A conservative watchdog group announced Thursday that it filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department seeking records of communications from various offices within the agency related to former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, his wife Nellie Ohr, Trump dossier author Christopher Steele, and Fusion GPS.
In a statement, Judicial Watch said it sued because the Justice Department failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request filed in May.
Steele, a former British intelligence officer, put together the dossier for Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm that employed Ohr’s wife, Nellie. It was revealed last year that over the summer of 2016, the firm was retained by lawyer Mark Elias, who represented the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Additionally, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released a memo earlier this year that claimed Bruce Ohr met Steele in 2016 and gave the Justice Department information about Steele’s political persuasions.
The lawsuit from Judicial Watch seeks all records of communications from the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, and from Bruce Ohr’s office related to Fusion GPS, Nellie Ohr, and Steele. The lawsuit is also seeking all relevant records from the Director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force.
“As this sordid scandal continues to unfold, it is increasingly clear that top DOJ official Bruce Ohr – working in conjunction with his wife and other Clinton-connected Fusion GPS actors – played a key role in laundering false information from Russia about Donald J. Trump,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “The DOJ must stop the stonewalling and release these documents as the law requires.”
The lawsuit comes after it was reported that Bruce Ohr remained in contact with Steele after the FBI severed ties with the former spy. According to emails originally obtained by The Hill, Bruce Ohr was still receiving information from Steele after the 2016 election.
The Washington Examiner’s Byron York reported earlier this week that Bruce Ohr also remained in touch with Glenn Simpson, co-founder of Fusion GPS, after President Trump was elected.
Republican investigators in Congress have raised concerns about the use of the dossier, which contains unverified claims trying Trump to Russia, by FBI officials to obtain the authority to spy on onetime Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Fox News reported in December that Bruce Ohr was demoted from his post as associate deputy attorney general after it came to light he met with Steele and Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson. Bruce Ohr is now the Organized Crime Task Force director at the Justice Department, according to Judicial Watch.
