House Republicans are still pushing to hear closed-door testimony from Nellie Ohr, the Fusion GPS contractor married to Justice Department official Bruce Ohr who the GOP thinks could help explain how Fusion and the Obama administration collaborated to investigate President Trump’s 2016 campaign.
If she doesn’t appear willingly, she could face a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee, which has been working with the House Oversight Committee on a joint investigation into the Justice Department and FBI’s actions during the 2016 presidential election. The committees have already issued subpoenas throughout the course of the near year-long investigation.
A House Judiciary Committee aide told the Washington Examiner on Thursday that they continue to seek Ohr’s testimony, and could compel her to testify “if necessary.”
On Sunday, Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, told Fox News that Nellie Ohr would testify this week, but offered no other details. At the time, a different House Judiciary Committee aide told the Washington Examiner they were aiming to have her appear on Friday, but wasn’t clear Thursday if that could happen.
Fusion GPS was commissioned in part by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign to collect and disseminate information into a dossier that connected President Trump to Russia.
The opposition research firm hired former British spy Christopher Steele to put the dossier together, and he had a relationship with Bruce Ohr. Republicans say Bruce Ohr acted out of place by bringing the dossier to the FBI, which in turn improperly used it to obtain surveillance warrants on the Trump campaign.
Bruce Ohr was not forthcoming about his wife’s job with Fusion GPS and ties to the dossier. Trump and his GOP allies have said the use of the dossier by the FBI shows bias atop the bureau, especially if the political origin of the dossier was not made clear in the FBI’s applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to wiretap former Trump aide Carter Page.
The wiretapping of Page, plus the overall use of the dossier by the FBI in its Russia investigation, is part of a bigger problem atop the bureau and the Justice Department, Trump and Republicans have repeatedly alleged.
“How the hell is Bruce Ohr still employed at the Justice Department? Disgraceful! Witch Hunt!” Trump said on Twitter on Aug. 29.
Bruce Ohr has been at the Justice Department for more than 25 years. Exactly what his wife, Nellie, did for Fusion GPS as a contractor still unclear.
“Wow, Nellie Ohr, Bruce Ohr’s wife, is a Russia expert who is fluent in Russian,” Trump tweeted on Aug. 30. “She worked for Fusion GPS where she was paid a lot. Collusion! Bruce was a boss at the Department of Justice and is, unbelievably, still there!”
Democrats have said Trump and Republicans are fixated on the dossier as a means to discredit and distract from the Russia investigation, which special counsel Robert Mueller took over in May 2017.
The House Judiciary Committee aide also said the committee could “compel” the testimony of former FBI General Counsel James Baker.
Baker, a close confidante of fired FBI Director James Comey who resigned from the FBI in May, worked on both the Hillary Clinton email investigation and Russia investigation. He resigned in May after being reassigned by new FBI Director Christopher Wray due to what many speculated was due to a leak probe.
Baker has been ducking Republican lawmakers, who want to ask him about the Clinton and Russia investigations.
