Former Fusion GPS contractor Nellie Ohr told House investigators last October that she was tasked with doing opposition research on Melania Trump and all of the president’s children during the 2016 campaign, according to congressional sources.
Ohr, who is married to Justice Department official Bruce Ohr, reportedly told lawmakers that her research included their business activities and travel. Bruce Ohr served as associate deputy attorney general until he was reassigned in December 2017.
According to transcripts confirmed by The Daily Caller News Foundation, Nellie Ohr testified to members of the House Oversight and House Judiciary Committees that her research into the Trump kids was “not into much depth.”
“How about Donald Trump Jr.? Did you do more in-depth research on Donald Trump Jr. than some of the others?” asked a House investigator.
“I’m afraid it was relatively superficial,” she answered.“I looked into some of his travels and you know not sure how much detail I remember, at this point.”
“Ivanka Trump?”
“I looked into some of her travels,” answered Ohr.
During the Oct. 19 deposition, Ohr also recalled that former British spy Christopher Steele gave her husband materials from the unverified anti-Trump dossier that was paid for by the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign. The “dirty dossier” was later used to secure a surveillance warrant to spy on Carter Page.
The Ohrs first met with Steele in July of 2016, contradicting House Democrats’ claims that significant contacts between the Justice Department and Steele did not happen until after the election.
Ohr said during the testimony that Steele, who like her was a contractor for Fusion GPS, hoped that her husband would pass the materials to the FBI.
“My understanding was that Chris Steele was hoping that Bruce could put in a word with the FBI to follow up in some way,” Ohr testified to members of the House Oversight and House Judiciary Committees, according to transcripts confirmed by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Ohrs met with Steele and an unidentified British associate on July 30, 2016 at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Bruce Ohr testified to Congress on Aug. 28 that the meeting covered three main topics. He said Steele claimed that a former official with Russia’s SVR claimed that the Kremlin had Trump “over a barrel.”
Soon after that meeting, Bruce Ohr met with senior FBI and Justice Department officials to discuss Steele’s dossier work.
It is not clear whether Ohr shared any of the information she dug up on Trump’s children for Fusion GPS with her husband, and there is no indication that her research ended up in the dossier.
Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said he wants the next attorney general (potentially William Barr) to look into the alleged wrongdoing at the FBI and DOJ.
“I think until there’s a new AG that gets in there and starts to clean this place up, I thinks it’s going to be tough for the American people to have confidence in what’s happening,” Nunes told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Wednesday.
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