Judicial Watch files two lawsuits against Justice Department

A government watchdog group launched two lawsuits this week demanding the Justice Department turn over information on one of its officials’ involvement with the controversial Trump dossier, which the FBI used to spy on Trump campaign officials.

Judicial Watch seeks records between Bruce Ohr, who had been the fourth-ranking official at the Justice Department, and his wife, Nellie Ohr, who worked for Fusion GPS, the opposition-research firm hired by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Fusion GPS is the firm that retained British ex-spy Christopher Steele to author the now infamous dossier.

The group filed two Freedom of Information Act requests in December of last year for Mr. Ohr’s communication records and other documents, but the Justice Department failed to respond, prompting the lawsuits.

“Once again, the Deep State Justice Department is covering up evident misconduct targeting President Trump,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.

A spokesperson from the Justice Department declined to comment on the litigation.

One lawsuit asks a judge to order the Justice Department turn over emails, text messages and instant messages between Mr. Ohr and his wife, as well as Mr. Ohr’s communications with Mr. Steele, with Fusion GPS owner Glenn R. Simpson, and with any other Fusion GPS employees. It also seeks access to Mr. Ohr’s calendar entries and his travel requests.

The other lawsuit seeks communication records between Justice Department officials and Mrs. Ohr.

“I would imagine there would be document production that would begin somewhere between 60 days, maybe 90 days, but we have to get in front of a federal judge, make our case, and have the judge eventually order the production of these records,” Chris Farrell, director of investigations and research at Judicial Watch, told Fox News on Tuesday.

Mr. Ohr was recently demoted from his top post at the Justice Department, where he served as a contact for Mr. Steele, who was retained by the same opposition research firm that employed his wife. The Clinton campaign and the DNC paid Fusion GPS for the opposition research against Mr. Trump.

Mrs. Ohr helped with the opposition research against Mr. Trump, and Mr. Ohr would pass her research on to the FBI, according to the four-page House intelligence committee memo, which was released by the panel’s Republicans last month.

The memo said the FBI used the politically tarnished dossier to obtain a warrant against Mr. Trump’s campaign officials, but failed to disclose the partisan origin of the dossier to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge.

“A top Justice Department official in the Obama administration had an obvious conflict of interest through his wife Nellie’s work with the Clinton/DNC vendor Fusion GPS on the anti-Trump Dossier,” Mr. Fitton said. “The Justice Department needs to come clean about this scandal and turn over the documents as federal law requires.”

The lawsuits were filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.