Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr forwarded information from Russia he obtained from his wife to the FBI to use in its investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign, reports investigative journalist John Solomon.
Nellie Ohr was working at the time for Fusion GPS, which hired former British agent Christopher Steele to produce the unverified, anti-Trump "dossier" that was used by the Obama Justice Department and FBI to spy on the Trump campaign.
Solomon, writing in The Hill, reported Ohr has admitted carrying "politically tainted" claims against Trump to the FBI and was deeper into that activity than previously known.
Now, Solomon reports, information "that is still being kept secret from the public" reveals Ohr admitted he took "Russia" information to the FBI that his wife had on a thumb drive.
Nellie Ohr was working on the same project as Steele, but DOJ ethics rules forbid officials from working on cases in which a spouse has a financial interest.
Bruce Ohr told investigators his wife "provided me with a memory stick that included research she had done for Fusion GPS on various Russian figures."
She was just another in a long list of Clinton connections flooding the FBI with anti-Trump claims, Solomon wrote.
"Steele's dossier was the opening salvo. A document sent to the State Department by Clinton proteges Cody Shearer and Sidney Blumenthal was another. A thumb drive given by Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman to FBI general counsel James Baker was a third. Simpson's thumb drive given to Bruce Ohr was a fourth. And Nellie Ohr's thumb drive would be a fifth," he said.
Ohr said he told the FBI about his wife's employment with Fusion. And he told Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that he had taken information from his wife and had given it to the FBI.
"In a matter of weeks, in the shadows of a presidential election, Ohr took derogatory information about Trump from Steele (a contractor at Fusion GPS just like his wife), a thumb drive from Simpson (his wife's boss) and then another thumb drive from his wife and delivered all of it to the FBI," Solomon said.
Ohr admitted the probable conflict of interest in working on a case in which his wife had a financial interest.
"But then the senior DOJ official insisted his role in providing the FBI evidence from his wife’s fellow contractor (Steele), from her boss (Simpson) and from her as well did not constitute 'working on the case,'" Solomon reported.
"It is clearer today than ever before that Ohr played an essential role in feeding a Clinton-financed political opposition-research project to the FBI," he reported.
Ohr was an associate deputy attorney general until late 2017, when he was demoted.
His name has continued to attract attention because of his wife's involvement with what many consider to be propaganda collected by Steele about Trump.
Steele claimed Trump was under the influence of Russia, who had blackmail material on him.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has investigated the collusion claim for nearly two years and has released no evidence.