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- Nellie Ohr, a former GPS Fusion contractor, on Friday invoked the marital privilege to avoid testifying about her husband, Bruce Ohr, head of the Department of Justice.
- Republican lawmakers sought to question Ohr about his work for Fusion and her discussions with her husband regarding the infamous Steele file.
- Bruce Ohr testified before Congress on August 28. Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, pleaded the Fifth Tuesday.
A former Fusion GPS employee, married to a Justice Department official, Bruce Ohr, invoked the wife's privilege during Congressional testimony Friday, according to lawmakers who witnessed the in camera testimony.
By invoking this privilege, Nellie Ohr limited the information she would provide to members of a congressional task force investigating the FBI's handling of the infamous Steele case.
Ohr, an expert from Russia, received more than $ 40,000 as an entrepreneur for Fusion GPS between late 2015 and just after the 2016 elections. Fusion investigated President Donald Trump and his campaign on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC.
Bruce Ohr, who was dismissed from his position as Assistant Deputy Attorney General in December after the revelation of his wife's work, was in contact with Fusion GPS co-founder, Glenn Simpson, and Christopher Steele, the former spy who had drafted the file. (RELATED: Congressional Working Group on Russia prepares talks with key witnesses)
The two Ohrs met Steele in Washington, DC, on July 30, 2016, a day before the FBI opened its investigation into the Trump campaign.
The congressional working group, composed of members of the House of Representatives of the Judiciary and Government Reform committees, questioned Bruce Ohr on August 28. Nellie Ohr was scheduled to appear before the working group last month, but withdrew at the last minute.
Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, pleaded Tuesday to the fifth to avoid testifying before the task force. He was likely to ask questions about the inconsistencies in his testimony and that of Bruce Ohr. On November 14, 2017, Simpson told the House Intelligence Committee that he had met Ohr only after the 2016 elections. But Ohr said he met Simpson twice, in August and December 2016.
Representative Mark Meadows, left, and Representative Jim Jordan arrive for a meeting of the Republican Conference at the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC on December 20, 2017. Meadows and Jordan sit on the Congressional Working Group to Investigate the FBI. REUTERS / Aaron P. Bernstein
The Task Force Republicans had hoped to interview Nellie Ohr about her conversations with her husband about GPS Fusion and the case. Republicans are wondering why Fusion GPS hired Ohr in the first place. The Ohio representative, Jim Jordan, a Republican of the task force, hinted that Mr. Ohr had been hired to serve as a point of contact with the Department of Justice.
While Ohr's decision to exercise matrimonial privilege limits certain questions, lawmakers are likely to ask him questions about his interactions with GPS Fusion. At the same time that Fusion was investigating Trump, the research company was also working for Prevezon Holdings, a Russian company linked to the Kremlin.
Fusion's job was to investigate Bill Browder, a London-based financier who is the main force behind the Magnitsky law, a 2012 law punishing those responsible for human rights violations by Russia. The Russian government has targeted Browder on his work on Magnitsky.
Fusion's Glenn Simpson worked closely on the anti-Browder campaign with Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who also attended the infamous Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016.
Simpson was with Veselnitskaya the morning of the meeting but denied having knowledge in advance.
It's not clear if Nellie Ohr has been working on the anti-Browder effort for GPS Fusion. But she was probably one of only two Russian speakers to have worked with Fusion. The company also hired a Russian speaking consultant, Edward Baumgartner, to assist in the Browder case. It is also unclear whether Bruce Ohr, a Russian organized crime expert, has been working on an investigation by the Justice Ministry on Prevezon.
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