Nellie Ohr, the wife of a Justice Department official who worked for the opposition research firm that commissioned the creation of the Christopher Steele dossier, will testify on Capitol Hill this week.
Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, said Ohr will testify sometime this week before the House Judiciary Committee.
“She’s planning to come in to our committee later this week,” Ratcliffe said on Fox News on Sunday.
No other details were immediately available about the testimony, but Republicans on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees have been pushing to bring in Ohr after her husband, former associate deputy attorney general Bruce Ohr testified in August.
Bruce Ohr had a close relationship with Steele, who was commissioned by Fusion GPS to create and disseminate the dossier about President Trump’s relationship with Russia. Fusion GPS was hired in part by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Republican lawmakers are convinced that Bruce Ohr acted inappropriately when he passed along Steele’s information to the FBI, even after the bureau had ended its relationship with Steele due to media leaks.
Bruce Ohr was not also 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 roots of the dossier were not made completely 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 the Russia investigation, which special counsel Robert Mueller took over in May 2017.
