WASHINGTON — The wife of a former Justice Department official gave “demonstrably false” testimony to Congress about her involvement in drafting and disseminating since-debunked dossiers about Donald Trump’s purported collusion with Russia in 2016, according to a bombshell trove of internal FBI records released Wednesday by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
Nellie Ohr worked for research firm Fusion GPS when it was hired in the lead-up to the 2016 election to dig up dirt on the Trump campaign’s alleged links to Russian organized crime — but later told a House panel she did not know about the DOJ’s parallel investigation into the matter.
Evidence assembled by the FBI indicates that Ohr helped compile two dossiers — including the notorious file pushed by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele — that helped launch the bureau’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
The Fusion GPS research repeated errors or included information similar to that discovered later in the Steele dossier.
Ohr also sent emails — some of which she later deleted — directly to DOJ prosecutors, not all of whom she admitted to interacting with in subsequent congressional testimony.
Ohr’s husband Bruce, then a deputy associate attorney general, received more emails as well as a thumb drive from Nellie containing Fusion GPS research that was passed on to the FBI.
The couple personally met Steele at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on July 30, 2016, and discussed allegations — later relayed to the bureau — that Trump campaign aide Carter Page had met with Russian officials and that Kremlin intelligence had the Republican candidate “over a barrel.”
While the Ohrs invoked spousal privilege before Congress on the question of whether they discussed the Trump-Russia probe, the declassified FBI files put out by Grassley reveal the bureau determined there was “little distinction” between the couple’s professional and personal lives.
“There is probable cause to believe that Bruce and Nellie did communicate with each other about their respective activity in furtherance of the Russia-collusion investigations and/or narrative,” the 43-page FBI document written in September of 2019 states.
The records were compiled in response to a criminal referral made that year by then-Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) that claimed Nellie Ohr knowingly gave false testimony about her involvement with the collusion investigation to the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees in October 2018.
The Justice Department never prosecuted Ohr. In November 2019, the department did secure the conviction of Trump ally Roger Stone for lying to congressional investigators amid their probe.
“Ohr never suffered consequences for advancing the phony Trump-Russia narrative and attempting to cover up her involvement in the hoax,” Grassley said in a statement. “Yet time and again, the American justice system has been weaponized against President Trump and his associates with reckless abandon.”
“The DOJ’s inaction on Nellie Ohr’s criminal referral — despite the obviously incriminating evidence provided in the FBI’s own analysis — undermines public trust in the rule of law,” he added.
Grassley also thanked FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for declassifying the bureau’s internal investigative findings.
Bruce Ohr was demoted twice and resigned from his DOJ role before he could be fired in October 2020, following a disciplinary referral about his conduct from Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
The Post reached out to Nellie and Bruce Ohr for comment.
