FBI assessed Fusion GPS contractor likely lied to Congress about role in Trump-Russia probe

A newly declassified FBI document released by Iowa GOP Senator Chuck Grassley shows that the FBI found the Fusion GPS contractor Nellie Ohr likely lied to Congress about her contribution to the Crossfire Hurricane probe into Donald Trump but was never held accountable by the Justice Department. 

The memo, which was declassified by FBI Director Kash Patel after a request from Grassley, shows the bureau assessed that Nellie Ohr likely lied to Congress in her testimony about the genesis of the infamous Steele Dossier, her interactions with Justice Department officials, and knowledge of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. 

Nellie Ohr was a researcher and analyst for Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm hired by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign to conduct anti-Trump opposition research. That firm eventually hired British ex-spy Christopher Steele who produced the infamous Steele Dossier and other products that provided the foundation for the Justice Department’s probe of Trump. 

“By lying to Congress, Nellie Ohr showed contempt for congressional oversight and the American people. What’s more, the FBI and DOJ’s failure to hold Ohr accountable for appearing to commit multiple felonies and its obstructive conduct against agents that sought additional information reveals the agencies’ deeply disturbing political bias,” Grassley said in a statement Wednesday. 

“Ohr never suffered consequences for advancing the phony Trump-Russia narrative and attempting to cover up her involvement in the hoax. Yet time and again, the American justice system has been weaponized against President Trump and his associates with reckless abandon,” Grassley continued. 

Grassley also criticized the Justice Department for its failure to act on a criminal referral from House Republicans after Ohr’s testimony. 

“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,” Grassley said. 

In May 2019, then-Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., wrote a criminal referral to then-Attorney General Bill Barr, citing concerns that she “knowingly provided false testimony” to Congress. The FBI document recorded the bureau’s efforts to assess that claim and its findings. The document shows the FBI identified four primary instances where it was likely Nellie Ohr provided false testimony to Congress. 

Ohr told congressional investigators that she had no knowledge of the Justice Department’s investigations into Russia. However, the bureau found that the fact that she provided her husband, DOJ employee Bruce Ohr, with a thumb drive of research materials from Fusion GPS, her own acknowledgments of an investigation in her emails, the similarity between her Fusion GPS research and the official investigation, and a joint meeting with her DOJ husband and Christopher Steele all indicate that her claim was false. 

Her husband, Bruce Ohr, acted as an unofficial backchannel between the FBI and Steele. The FBI suspended its relationship with Steele in October 2016 for unauthorized contact with the media. Despite this, the FBI maintained its unofficial backchannel with Steele via Mr. Ohr, who retired from the DOJ in October 2020.

You can read the declassified FBI document below: 

In addition, the FBI determined that Nellie Ohr may have lied about not being involved in the drafting of the infamous Steele Dossier because an analytical error in the dossier was identical to one she made in her own research materials, Grassley pointed out. 

The bureau also highlighted an apparent discrepancy between her testimony about when she claimed she took Ham radio classes and what official records say. Ham radio allows a user to communicate across continents without the use of cellular service. Ohr claimed that she received her training in the technology before being employed by Fusion GPS. However, records from the Fairfax Fire and Rescue Department show the training occurred between March 31, 2016, and May 12, 2016, in the middle of her employment. 

Despite Meadows’s referral and the assessment from the FBI, the Justice Department never charged Nellie Ohr. 

The two-year investigation by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller into the Trump-Russia allegations “did not establish” any collusion. Additionally, Inspector General Michael Horowitz found flaws in the FBI’s investigation and criticized the “central and essential” role of the dossier in the FBI’s surveillance of Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. 

A 2023 report by Justice Department special counsel John Durham into the saga concluded that “neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.” 

That report also found the "FBI ignored the fact that at no time before, during, or after Crossfire Hurricane were investigators able to corroborate a single substantive allegation in the Steele dossier reporting.”