Memo: FISA Court Wasn’t Informed of DOJ Official, Wife’s Ties to Steele, Fusion GPS

Bruce and Nellie Ohr

The House Intelligence Committee’s declassified memo, released on Friday, reveals that a senior DOJ official’s relationship with the anti-Trump dossier author Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS, and the extent of his wife’s opposition research for the firm into then-candidate Donald Trump, was concealed from the FISA court.

The memo confirms that then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr’s wife, Nellie Ohr, was paid by the DNC and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign through Fusion GPS, and Bruce Ohr’s relationship with Steele continued even after Steele was terminated from U.S. intelligence services.

The memo states:

During this same time period, Ohr’s wife was employed by Fusion GPS to assist in the cultivation of opposition research on Trump. Ohr later provided the FBI with all of his wife’s opposition research, paid for by the DNC and Clinton campaign via Fusion GPS. The Ohrs’ relationship with Steele and Fusion GPS was inexplicably concealed from the FISC.

In December, Fox News reported that a co-founder of the opposition research firm acknowledged in a court document that his company hired Nellie Ohr to investigate Trump.

The confirmation from Glenn Simpson came in a signed declaration filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., and provided a fuller picture of the nature of Nellie Ohr’s work – after Fox News first reported on her connection to Fusion GPS.

Her husband, Bruce Ohr, was demoted at the DOJ last week for concealing his meetings with the same company, which commissioned the anti-Trump “dossier” containing salacious allegations about the now-president. Together, the Fusion connections for Mr. and Mrs. Ohr have raised Republican concerns about objectivity at the Justice Department, and even spurred a call from Trump’s outside counsel for a separate special prosecutor.

Simpson’s statement shows Mrs. Ohr was indeed involved in the Trump research. He said bank records reflect Fusion GPS contracted with her “to help our company with its research and analysis of Mr. Trump.”

Simpson said he told the House intelligence committee that he met with Bruce Ohr after the election to discuss what information had been gathered about Russia and the 2016 presidential election.

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