Grassley tells Patel: FBI must release analysis on criminal referral of Fusion GPS’s Nellie Ohr

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley on Monday called upon FBI Director Kash Patel to declassify and make public the bureau’s analysis of a congressional criminal referral for key Fusion GPS researcher Nellie Ohr following her alleged false statements to Congress.

Grassley, an Iowa Republian, made the request in a one-page public letter in which he outlined what he called Ohr's "obstructive conduct" and argued that his letter "makes the case for declassification.” 

Ohr was a researcher and analyst for Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm hired by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign to conduct anti-Trump research and that in turn hired British ex-spy Christopher Steele. 

Grassley also on Monday sent Patel the nonpublic letter that he said contained the “FBI analysis of a congressional criminal referral regarding Nellie Ohr’s false statements to Congress, which obstructed congressional investigations” — and called upon the FBI chief to declassify the document so the public could see it.

“Nellie Ohr played a key role in the genesis of Crossfire Hurricane while working for Fusion GPS and coordinating with her husband, Bruce Ohr, who was a Justice Department official at that time,” Grassley writes. “The document provides background with respect to Crossfire Hurricane’s origins as well as the criminal case against Nellie Ohr.”

"Crossfire Hurricane" was the FBI's name for its baseless flawed Trump-Russia collusion investigation. Earlier this month, at the behest of President Donald Trump, Patel declassified a host of documents tied to the bureau's deeply flawed and politically-motivated inquiry.

Nellie Ohr testified before the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees on October 19, 2018.

Then-Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., wrote a criminal referral addressed to then-Attorney General William Barr in May 2019, citing concerns that she “knowingly provided false testimony” to Congress.

“During her transcribed interview, Ms. Ohr testified she ‘would not have any knowledge of what [was] going on in an ongoing investigation’ at DOJ and would not ‘have any knowledge of the Department of Justice’s investigations on Russia.’ Ms. Ohr also denied she shared her research on Russian organized crime and Donald Trump with individuals outside of Fusion GPS (her employer); her husband, DOJ attorney Bruce Ohr, and Christopher Steele,” Meadows wrote in the 2019 referral.

“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,” Meadows added.

Meadows also pointed to emails made public though a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch that show Nellie Ohr was in contact with Justice Department officials in 2016.

It's unclear what happened following the referral from Meadows, but it now appears the FBI did do some sort of yet-secretive analysis on it.

Bruce Ohr acted as an unofficial back channel 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 back channel with Steele via Bruce Ohr, who retired from the DOJ in October 2020.

Marc Elias, a former Perkins Coie lawyer who served as general counsel for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, played a key role in the funding and spreading of Steele’s discredited dossier. He hired the opposition firm Fusion GPS, which, in turn, hired Steele.

Grassley also wrote Monday that he was requesting that “a full declassification be done immediately” related to the FBI's analysis of this GOP criminal referral on Nellie Ohr, because “the document is largely unclassified and the portions that are classified are at a very low level of classification” and “the information that is classified is similar to the information subject to declassification Executive Orders for Crossfire Hurricane records issued by President Trump in 2020 and 2025 and, at this point, may already be declassified.”

Grassley noted that “other Crossfire Hurricane document declassifications separate from those Executive Orders occurred in the first Trump term” and added that “the overriding public interest” was in favor of declassification, arguing that “there is no legitimate basis to keep the document from the public.”

Just the News obtained in 2021 internal FBI emails discussing the Steele dossier. These emails were sent between FBI agents such as Strzok and more than a dozen other FBI officials. The newly declassified version from earlier this month removed the redactions on many of the FBI officials who were sending and receiving dossier updates, showing convicted FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith was among the recipients.

The FBI emails from December 2016 include an FBI official with the Washington Field Office sending an email to Strzok, Clinesmith, and roughly a dozen FBI officials discussing a thumb drive provided by Bruce Ohr. The email includes a “tracking matrix” on the receipt of Steele dossier reports, including from Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson.

Grassley previously released a “Timeline of Key Events Related to Crossfire Hurricane Investigation” back in 2020, with Nellie Ohr popping up multiple times.

The document noted that in October 2015 “Fusion GPS hires Nellie Ohr, the wife of DOJ Attorney Bruce Ohr, to conduct research on Paul Manafort, among others.”

The Grassley document also noted that on July 31, 2016, the FBI formally launched the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. And on the same day, since-fired FBI special agent Peter Strzok texted disgraced FBI lawyer Lisa Page, saying, “Damn this feels momentous. Because this matters. The other one did, too, but that was to ensure we didn’t F something up. This matters because this MATTERS. So super glad to be on this voyage with you.”

“Nellie and Bruce Ohr meet with Christopher Steele for breakfast in Washington, DC, where Steele ‘conveyed his fears that there … were contacts between the Russian government and the Trump campaign,’ and Bruce Ohr admitted to ‘probably [being] aware from the beginning’ that Steele was sharing his information with the Clinton campaign,” the Grassley document also noted as having happened that same day.

The document also noted that “Bruce Ohr provides FBI with a thumb drive of reports and work that Nellie Ohr compiled for Fusion GPS” on December 20, 2016. The documented noted that, the same day, Strzok texted Lisa Page: “Remind me [REDACTED] met with Bruce and got.[sic] more stuff today.” Lisa Page responded: “Yeah, lots to read, but it all stressed me Out [sic] too much.”

A two-year investigation by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller “did not establish” any criminal Trump-Russia collusion. In addition, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz found huge flaws with the FBI’s investigation, including criticizing the “central and essential” role of a dossier in the FBI’s politicized surveillance of former Trump campaign associate Carter Page.

A report by DOJ special counsel John Durham concluded in 2023 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.” 

The special counsel also said 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.”