Grassley Releases FBI Analysis on Nellie Ohr
Earlier today, Senator Grassley releases an FBI analysis from September 2019 that raises new questions.
The 43 page document confirms something long speculated: that Nellie Ohr had more involvement in the dossier. The document lays out potential criminal charges against Ohr for false statements relating to her apparent involvement in the Steele dossier as well as the non-technical dossier on Alfa Bank presumably included on the flash drive brought to the FBI by Michael Sussmann.
The analysis also highlights that the “second dossier”, allegedly created by Clinton operative Cody Shearer, was accessed by Fusion GPS’s Glenn Simpson prior to it being passed to the FBI by Christopher Steele, and appears to also involve Nellie Ohr’s work.
The analysis also takes note of materials effectively buried inside the FBI’s Sentinel system, because they were given “prohibited access” status. This status returns false negatives to search parameters, i.e., no documents are returned when searches were run.
The most important question raised tonight is whether this document was obtained by Special Counsel John Durham’s team, or even Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
There are some reasons to believe that this document, and potentially others, were not obtained by the Durham team, possibly hidden under the prohibited access status.
For starters, Ohr’s work and role in the Steele dossier would have been material to the case of Igor Danchenko. To the extent Chuck Dolan was relevant, Nellie Ohr and Fusion GPS’ more central role would have been equally critical to note. If the FBI analysis is correct, additional charges for Danchenko and potentially others would have been considered.
This also could have come up during Durham’s attempts to break through privilege claims exerted by Fusion GPS over emails just prior to the Sussmann trial.
Yet, this document did not come up during either trial.
There is more to cover on this document, and I will be working to develop the Durham team angle.
The door might’ve just cracked open.