Home
This is the kind of misinformation and disinformation that passes for content at today's WSJ. I saw it originally on FB. She never says that Fusion GPS was originally hired by Republicans during the primaries...and no one seems to know who hired them. This is the current spin on Russiagate, and it stinks to high heaven.
“It has been 10 days since Democrats
received the glorious news that Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley would
require Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort to explain their meeting with
Russian operators at Trump Tower last year. The left was salivating at the
prospect of watching two Trump insiders being grilled about Russian “collusion”
under the klieg lights.
Yet Democrats now have meekly and
noiselessly retreated, agreeing to let both men speak to the committee in
private. Why would they so suddenly be willing to let go of this moment of
political opportunity?
Fusion GPS. That’s the opporesearch
outfit behind the infamous and discredited “Trump dossier,” ginned up by a
former British spook. Fusion cofounder Glenn Simpson also was supposed to
testify at the Grassley hearing, where he might have been asked in public to
reveal who hired him to put together the hit job on Mr. Trump, which was based
largely on anonymous Russian sources. Turns out Democrats are willing to give
up just about anything—including their Manafort moment—to protect Mr. Simpson
from having to answer that question.
What if, all this time, Washington
and the media have had the Russia collusion story backward? What if it wasn’t
the Trump campaign playing footsie with the Vladimir Putin regime, but
Democrats? The more we learn about Fusion, the more this seems a possibility.
We know Fusion is a for hire
political outfit, paid to dig up dirt on targets. This column first outed
Fusion in 2012, detailing its efforts to tar a Mitt Romney donor. At the time
Fusion insisted that the donor was “a legitimate subject of public records
research.”
Mr. Grassley’s call for testimony
has uncovered more such stories. Thor Halvorssen, a prominent human-rights
activist, has submitted sworn testimony outlining a Fusion attempt to undercut
his investigation of Venezuelan corruption. Mr. Halvorssen claims Fusion
“devised smear campaigns, prepared dossiers containing false information,” and
“carefully placed slanderous news items” to malign him and his activity.
William Browder, a banker who has
worked to expose Mr. Putin’s crimes, testified to the Grassley committee on
Thursday that he was the target of a similar campaign, saying that Fusion “spread
false information” about him and his efforts. Fusion has admitted it was hired
by a law firm representing a Russian company called Prevezon.
Prevezon employed one of the Russian
operators who were at Trump Tower last year. The other Russian who attended
that meeting, Rinat Akhmetshin, is a former Soviet counterintelligence officer.
He has acknowledged in court documents that he makes his career out of
opposition research, the same work Fusion does. And that he’s often hired by
Kremlin-connected Russians to smear opponents.
We know that at the exact time
Fusion was working with the Russians, the firm had also hired a former British
spy, Christopher Steele, to dig up dirt on Mr. Trump. Mr. Steele compiled his
material, according to his memos, based on allegations from unnamed Kremlin
insiders and other Russians. Many of the claims sound eerily similar to the
sort of “oppo” Mr. Akhmetshin peddled.
We know that Mr. Simpson is tight
with Democrats. His current attorney, Joshua Levy, used to work in Congress as
counsel to no less than Chuck Schumer. We know from a Grassley letter that
Fusion has in the past sheltered its clients’ true identities by filtering
money through law firms or shell companies (Bean LLC and Kernel LLC).
Word is Mr. Simpson has made clear
he will appear for a voluntary committee interview only if he is not
specifically asked who hired him to dig dirt on Mr. Trump. Democrats are going
to the mat for him over that demand. Those on the Judiciary Committee pointedly
did not sign letters in which Mr. Grassley demanded that Fusion reveal who
hired it.
Here’s a thought: What if it was the
Democratic National Committee or Hillary Clinton’s campaign? What if that money
flowed from a political entity on the left, to a private law firm, to Fusion,
to a British spook, and then to Russian sources? Moreover, what if those
Kremlin-tied sources already knew about this dirtdigging, tipped off by Mr.
Akhmetshin? What if they specifically made up claims to dupe Mr. Steele, to
trick him into writing this dossier?
Fusion GPS, in an email, said that
it “did not spread false information about William Browder.” The firm said it
is cooperating with Congress and that “the president and his allies are
desperately trying to smear Fusion GPS because it investigated Donald Trump’s
ties to Russia.”
If the Russian intention was to sow
chaos in the American political system, few things could have been more
effective than that dossier, which ramped up an FBI investigation and sparked
congressional probes and a special counsel, deeply wounding the president. This
is all to Mr. Putin’s benefit, and the question is whether Russia engineered
it.
If Special Counsel Robert Mueller,
Democrats and the media really want answers about Russian meddling, this is a
far deeper well than the so-far scant case against Mr. Trump. If they refuse to
dive into the story, we’ll know that the truth about Russia and the election
was never what they were after.”
..............................
