Did Fusion GPS use Justice Department official Bruce Ohr’s wife, who was hired to dig up dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump, 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.
Daily Caller has more:
“The money sweetened the pot for the Ohrs, and it certainly made it easier for Fusion to get the dossier to be used before the court if they made that payment to Bruce Ohr’s wife,” former judge and Texas GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert told The Daily Caller News Foundation,
“Fusion had to have known that because of the relationship between Bruce Ohr and his wife, they were bringing Fusion, the DOJ and the DNC together under one roof to work for the same goal, which was to stop Donald Trump from becoming president,” he said.
“The financial arrangement between Mrs. Ohr and Fusion GPS gives the appearance of government-for-hire,” said Tom Anderson, an ethics expert at the conservative-leaning watchdog group the National Legal and Policy Center. It “appears to be a sophisticated scheme to get access to the highest levels of our government … ensuring the use of government resources in an attempt to influence an election.”
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.
