Latest news with #Russia-collusion
New York Post
28-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Nellie Ohr, Justice Department official's wife, perjured herself in Trump-Russia probe testimony, bombshell FBI records show
WASHINGTON — The wife of a former Justice Department official gave 'demonstrably false' testimony to Congress about her involvement in drafting and disseminating since-debunked dossiers about Donald Trump's purported collusion with Russia in 2016, according to a bombshell trove of internal FBI records released Wednesday by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Nellie Ohr worked for research firm Fusion GPS when it was hired in the lead-up to the 2016 election to dig up dirt on the Trump campaign's alleged links to Russian organized crime — but later told a House panel she had no knowledge of the DOJ's parallel investigation into the matter. Evidence assembled by the FBI indicates that Ohr helped compile two dossiers — tincluding the notorious file pushed by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele — that helped launch the bureau's Crossfire Hurricane investigation. 4 Nellie Ohr provided 'demonstrably false' testimony to Congress about her involvement in drafting and disseminating dossiers about Donald Trump's purported collusion with Russia in 2016, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Getty Images The Fusion GPS research repeated errors or included information similar to those discovered later in the Steele dossier. Ohr also sent emails — some of which she later deleted — directly to DOJ prosecutors, not all of whom she admitted to interacting with in subsequent congressional testimony. Ohr's husband Bruce, then a deputy associate attorney general, also received emails as well as a thumb drive from Nellie containing Fusion GPS research that was passed on to the FBI. 4 Her husband, Bruce Ohr, then a deputy associate attorney general, also received emails as well as a thumb drive from her containing the Fusion GPS research that was passed on to the FBI. AP The couple also personally met Steele at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington on July 30, 2016, and discussed allegations — later relayed to the bureau — that Trump campaign aide Carter Page had met with Russian officials and that Kremlin intelligence had the Republican candidate 'over a barrel.' While the Ohrs invoked spousal privilege before Congress on the question of whether they discussed the Trump-Russia probe, the declassified FBI files put out by Grassley reveal the bureau determined there was 'little distinction' between the couple's professional and personal lives. 'There is probable cause to believe that Bruce and Nellie did communicate with each other about their respective activity in furtherance of the Russia-collusion investigations and/or narrative,' the 43-page FBI document written in September of 2019 states. 4 Evidence assembled by the FBI point to her work helping create two dossiers — the notorious one pushed by former MI6 agent Christopher Steele and an 'Alfa' one — that helped launch the bureau's Crossfire Hurricane investigation. AFP via Getty Images The records were compiled in response to a criminal referral made that year by then-Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) that claimed Nellie Ohr knowingly gave false testimony about her involvement with the collusion investigation to the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees in October 2018. The Justice Department never prosecuted Ohr. In November 2019, the department did secure the conviction of Trump ally Roger Stone for lying to congressional investigators amid their probe. 'Ohr never suffered consequences for advancing the phony Trump-Russia narrative and attempting to cover up her involvement in the hoax,' Grassley said in a statement. 'Yet time and again, the American justice system has been weaponized against President Trump and his associates with reckless abandon.' 4 'The DOJ's inaction on Nellie Ohr's criminal referral — despite the obviously incriminating evidence provided in the FBI's own analysis — undermines public trust in the rule of law,' he added. AP 'The DOJ's inaction on Nellie Ohr's criminal referral — despite the obviously incriminating evidence provided in the FBI's own analysis — undermines public trust in the rule of law,' he added. Grassley also thanked FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for declassifying the bureau's internal investigative findings. Bruce Ohr was demoted twice and resigned from his DOJ role before he could be fired in October 2020, following a disciplinary referral about his conduct from Inspector General Michael Horowitz. The Post reached out to Nellie and Bruce Ohr for comment.
New York Post
08-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Hate and hackery: How the Pulitzer Prize destroyed itself
This week Mosab Abu Toha, a Hamas apologist and serial fabricator who vilified female Israeli hostages and justified their kidnapping on Oct. 7, won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for commentary for a series of essays about Gaza in The New Yorker. It is unsurprising, because the Pulitzer Prize has become an irremediable joke. You'd think that the Pulitzer, administered and awarded by Columbia University, would want to repair its tattered reputation after awarding a slew of debunked pieces that spread the Russia-collusion hoax. Advertisement They went in another direction. The Pulitzer for 'public service,' for instance, went to the leftist propaganda site ProPublica for 'exposing the fatal consequences of abortion bans.' ProPublica is perhaps the nation's leading purveyor of Potemkin journalism, which entails dressing up political propaganda with neutral-sounding journalistic verbiage to create the impression that you've done genuine reporting. Advertisement Its abortion stories are perhaps the sloppiest and sleaziest of its catalog, even worse than its string of pitiful smears against Supreme Court justices. In a healthy environment, journalism schools would use them as prime examples of hackery and conjecture. Take its award-winning story on Amber Thurman. In August 2022, the 28-year-old North Carolina woman checked herself into a suburban Atlanta hospital emergency room, complaining of severe pain. She was suffering from an infection caused by the remains of twin fetuses she had aborted by pill five days earlier. Advertisement The first thing you'll notice when reading ProPublica's Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters is that they fail to offer a single on-the-record source who maintains that abortion laws slowed or stopped doctors from providing medical help for Thurman. Not one. Indeed, a reader must plow through to the 57th paragraph of the article to find this throwaway line: 'It is not clear from the records available why doctors waited to provide [emergency help].' Advertisement Not clear? That's a remarkable concession to make deep into a story. The headline, after all, promises to prove that 'Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care.' Have, not may have. Anyway, by 'not clear,' the reporters mean no testimony exists to support the implication that a dilation and curettage procedure, in which the lining of the uterus is scraped to remove tissue, was delayed because doctors were nervous about Georgia's abortion law. Whenever the story hits a juncture at which any real reporter would feel compelled to offer corroboration, ProPublica switches to interviewing nameless 'OB-GYNs in states that outlawed abortion' or pro-abortion activists who offer politically motivated guesswork. We call that a 'column' in the business. To confuse readers, ProPublica regularly conflates miscarriages with elective abortions. And here's the thing: The fetuses had already been destroyed. There was absolutely no legal basis for any doctor, not even one confused about the supposed ambiguities of abortion laws, to fail to give Thurman all the care she needed. That seems like a vital fact that should have been mentioned somewhere in a 3,400-word investigative piece. Advertisement I don't care where you stand on abortion, that's not journalism. Yet this is the type of hackery that wins you a Pulitzer these days. The only inarguable truth in the Thurman case is that she died from complications caused by abortion pills. That's the headline. That's the buried lede. Advertisement Knowing this, ProPublica feels compelled to assure readers that there are only 'rare complications' from abortion pills — 'extremely rare' even. ProPublica, funded by a deep-pocketed progressive group, exists to create fake stories for politicians to use as oppo material. You may remember when many political experts assured us that the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision and resulting state-level abortion limitations would forever sink the entire GOP? Well, less than a week after the Thurman story hit, Axios reported that Senate Democrats would launch a 'blitz on emergency abortion care . . . after ProPublica reporting on death of Georgia woman.' Advertisement Former Vice President Kamala Harris mentioned Thurman on many occasions. It should be said that ideological bias doesn't prevent a journalist from making arguments that rely on facts. It is implausible, however, that any genuine journalist could possibly believe ProPublica's Thurman story was well-reported, or that Abu Toha's essays enlightened anyone. Advertisement And the fact that the Pulitzer Prize rewards this kind of transparent hackery only further destroys its already battered credibility. David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner.
