Were Fusion GPS' Payments to Bruce Ohr's Wife Really an Attempt to Pay a Government Employee for Government Action

Good question from Luke Rozier at the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Under a contract from the Clinton campaign, the Fusion GPS research firm was paying the wife of a senior Department of Justice official as part of its efforts to gather opposition research on Trump, and the same official then brought that research to the FBI.

Knowledge of the relationship has raised questions about the extent to which the firm may have paid for heightened access to the criminal justice system, and whether they would have hired Nellie Ohr absent her spousal connection to the DoJ.

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Bruce Ohr was deputy associate attorney general until December. House investigators determined that he met personally with Glenn Simpson, Fusion GPS' founder.

The FBI has limited resources to deal with a firehose of information, so people seeking the FBI's attention could potentially benefit from greasing the wheels in order to get info to the front of the queue and to a high level.

"The money sweetened the pot for the Ohrs, and it certainly made it easier for Fusion to get the dossier to be used before the court if they made that payment to Bruce Ohr's wife," former judge and Texas GOP Rep. Louie Gohmert told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

"Fusion had to have known that because of the relationship between Bruce Ohr and his wife, they were bringing Fusion, the DOJ and the DNC together under one roof to work for the same goal, which was to stop Donald Trump from becoming president," he said.

Ohr’s wife, Nellie, is a Russia expert, but it is not known what her specific contribution to the dossier was.

"The financial arrangement between Mrs. Ohr and Fusion GPS gives the appearance of government-for-hire," said Tom Anderson, an ethics expert at the conservative-leaning watchdog group the National Legal and Policy Center. It "appears to be a sophisticated scheme to get access to the highest levels of our government... ensuring the use of government resources in an attempt to influence an election."

It bears remembering that the Obama Administration engaged in a fury of unmasking activity during the election activity, getting the names of US citizens caught up in alleged surveillance of foreign targets.

Could this have been done as part of a private-government, how do you say, fusion operation of sorts?

posted by Ace at 06:41 PM

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