President Trump on Thursday extended his attacks on Justice Department employee Bruce Ohr to his wife, Nellie, pointing out her fluency in Russian and former employment at Fusion GPS as evidence of “collusion.”
“Wow, Nellie Ohr, Bruce Ohr’s wife, is a Russia expert who is fluent in Russian,” Trump tweeted. “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!”
Trump has targeted Bruce Ohr for several weeks. On Wednesday the president asked in a tweet “how the hell” Ohr was still employed at the Justice Department.
{mosads}Nellie Ohr’s involvement at Fusion has become a flashpoint among Republicans who hint at nefarious motivations, suggesting she was paid to create an anti-Trump dossier — and could’ve possibly passed along the information to her husband at the DOJ.
Bruce Ohr was grilled by Republican lawmakers on Tuesday in a closed-door testimony over his ties to Fusion GPS, the company that hired ex-British spy Christopher Steele to produce a dossier which alleged ties between Trump and Russia in 2016.
Lawmakers have pointed to Nellie Ohr’s former employment at Fusion as proof of her husband’s corruption. Bruce Ohr also had sustained contact with Steele.
House Republicans have long questioned whether federal authorities leaned too much on the dossier assembled by Steele and Fusion GPS in their investigation into possible Russia ties to the Trump campaign.
“I think Bruce Ohr is a disgrace,” Trump tweeted last month. “I suspect I’ll be taking it away very quickly. For him to be in the Justice Department and doing what he did, that is a disgrace.”
Trump’s attacks on Ohr come as he escalates his feud with the Justice Department and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Trump slammed Sessions in an interview with Fox News last week, prompting Sessions to issue a statement saying he “will not be improperly influenced” by political pressure.