From the darkness of political corridors, the most carefully orchestrated campaigns often emerge, feeding upon public naivety and blind trust. Such is the story of the dossier the FBI utilized to conduct surveillance on the Trump campaign, an infamous compilation of unfounded accusations paid for by the Clinton campaign and penned by a foreign FBI informant and his merrymaking assistant.
Now, with the release of the Special Counsel John Durham’s report, an insidious theory emerges, suggesting the involvement of a top Justice Department official and his wife in the inception of the notorious dossier.
Former Justice Department prosecutor, Bruce Ohr and his wife Nellie Ohr, are under the unforgiving spotlight, seemingly inextricably entangled in the dossier’s convoluted web. Nellie Ohr, as per the 306-page Durham report, was the first to pave the way for the scandalous dossier, crafting a series of research reports for Fusion GPS, the Washington D.C. based opposition research firm commissioned by the Clinton campaign to unearth detrimental material against Trump and Russia.
Nellie Ohr’s reports, obtained by Durham, meticulously dissected Sergei Millian’s ties to Russia and Trump. Yet, they presented a distorted reality, painting Millian as the bridge between the Kremlin and the Republican candidate. The fabricated connections were later the foundation of the dossier’s myriad fallacies.
“Fusion GPS records demonstrate that Nellie Ohr first identified Millian,” Durham stated in his report. He further added, “All told, Ohr prepared at least 12 reports that discussed Sergei Millian.”
Nellie Ohr wrote her first Millian report in April 2016, right before Fusion GPS brought on board former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele. Steele was tasked with lending his credibility as a supposed ex-“spy” and “Russian insider” to the dossier, thereby adding an extra layer of legitimacy to these unfounded accusations.
A significant revelation in the Durham Report is that Nellie Ohr might be the unseen hand sowing the seeds for the most volatile allegations against Trump, including the frequently cited assertion of a “well-developed conspiracy of cooperation” between him and the Kremlin. The dossier, falsely, attributed this to Millian. But Durham’s investigation found Millian to be an invented source, a mere figment of the dossier’s creators’ imagination.
Simultaneously, Bruce Ohr, a staunch anti-Trump Democrat, used his influence to disseminate his wife’s reports within the FBI. The Crossfire Hurricane team, responsible for probing into Trump and his campaign for potential espionage, used these reports as corroboration for the Steele reports they received in 2016.
Bruce Ohr’s clandestine influence extended to pressure the FBI to investigate the allegations in the dossier. On August 22, 2016, Simpson requested Ohr to call him. An hour later, Ohr emailed Michael Gaeta, the FBI agent overseeing Steele, to “check in.“
Both Ohrs had directly influenced the dossier and the FBI’s investigation. Meeting with Steele at a crucial time, they passed on their research about “suspicions that Russian government figures were supporting the candidacy of Donald Trump.”
Fusion GPS, concurrently, fed the media the concocted narrative of Millian being the critical link between Trump and Russia. Attempting to connect Millian to the false Alfa Bank allegations, Fusion GPS solicited the assistance of Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann. He then contacted Rodney Joffe to check if Millian had any ties to Alfa Bank. Joffe described Millian as “the most likely intermediary” between Trump and Russia.
Fusion GPS and Steele further provided the Alfa Bank allegations to Bruce Ohr, who then passed the false tip on to the FBI. The Crossfire Hurricane team used Ohr as a channel to continue receiving information about Trump from Steele throughout 2017.
As Durham’s report unveils, the dossier wasn’t the work of the ex-British spy as it’s often claimed.
The real puppeteers were Fusion GPS and, more specifically, the wife of a senior DOJ official working for Fusion.
The FBI was not, as officials asserted, investigating “Crown reporting” but information laundered from within its own department through Steele.
This saga serves as a chilling reminder of the potential hazards when trust in justice and truth is exploited for political gain.
As the veil lifts off this twisted tale, it is a call to remain vigilant, to question, and to hold the powers-that-be accountable.
