Nellie Ohr, wife of former U.S. Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr and an analyst working for the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, deleted messages about Russian influence operations from her husband’s government email account, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch.
“Thanks! I’m deleting these emails now,” Nellie Ohr told her husband in an April 20, 2016, email at the end of a thread of exchanges between the Ohrs, Bruce’s Department of Justice (DOJ) assistant Lisa Holtyn, and Stefen Bress, a first secretary at the German Embassy in Washington.
The subject line of the emails was “Analyst Russian Organized Crime – April 2016,” in which Bress offered to provide two Russia analysts for an “analytical exchange” discussion with Ohr, Holtyn, and other unnamed DOJ officials of multiple topics, including the “Impact of Russian influence operations in Europe (‘PsyOps/InfoWar’).”
During the email exchange, in addition to the hour-long meeting at DOJ, Holtyn, on behalf of the Ohrs, invited Bress, his wife, and the analysts to the Ohr’s home for dinner.
Bress responded that his wife was unable to attend the dinner but said he “would be happy to eat her portion of food and drink her glass of wine.”
Nellie Ohr was copied on the exchange from her husband’s DOJ email account.
Judicial Watch also asked, in a separate FOIA request, for “records from the Office of the Deputy Attorney General relating to Fusion GPS, Nellie Ohr, and/or Christopher Steele, dating since January 2016.” The 339 pages provided in response to the first FOIA was also in partial response to the second FOIA, according to DOJ Senior Counsel Vanessa R. Brinkmann.
The Ohrs were central players in the DOJ/FBI spying operation against former Trump campaign aides Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.
Nellie Ohr worked for Fusion GPS, which was paid by the campaign of Trump’s opponent in the 2016 presidential campaign, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic National Committee, which Clinton controlled at the time.
Fusion GPS, in turn, retained former British spy Christopher Steele, who, using his extensive connections with Russian intelligence officials and agents, compiled what came to be known as the “Steele dossier.”
The FBI used the Steele dossier and news stories based on calculated leaks from the documents to justify approval by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court of extensive spying on Trump aides during and after their campaign roles.
Ohr was demoted by DOJ after public revelations of his extensive contacts with Steele and Fusion GPS chief Glenn Simpson, as well as for failing to disclose the potential conflict of interest represented by his wife’s employment by Fusion GPS.
“However, documents reviewed by our committees raise concerns Ms. Ohr not only had knowledge of an ongoing DOJ investigation, but that she shared information and research on Russian organized crime to assist DOJ, in direct contradiction with her testimony,” said Meadows.”
The DOJ isn’t obligated to prosecute such referrals.
