The Daily Caller has revealed that recently demoted Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr did not say on ethics forms that she received payments from Fusion GPS, the company that published the dossier on then-candidate Donald Trump.
The forms The Daily Caller received show that Ohr signed his Public Financial Disclosure Report on 5/12/2017 that the statements in the forms “are true, complete and correct to the best of my knowledge.
From The Daily Caller:
For 2014 and 2015, Bruce Ohr disclosed on ethics forms that his wife was an “independent contractor” earning consulting fees. In 2016, she added a new employer who paid her a “salary,” but listed it vaguely as “cyberthreat analyst,” and did not say the name of the company.The instructions require officials to “Provide the name of your spouse’s employer. In addition, if your spouse’s employer is a privately held business, provide the employer’s line of business.” As examples, it gives “Xylophone Technologies Corporation” and “DSLK Financial Techniques, Inc. (financial services).” The dollar amount does not need to be disclosed. “Report each source, whether a natural person or an organization or entity, that provided your spouse more than $1,000 of earned income during the reporting period,” they say.The DOJ says, “Financial disclosure reports are used to identify potential or actual conflicts of interest. If the person charged with reviewing an employee’s report finds a conflict, he should impose a remedy immediately.” Its guidance says, “employees should always seek the advice of an ethics official when contemplating any action that may be covered by the rules.”
Someone who falsifies these ethics forms can receive jail time.
Well, as I blogged in December, his wife Nellie worked at Fusion GPS in the summer and fall of 2016. At that time, we did not know if she worked on the dossier, but she “has written extensively on Russia-related subjects” and the Wilson Center has described her “as a Russia expert.”
The DNC hired Fusion to assemble the dossier, which was authored by former British spy Christopher Steele. Ohr brought the information to the FBI, which started the investigation into alleged collusion between Trump and Russia.
Congressional Republicans allege that the FBI used this dossier to receive FISA warrants to spy on members of Trump’s team.
The Ohrs also made an appearance in a memo authored by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) that came out earlier this month, which allege Nellie gathered evidence against Trump for the dossier. Also, Steele kept in contact with Bruce after the FBI let him go as a source. The memo said that the FBI interviewed Bruce after the election about his talks with Steele.
The Daily Caller spoke to a lawyer who specializes in these laws:
Paul Kamenar, a Washington, D.C., public policy lawyer experienced in executive branch ethics and disclosure laws, said, “Based on my reading of the regulations and disclosure guide accompanying the form, he failed to disclose the source of his wife’s income on line 4 by not including the ‘name of the employer.’”“The law provides that whoever ‘knowingly and willfully’ fails to file information required to be filed on this report faces civil penalties up to $50,000 and possible criminal penalties up to one year in prison under the disclosure law and possibly up to five years in prison under 18 USC 1001,” he said. “Since he lists her income type as ‘salary’ as opposed to line 1 where he describes her other income as ‘consulting fees’ as an ‘independent contractor’ it’s clear that she was employed by a company that should have been identified by name,” he said.“And even with respect to her ‘independent contractor’ listing, it appears incomplete by not describing what kind of services were provided. Both these omissions do not give the reviewing official sufficient information to determine whether there is a conflict,” Kamenar added.
The DOJ demoted Ohr during an investigation into his contacts at Fusion GPS. Officials stripped him of his title of associate deputy attorney general and vacated his office on the fourth floor at the DOJ.
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