohr first plowed the ground for the dossier with a series of a research reports she wrote for Fusion GPS, the D.C.-based opposition research firm the Clinton campaign commissioned to dig up dirt on Trump and Russia.

Read the full story

House Republicans Want Nellie Ohr’s Oppo Research of Trump’s Family: Report

Admin

by Chuck Ross   House Republicans are reportedly seeking documents from former Fusion GPS contractor Nellie Ohr related to her research into President Donald Trump’s family, including his wife and children. During a congressional interview Oct. 19, 2018, Ohr said while she worked for Fusion GPS, the firm behind the infamous Steele dossier, she compiled open-source research on the travels and business activities of Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and Trump’s wife, Melania. “I was asked to research Trump’s family broadly in connection with any — any Russian connections,” Ohr told a Republican staffer during her interview. “Were you doing independent research based off of each family member?” the staffer asked. “I did some,” said Ohr, a Russia linguist. “As I recall, I did some research on all of them, but not into much depth.” Asked about her research into Trump Jr., Ohr said “I looked into some of his travels” in order to “see whether they were involved in dealings and transactions with people who had had suspicious pasts.” House Republicans are requesting Ohr’s investigative files, according to Fox News, citing two sources familiar with the matter. They want to know how the information on Trump’s family was used in the Fusion…

Read the full story

Mark Meadows Refers Nellie Ohr to DOJ for Investigation

Admin

by Chuck Ross   North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows referred Nellie Ohr, a former Fusion GPS contractor, to the Justice Department for criminal investigation on Wednesday. In a letter to Attorney General William Barr first reported by The Hill, Meadows alleged that Ohr made false statements to Congress on Oct. 19 about contacts she had with Justice Department officials regarding ongoing investigations, as well as about her research into alleged Russian organized crime figures. Ohr worked as a contractor for Fusion GPS, the firm behind the Steele dossier, from late 2015 through September 2016. Her husband is Bruce Ohr, the Justice Department official who served as dossier author Christopher Steele’s back channel to the FBI. Meadows is not accusing Ohr of lying about her work with Fusion or her contacts with Steele. Instead, the Republican pointed to Ohr’s claim in her interview that she “would not have any knowledge of what [was] going on in an ongoing investigation” at the Justice Department and that she did not have “any knowledge of the Department of Justice’s investigations on Russia.” Ohr also denied that she provided information from her research into Russian organized crime figures and Donald Trump to anyone outside of…

Read the full story

Commentary: The Tables Turn in Russian Collusion Hunt

Admin

by Victor Davis Hanson   The irony of the entire Russian collusion hoax is that accusers who cried the loudest about leaking, collusion, lying, and obstruction are themselves soon very likely to be accused of just those crimes. Now that Robert Mueller’s 674-day, $30 million investigation is over and has failed to find the original goal of its mandate—evidence of a criminal conspiracy between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government to sway the 2016 election—and now that thousands of once-sealed government documents will likely be released in unredacted form, those who eagerly assumed the role of the hunters may become the hunted, due to their own zealous violation of the nation’s trust and its laws. Take Lying  Former FBI Director James Comey’s testimonies cannot be reconciled with those of his own deputy director Andrew McCabe. He falsely testified that the Steele dossier was not the main basis for obtaining FISA court warrants. On at least 245 occasions, Comey swore under oath that he either did not know, or could not remember, when asked direct questions about his conduct at the FBI. He likely lied when he testified that he did not conclude his assessment of the Clinton illegal…

Read the full story

Nellie Ohr: ‘I Favored Hillary Clinton’

Admin

by Chuck Ross   Nellie Ohr, a former Fusion GPS contractor and wife to Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, told Congress that she “favored” Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign, and would not have researched the Democrat as she did Donald Trump. “I would probably have been less comfortable doing opposition research that would have gone against Hillary Clinton,” Nellie Ohr told a congressional task force on Oct. 19, according to a transcript released Thursday. “And why is that?” a congressional staffer asked Nellie Ohr. “Because I favored Hillary Clinton as a presidential candidate,” said Nellie Ohr. Nellie Ohr gave research she did on Trump and his associates to her husband, Bruce Ohr, in hopes that he would provide it to the FBI. Bruce Ohr did exactly that. He testified during his own congressional hearing that he provided a flash drive containing his wife’s research to the FBI. What the bureau did with the information remains a mystery, but it is another example of potentially biased information being provided to investigators working on a probe of the Trump campaign. Republican lawmakers interviewed the Ohrs and several Justice Department and FBI officials as part of an investigation into the FBI’s…

Read the full story

New Details Emerge of the Path the Steele Dossier Took through Media and the Government

Admin

by Chuck Ross   Court documents released last week in a lawsuit involving the Steele dossier revealed new details about the campaign to disseminate the infamous anti-Trump report to the press and within the U.S. government. Much was already known about Fusion GPS and dossier author Christopher Steele’s efforts to seed the dossier with reporters and government officials. Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson orchestrated several meetings between Steele and Washington, D.C.-based journalists prior to the 2016 election. It has also been widely reported that Steele and Simpson met with government officials in an attempt to ensure that Steele’s unverified findings landed on the government’s radar. A deposition given by David Kramer, a longtime associate of former Sen. John McCain, shed light on even more contacts with reporters and government officials. Kramer’s Dec. 13, 2017 deposition was released on March 14 along with a batch of other documents from a dossier-related lawsuit against BuzzFeed News. By giving the dossier to government officials, Fusion GPS and Steele were able to create news hooks for journalists to write stories airing the dossier’s unverified allegations. That was the case with Yahoo! News, Mother Jones, CNN and BuzzFeed News, all of which published stories not about…

Read the full story

Commentary: Eighteen Real Attacks on the ‘Rule of Law’

Admin

by Adam Mill   Donald Trump, we are told over and over and over again, threatens the “rule of law.” To pick a piece at random, I note that Joel Mathis of The Week recently wrote, “When we talk about Trump and the rule of law, mostly we talk about how he’s flouting and evading the constraint of laws he doesn’t like: His newly declared state of emergency to circumvent Congress’ refusal to appropriate funds for a Mexican border wall is just the best recent example.” You don’t have to take my word for the absurdity of this claim that the emergency declaration flouts the rule of law; read the New York Times: Trump has, at a minimum, a colorable legal claim for this emergency declaration. In the Mathis example, as in most of these cases, the “violation” generally amounts to a policy difference or the departure from a “norm” like the one used to buck presidential oversight of powerful federal agencies. The suffocating sanctimoniousness of the “Trump-is-threatening-the-rule-of-law” crowd is exceeded only by their hypocrisy. Don’t believe me? Here is a list of 18 actual violations of the law and Constitution done in service of removing Trump from office. I’ll bet you can’t find a single objection from any of these “rule-of-law” hand wringers to these flagrant and unpunished transgressions…

Read the full story

Dark Money Org Gave $2 Million To Group Working with Fusion GPS, Steele

Admin

by Chuck Ross   A dark money group with links to several high-profile liberal activists contributed $2 million to The Democracy Integrity Project, an organization founded by a former Dianne Feinstein staffer that has contracted with Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele to investigate President Donald Trump. Fund for a Better Future (FBF) donated $2,065,000 to The Democracy Integrity Project (TDIP) in 2017, according to IRS filings reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation. TDIP was founded on Jan. 31, 2017, by Daniel Jones, a consultant who worked for Feinstein, a California Democrat, when she controlled the Senate Intelligence Committee. Jones has disclosed to the FBI that he hired Fusion GPS and Steele, the author of the anti-Trump dossier, to continue an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. He also told an associate that TDIP operated as a “shadow media organization helping the government.” Jones suggested to the associate, Adam Waldman, that his TDIP team planted several anti-Trump articles. Little is known about the donors behind both TDIP and FBF. Both of the organizations are 501(c)(4)s, the type of public advocacy group most closely associated with “dark money” contributions. FBF has contributed to a mix of environmental organizations and politically active groups,…

Read the full story

Commentary: The Real Reason Democrats Have Postponed Barr’s Confirmation Is All About ‘Russia’ and 2020

Admin

by Julie Kelly   After what seemed to be a done deal following a relatively smooth public hearing last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee now has delayed until February 7 the vote to confirm William Barr, President Trump’s nominee for attorney general. The reason, according to news reports, is lingering concerns about how Trump’s incoming attorney general would manage the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which is soon expected to conclude. Despite Barr’s repeated assurances that he will follow Justice Department rules in his handling of Mueller’s final report, as well as a pledge to resist any attempted interference by the White House, Democrats on the committee remain unconvinced. “[Barr’s] answer was not particularly reassuring or clear as to the public disclosure of the Mueller report,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell earlier this week. Democrats also have accused Barr of bias against the Mueller investigation based on a detailed memo he authored last year that objected to the special counsel’s reported interest in whether President Trump obstructed justice. Some have suggested Barr should recuse himself from the investigation, which would be a repeat of a terrible mistake made by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2017. The committee’s vote is scheduled to take…

Read the full story

Nellie Ohr Invokes Marital Privilege to Avoid Testifying About Her Husband, a DOJ Official

Admin

by Chuck Ross   A former Fusion GPS employee married to Justice Department official Bruce Ohr invoked spousal privilege during congressional testimony Friday, according to lawmakers who attended the closed-door deposition. By invoking the privilege, Nellie Ohr limited what information she would provide to members of a congressional task force investigating the FBI’s handling of the infamous Steele dossier. Ohr, a Russia expert, was paid more than $40,000 as a contractor for Fusion GPS from late 2015 until just after the 2016 election. Fusion investigated President Donald Trump and his campaign on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC. Bruce Ohr, who was demoted from his position as assistant deputy attorney general in December after his wife’s job was exposed, was in contact with both Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson and Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the dossier. Both Ohrs met with Steele in Washington, D.C., on July 30, 2016, a day before the FBI opened its investigation into the Trump campaign. The congressional task force, which consists of members of the House Judiciary and House Oversight & Government Reform Committees, interviewed Bruce Ohr on Aug. 28. Nellie Ohr was scheduled to appear before the task force…

Read the full story

DOJ Official Bruce Ohr’s Congressional Testimony Contradicts Fusion GPS Founder Glenn Simpson’s

Admin
Glenn Simpson, Bruce Ohr

by Chuck Ross   Department of Justice (DOJ) official Bruce Ohr told Congress in August that he met before the 2016 election with Glenn Simpson, a direct contradiction to what the Fusion GPS founder said in a congressional deposition in 2017. Sources familiar with Ohr’s Aug. 28 testimony tell The Daily Caller News Foundation that Ohr said he met with Simpson in August 2016. But Simpson, whose firm commissioned the infamous Steele dossier, told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence during a Nov. 14 deposition that he did not have contact with anyone from the DOJ or FBI until after the election. Ohr’s comments came during an exchange with Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, sources tell TheDCNF. “I think you said earlier today sometime this morning that you met with Glenn Simpson twice in person,” Jordan said, according to a transcript of the interview read out to TheDCNF. “But you met in person in 2016, is that right?” Jordan pressed. “That is my recollection,” Ohr said. “Once in August and once in December?” Jordan asked. “Yes,” said Ohr. Simpson told House investigators in November that he had contact with Ohr only after the 2016 election. “Did the FBI ever…

Read the full story

Nellie Ohr To Testify Before Congress About Work For Fusion GPS

Admin

by Chuck Ross   Congress will interview Nellie Ohr, the wife of Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr, later this week, Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe said on Sunday. Ratcliffe said Sunday that Ohr is expected to appear for a closed-door interview with the House Judiciary and House Oversight & Government Reform Committees, in an interview on Fox News. Ohr worked during the 2016 election cycle for Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that investigated Donald Trump on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC. Fusion hired former British spy Christopher Steele, the author of the infamous anti-Trump dossier that was used to obtain spy warrants against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. While she worked for Fusion, Ohr’s husband, Bruce Ohr, was in contact with both Steele and Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS. A former assistant deputy attorney general at the Justice Department, Bruce Ohr was interviewed by the congressional committees on Aug. 28. Republican lawmakers have questioned the Ohrs’ relationship to Fusion GPS and Steele. The husband-and-wife duo met with Steele on July 30, 2016, a day before the FBI opened its counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia. Nellie Ohr began working for Fusion…

Read the full story