What did 'coup' participant Nellie Ohr 'delete'?

Bruce Ohr and Christopher Steele

A key player in the attempt to prevent President Trump's election and the subsequent effort to remove him from office is the target of a new Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Washington watchdog Judicial Watch.

Nellie Ohr, the husband of Justice Department official Bruce Orr, worked for Fusion GPS, the political firm hired by the Hillary Clinton campaign to create the so-called "dossier" of salacious and unverified claims against President Trump provided by unnamed Russia sources.

Judicial Watch said Wednesday it wants records from the Justice Department and the FBI of an "analytical exchange" about Russian influence between German officials and top DOJ officials, Bruce Ohr.

The request was triggered by Judicial Watch's discovery that Nellie Ohr informed her husband by email, "I am deleting these emails now."

The messages were linked to the "analytical exchange."

Last May, Judicial Watch released DOJ records that included emails between Bruce Ohr, aide Lisa Holtyn, Nellie Ohr and German embassy official Stefan Bress.

"According to the emails, Bress had initiated the offer of the meeting to which Holtyn responds, 'I haven't had a chance to confer with Bruce yet, but would certainly love to meet with the 'A Team'!' Bruce Ohr says, 'That time works for me as well.' Bress then provides the personal details/passport numbers of the German analysts who will be meeting with Holtyn and Ohr. Holtyn tells Bress that the Ohrs would like to host the German delegation for dinner and notes that Joe Wheatley and Ivana Nizich (a husband/wife team of DOJ Organized Crime prosecutors and friends of the Ohr’s) would join them as well," Judicial Watch said.

In the email exchanges, Nellie Ohr boasted of deleting emails from her husband's DOJ account.

"Was Bruce Ohr directing his wife Nellie Ohr, who worked for the Clinton spy ring at Fusion GPS, to delete emails about Russia?" asked Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "Our new lawsuit aims to uncover what was behind this possible obstruction of justice."

Judicial Watch has been filing FOIA requests and lawsuits to uncover alleged efforts by Obama administration officials to prevent Trump from winning.

"In August 2019, Judicial Watch released FBI 302 interviews with Bruce Ohr showing the efforts of the FBI, DOJ, and State Department to find allegedly incriminating material about President Trump through communications with Fusion GPS and Clinton-funded dossier author Christopher Steele. Also released were documents containing Russia-related emails sent from Nellie Ohr to Holtyn during the time Nellie Ohr worked with Fusion GPS," Judicial Watch said.

Last June, Judicial Watch obtained documents showing the removal of Bruce Ohr from the position of Associate Attorney General in 2017; his transfer from Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force to International Affairs in 2018; and his receipt of a total of $42,520 in performance bonuses during the Trump-Russia investigation.

Judicial Watch previously obtained documentation of a DOJ conversation between former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Kathleen Kavalec and Bruce Ohr discussing the targeting of Donald Trump with Steele dossier material.

Ohr also had maintained a long relationship with another Fusion GPS contractor, Christopher Steele, who wrote the dossier.