FusionGPS

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FusionGPS (aka Bean LLC) is a media and opposition research firm founded by Glenn Simpson.

FusionGPS was hired by the Democratic party and the Hillary Clinton campaign in the Spring of 2016 after NSA director Mike Rogers discovered illegal spying by the Obama administration on the Trump campaign. The Obama intelligence community needed Fusion GPS to give them a plausible justification for already existing surveillance and spy operations.

At the time of the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016, FusionGPS had two clients: (1) the Democratic party and Clinton campaign (through the firm of Perkins Coie); and (2) Prevezon Holdings owned by the Russian Katsyv family (through the firm of BakerHoestetler);[1] the Katsyv's hired a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to come to the United States in early 2016 to represent their Prevezon Holdings company in an asset forfeiture case of a Manhattan building seized under Russian sanctions. When the case was settled she had a second task - lobbying against sanctions which were coming up for renewal that summer. She overstayed her visa and did not register as a foreign lobbyist. Veselnitskaya, as Prevezon and the Katsyv's agent, did however employ the law firm of BakerHostetler, which in turn hired FusionGPS and Glenn Simpson to lobby for Russian interests on their behalf. Simpson did not register as a Russian agent either.

Glenn Simpson was working for both Natalia Veselnitskaya and Hillary Clinton at the time Simpson gave "dirt" on Clinton to Veselnitskaya which she carried into the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort.

Veselnitskaya and Hillary Clinton were Simpson's bosses.[2] Just as the Clinton campaign hired a law firm which hired Fusion GPS and Simpson, Russian oligarchs hired Veselnitskaya who hired a law firm which hired Fusion GPS and Simpson.

Veselnitskaya instructed Simpson to dig up dirt on Russian sanctions. In doing so Simpson dug up dirt on Clinton Foundation donors. Simpson gave Veselnitskaya a four-page summary shortly before her meeting with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort at Trump Tower.

The entire episode highlights (1) the fundamental misunderstanding Russians have about how the American political system works; (2) the corruption, duplicity, and conflicts of interest of FusionGPS and Glenn Simpson; and (3) the willful bias of mainstream media which has been in possession of the facts for over a year and stubbornly refuses to report on it, choosing rather to stoop to slander in their blind hatred of all things connected to Donald Trump.

Payments to FusionGPS for illegal lobbying were laundered through the law firm of BakerHostetler. Those payments likewise were violations of Russian sanctions. Rather than investigate this collusion and Russian efforts to meddle in the American political system, Robert Mueller continues harassment of Trump campaign personnel based on lies manufactured by FusionGPS which the Obama Justice Department used to commit fraud against American courts.

FusionGPS played a large role in the effort to destroy the candidacy of Donald Trump and, after Trump was elected, the Deep state coup attempt to remove him from office.

In April 2018 Hillary Clinton was referred to the U.S. Justice Department for criminal investigation and prosecution after disguising payments to FusionGPS in violation of mandatory disclosure requirements to the Federal Election Commission. FusionGPS was paid $1,024,408 by Clinton to produce the Steele dossier, which was passed to the Obama administration and used, knowingly, to commit fraud against the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and to violate American citizens' civil and constitutional rights. Fusion GPS tried and failed to link Trump to the Clinton's convicted pedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein as part of their smear campaign.[3]

The dossier, with fictionalized allegations, was represented to the FISA court as official, verified US government intelligence information, and then to President-elect Donald Trump, to major media, and to the American public.

Background

Gay marriage

During the 2012 presidential election the Wall Street Journal published an article entitled, The President's Hit List. Idaho businessman Frank VanderSloot became the target of a smear campaign since it had been disclosed earlier that he donated $1 million to a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney. Obama's campaign website teed him up in April of as one of eight "less than reputable" Romney donors and a "bitter foe of the gay rights movement." VanderSloot's wife donated to an anti-gay-marriage campaign, of the kind that had passed in 30 or so states. The article read, "Now we learn that little more than a week after that Presidential posting, a former Democratic Senate staffer called the courthouse in Mr. VanderSloot's home town of Idaho Falls seeking his divorce records. Ms. Strassel traced the operative, Michael Wolf, to a Washington, D.C. outfit called FusionGPS that says it is "a commercial research firm."[4] FusionGPS is run by a former Wall Street Journal reporter, Glenn Simpson, who wouldn't say who is paying him for this high-minded slumming but said in an email that Mr. VanderSloot was a "legitimate" target because of "his record on gay issues."[5] FusionGPS is the same oufit that later produces the Steele dossier.

Planned Parenthood

In August 2015 the National Review published Planned Parenthood’s Commissioned Video Review Proves the Authenticity of Its Employees’ Ghoulish Statements. Planned Parenthood had been accused of harvesting body-parts from late term abortion victims. FusionGPS was hired to refute the charges.[6]

Lobbying for Russia

FusionGPS was hired by the law firm of BakerHostetler to compile a dossier on Bill Browder, a UK citizen. Browder lobbied strongly for passage of the Magnitsky Act, or Russia sanctions bill. The bill is named for an employee of Browder who died under suspicious circumstances in a Russian while investigating the loss of $350 million. The sanctions bill must be re-authorized every several years. Glenn Simpson, a founding partner of Fusion GPS, compiled the dossier for the anti-Browder project and worked closely with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer. Denis Katsyv, the owner of Prevezon Holdings, sought to undo and limit the impact of sanctions in the 2016 re-authorization bill. BakerHostetler, the firm representing Katsyv and Prevezon Holdings made a payment to FusionGPS on March 7, 2016, court records indicate. Through October 31, 2016 BakerHostetler paid FusionGPS $523,651.[7]

Natalie Veselnitskaya was granted special immigration parole status by Obama Attn. General Loretta Lynch to represent Prevezon Holdings in an asset forfeiture agreement for $6 million with the U.S. government over a Russia money-laundering suit on May 12, 2016. Veselnitskaya overstayed her immigration parole status to work for FusionGPS in illegal lobbying scheme for repeal of Russian sanctions. Neither Veselnitskaya nor FusionGPS registered as Russian agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

The Russians had stolen about $350 million from Browder, and some of the stolen assets ended with Veselnitskaya's clients at Prevezon Holdings. Browder filed a complaint with the FBI over FusionGPS's illegal, unregistered, foreign lobbying on behalf of Russia.[8][9] FusionGPS lobbied to remove the name “Magnitsky” from the Global Magnitsky Act, delay the bills passage, and cast doubt on the Obama Justice Department's version of events prior to the passage of the Magnitsky Act. Browder referred to Simpson as
"a professional smear campaigner....Glenn Simpson knowingly spread false information on behalf of people connected to the Russian government to try to protect Russian torturers and murderers from consequences....Glenn Simpson’s job was to knowingly and dishonestly change the narrative of how Sergei Magnitsky came to die from murder to natural causes, and to change the narrative that Sergei Magnitsky was a criminal and not a whistleblower."[10]

Clinton client

See also: Ukrainian collusion

On March 15, 2016 FusionGPS's contract with the Washington FreeBeacon terminated after Marco Rubio dropped out of the Republican primaries. FreeBeacon hired FusionGPS six months earlier on October 15, 2015 to perform opposition research on Donald Trump and other Republican candidates. None of the research done for FreeBeacon is related to the Steele dossier or Russia. Two weeks laters Hillary Clinton hired FusionGPS through various fronts, the Clinton presidential campaign and DNC, whose financial affairs the Clinton campaign controlled.[11] Clinton designated Marc E. Elias, her personal lawyer, through the law firm of Perkins Coie as payee. Additionally, Perkins Coie employed former Obama White House Chief Legal Counselor, Robert Bauer.[12][13] When Simpson was subpeaonaed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, Simpson claimed attorney-client privilege to cover-up the relationships. Perkins Coie paid FusionGPS a total of $1,024,408 on behalf of Hillary Clinton for the bogus Steele dossier. The dossier was passed off to mainstream journalists as an authentic an KGB document and used by the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) to secure Foreign Intelligent Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants against domestic opponents.

FusionGPS hired Christopher Steele, a former British Intelligence Officer, of Orbis Business Intelligence (Steele's London-based firm) to begin compiling anti-Trump "Dossier" showing ties between Trump and Russia. Steele disclosed this and his period of employment with FusionGPS (12 Jun 2016 through 30 Oct 2016) in later court filings stemming from a lawsuit against him and his "Dossier."[14] Nellie Ohr, wife of Obama Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr and formerly of the CIA's Open Source Works group,[15] was hired by FusionGPS to work with Steele.

In late May 2016 Nellie Ohr applied for a HAM radio license, a communication tool that would allow Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele the ability to communicate outside the normal risk of communication intercepts.[16] Steele filed his first report entitled Company Intelligence Report on June 20, 2016, the 'pee pee' memo. Days later Peter Strzok of the Obama FBI Counterintelligence Division met with Christopher Steele and received a preliminary draft of Steele's memo.[17]

Bill Clinton/Loretta Lynch tarmac meeting, June 29, 2016. Phoenix airport. Lynch's long-awaited announcement on the disposition of the Hillary Clinton email investigation never occurred when she compromised herself in a secret meeting with the husband of the accused. FBI Dir. Comey surprisingly announced days later he decided against recommending prosecution, usurping the authority of the Attorney General. The Justice Dept. immediately tried to cover up the meeting and denied it had any paper trail of its existence. While the substance of the meeting was never disclosed, Christopher Steele filed his first report days earlier, and Lynch's Justice Dept. days later was seeking FISA warrants against members of the Trump campaign.

In late June, after former President Bill Clinton's meeting with Attn. Gen. Loretta Lynch on the airport tarmac in Phoenix, the Justice Department sought FISA warrants to eavesdrop on Donald Trump, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Boris Epshteyn. The FISA court denied the initial request.[18] It is improbable that the Attorney General would act on her own against a presidential nominee of another party without consulting President Obama.[19] Simultaneously FBI agent Peter Strzok had direct contact with Christopher Steele and received a preliminary draft of the Steele dossier.[20]

Throughout July, August, and September 2016 Fusion GPS was paying journalists from the New York Times, ABC, NBC, Washington Post, Mother Jones and others to listen to Christopher Steele and shopping the fake Steele dossier to them. Court papers confirm payments.[21]

Sometime around Thanksgiving 2016 Simpson of met with Obama Dep. Attn. Gen. Bruce Ohr while President-elect Trump was selecting his cabinet, and discussed the Steele dossier, the FBI's Russia meddling investigation, and what Simpson considered the distressing development of Trump's victory. The Steele dossier had been in the hands of the FBI for some five months, and the surveillance on Carter Page, an adviser to the Trump campaign, had started more than two months prior. Attn Gen. Loretta Lynch used the opposition research paid for by Hillary Clinton to justify a foreign surveillance warrant (FISA) against Page.

By late July 2017 there were calls all around for he appointment of a Special Prosecutor to look into Comey and the FBI's reliance on FusionGPS in its investigation of the Trump campaign, including the creation of the Steele dosdier about Donald Trump, that dossier's commission and dissemination in the months before and after the 2016 presidential election, whether the FBI paid anyone connected to the dossier, and the intelligence sources of FusionGPS or any person or company working for FusionGPS and its affiliates.[22]

On October 18, 2017 Peter Fritsch and Thomas Catan, co-founders of FusionGPS, refused to identify the Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC as the sponsors of Steele dossier. The FusionGPS founders plead the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination “to every question asked of them" in House Intelligence Committee investigation.[23] The Washington Post finally admitted on October 24 that the "Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee funded the research that resulted in a now-infamous dossier containing allegations about President Trump’s connections to Russia and possible coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin...The Clinton campaign paid Perkins Coie $5.6 million in legal fees from June 2015 to December 2016, according to campaign finance records, and the DNC paid the firm $3.6 million in “legal and compliance consulting’’ since November 2015.[24][25] WaPo published an Oped claiming the "Steele's dossier does include information it says was obtained from "a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure and a former top level Russian intelligence officer still active inside the Kremlin." In other words, the Clinton camp and the DNC colluded with the Russian government."[26]

On October 26 CNN reported that Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta was asked by Congressional nvestigators in his September "whether the Clinton campaign had a contractual agreement with Fusion GPS, and he said he was not aware of one, according to one of the sources. Sitting next to Podesta during the interview: his attorney Marc Elias, who worked for the law firm that hired Fusion GPS" to write the Steele dossier for the Clinton campaign and DNC.[27][28] Former Obama CIA Dir. Leon Panetta called for the Senate Intelligence Committee to look into the Clinton campaign and DNC funding of the Steele dossier.[29] The Daily Caller reported on CNN's undisclosed ties to FusionGPS.[30] The New York Post reported How team Hillary hoaxed the press.[31]

FEC records show Hillary For America paid just under $5.1 million and the DNC paid nearly $5.4 million to the law firm of Perkins Coie in 2016. FEC records also Obama for America also paid $972,000 to Perkins Coie beginning in April 2016, the same time Hillary for America & DNC hired FusionGPS through Perkins Coie.[32] The Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the FEC alleging the DNC and the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign committee violated campaign finance law. They failed to accurately disclose the purpose and recipient of payments for the Steele dossier alleging connections between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russia, effectively hiding these payments from public scrutiny, contrary to the requirements of federal law.[33]

In November 2017 FusionGPS payments to mainstream journalists[34][35] and Russian sources became public.[36]

The Washington Times questioned the motives of the Obama appointees' coup attempt:
It was a watershed moment: the CIA, National Security Agency and FBI challenging the legitimacy of a U.S. presidential victory. The conclusions in the Jan. 6 document were sharp, but the findings unraveled 10 months later, raising questions about the basis for the evidence and the motives of the Obama appointees leading the nation’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies.[37]

The Atlantic reported during the Obama administration Russian oligarchs owned 5% of Facebook and Twitter.[38] Prof. Mifsud disappeared.[39] Steve Mostyn,[40] Democrat mega donor to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head. Mostyn was a co-founder of the Ready for Hillary PAC and the 10th largest donor in the United States.[41][42] Calls for the appointment of a Special Prosecutor mounted.[43][44][45][46][47][48][49]

In January 2017 Sen. Diane Feinstein posted the transcript of Glenn Simpson's Senate Intelligence Committee testimony.[50] Simpson said that the FBI paid for Steele's travels to Rome. Simpson said the FBI had a spy inside the Trump campaign, and the FBI was sharing information with Steele. Strzok was sharing FBI intelligence with someone paid by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. Steele said of the FBI, “they want everything I have.” Simpson admitted the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was hired by Simpson to lobby on behalf of Russian interests for the removal of sanctions. Simpson acknowledged that he either worked with or knows of four attendees at the Trump Tower meeting: Irakle Kaveladze, Veselnitskaya, Rinat Akhmetshin, and Anatoli Samochornov. Samochornov also worked on the Prevezon case. Simpson perjured himself in denying that the Democratic party and their nominee Hillary Clinton were his clients.[51]

Steele dossier

Fusion GPS was not hired in April 2016 just to research Donald Trump. As shown in the evidence provided by the FISC, the intelligence community was already doing surveillance and spy operations. The Obama administration already knew everything about the Trump campaign, and were monitoring everything by exploiting the FISA database.

However, after the NSA alerts in/around March 9th, 2016, and particularly after the April 18th shutdown of contractor access, the Obama intelligence community needed Fusion GPS to create a legal albeit ex post facto justification for the pre-existing surveillance and spy operations. Fusion GPS gave them that justification in the Steele Dossier.

That’s why the FBI small group, which later transitioned into the Mueller team, were so strongly committed to and defending the formation of the Steele Dossier and its dubious content.

The Steele Dossier, an outcome of the Fusion contract, contains three insurance policy purposes: (1) the cover-story and justification for the pre-existing surveillance operation (protect Obama); and (2) facilitate the FBI counterintelligence operation against the Trump campaign (assist Clinton); and (3) continue the operation with a special counsel (protect both).

An insurance policy would be needed. The Steele Dossier becomes the investigative virus the FBI wanted inside the system. To get the virus into official status, they used the FISA application as the delivery method and injected it into Carter Page. The FBI already knew Carter Page; essentially Carter Page was irrelevant, what they needed was the FISA warrant and the Dossier in the system.

Trump Tower sting operation

On May 12, 2016 Prevezon Holdings settled with the Obama administration for $6 million in a Russia money-laundering suit. Russian attorney representing clients in the suit, Natalie Veselnitskaya, remained in US to lobby for repeal of the Magnitsky Act, or Russian sanctions bill. The clients Veselnitskaya represented are on the Russia sanctions list. Veselnitskaya was hired by FusionGPS and engaged in illegal lobbying for repeal of the Magnitsky Act. Neither Veselnitskaya, nor FusionGPS, registered as Russian agents under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Veselnitskaya was initially denied entry into the United States, only to be granted special immigration parole status under "extraordinary circumstances" by Obama's Homeland Security Department and approved by former AG Loretta Lynch so that Veselnitskaya could represent FusionGPS client Denis Katsyv's company, Prevezon Holdings. Veselnitskaya overstayed her immigration parole status so that she could attend the meeting arranged by Fusion GPS associate Rob Goldstone at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr.

Simpson's Russian lobbying work involved passing stories to his deep network of journalism contacts in order to undermine the Magnitsky Act. Bill Browder, a London banker whom the Russians cheated out of $350 million, confirmed FusionGPS was paid by Russia through the Katsyv family. The Katsyv family is headed by Pyotr Katsyv, Vice President of ‘Russian Railways’, a huge Russian transportation company, in which the Russian government is the sole shareholder.[52] The Obama FBI and DOJ ignored Browder's Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) complaint.

Ike Kaveladze[53] and FusionGPS operatives Natalia Veselnitskaya,[54] and Rinat Akhmetshin[55] met with Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner on June 9.[56] Hours before the Trump Tower meeting, Simpson met with Veselnitskaya and again after.[57] Veselnitskaya told NBC News she received the information she brought to the meeting — describing alleged tax evasion and donations to Democrats — from Simpson.[58][59][60] Veselnitskaya also shared Simpson's work with Yuri Chaika, the prosecutor general of Russia. FusionGPS hired Christopher Steele to author the Steele dossier three days after the meeting.[61]

The insurance policy

In late June, after former President Bill Clinton's meeting with Attn. Gen. Loretta Lynch on the airport tarmac in Phoenix, the Justice Department sought FISA warrants to eavesdrop on Donald Trump, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, and Boris Epshteyn. The FISA court denied the initial request.[62] It is improbable that the Attorney General would act on her own against a presidential nominee of another party without consulting President Obama.[63] Simultaneously FBI agent Peter Strzok had direct contact with Christopher Steele and received a preliminary draft of the Steele dossier.[64] Former Trump campaign associate Carter Page flew to Moscow in early July to deliver the graduation commencement speech at the New Economic School, an honor President Obama held in 2009.[65] Obama agents used Carter's trip as pretext to obtain a FISA warrant on Page.[66] After whitewashing the Hillary Clinton investigation, Strzok signed the documents initiating an FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

In August Strzok's cohort, FBI/DOJ lawyer Lisa Page texted Strzok, "[Trump]'s not ever going to become president, right? Right?!" In another exchange Strzok texted,
"It’s absolutely true that we’re both very fortunate. And of course I’ll try and approach it that way. I just know it will be tough at times. I can protect our country at many levels, not sure if that helps."
The following week Strzok again sent on ominous and conspiratorial sounding text discussing a contingency being developed to link Russian meddling with allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian actors:
"I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy [McCabe]'s office that there's no way he gets elected -- but I'm afraid we can't take that risk. It's like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you're 40."[67]

On October 15, 2016 Strzok and DOJ Deputy Bruce Ohr rewrote a narrower request to the FISA court dropping Trump's name and citing only Russian banks as direct targets.[68] The Louise Mensch article asserts that a “warrant was granted to look at the full content of emails and other related documents that may concern US persons.” FISA court approved the request.[69]

CNN finally reported on April 18, 2017 that the FBI used the Steele dossier to obtain FISA warrants. And that the FBI & the Clinton campaign paid Steele to write the opposition research attacks.[70] The bogus document had been cited by FBI Dir. Comey in some of his briefings to members of Congress as one of the sources of information the bureau was relying on. The fake evidence was presented to the FISA court to win approval to surveillance on Carter Page. Page commented,
"I look forward to the Privacy Act of 1974 lawsuit that I plan to file in response to the civil rights violations by Obama administration appointees. last year. The discovery process will be of great value to the United States, as our nation hears testimony from them under oath, and we receive disclosure of the documents which show what exactly was done in 2016."
Cause of Action (CoA), a watchdog group, filed suit seeking records on the relationship between the FBI and Christopher Steele.
"According to a news report, Mr. Steele entered an agreement with the FBI a few weeks before the November 2016 election to investigate then-candidate Donald Trump while, at the same time, he was employed by an opposition research firm to collect information for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton."[71]
Americans for Limited Government president Rick Manning called for Comey's firing:
“The FBI’s incredible incompetence and outright complicity with the politicization of government spying removes the last shred of credibility that Director James Comey has and he needs to either resign or be fired. The failure to even secure and independently examine the DNC server while relying on the self-serving innuendo by the DNC’s computer consultant CrowdStrike for verification is unbelievable. But their reliance on an easily disprovable political hit piece dossier to get a FISA warrant against Carter Page, paid for by Democrat supporters of Hillary Clinton and produced by the private firm Fusion GPS, to attempt to undermine the Trump campaign in 2016 effort is inexcusable."[72]

Landmark Legal Foundation filed an Amicus brief with the FISA court.[73] Landmark submits that the Obama administration "abused the judicial process, placing the integrity of this Court and the constitutional rights of individuals at risk." Landmark asks the Court to examine:

1. Have this Court’s order or orders been used by intelligence and law enforcement entities of the federal government as a subterfuge to surveil private citizens and at least one United States Senator for political purposes?

2. Did government officials seek one or more national security surveillance warrants from this Court as a pretext to conduct an investigation for the purpose of affecting an ongoing national presidential campaign and subsequent transition of an incoming president?

3. When applying to this Court for one or more warrants in this matter, did the FBI inform this Court that it had apparently paid some of the expenses of a former British spy who prepared the dossier reportedly relied on, in whole or part, in its application to convince this Court to issue a warrant, and that it had apparently negotiated to make further payments to the former British spy, which efforts were ultimately unsuccessful?

4. When applying to this Court for one or more warrants in this matter, did the FBI inform this Court that the dossier it reportedly presented in pursuit of one or more warrants had originally been prepared by the former British spy for a Washington research firm conducting opposition research against the Republican nominee for president, candidate Donald Trump?

On May 7, 2017 Eric and Donald Trump Jr. were summoned to FBI headquarters for an emergency meeting with bureau cybersecurity agents, CIA representatives, and Dir. James Comey.[74] Comey was fired the next day and Andrew McCabe became Acting Director.[75] Despite being under no less than three Inspector General investigations into the Clinton, Russia, and FusionGPS matters, McCabe still failed to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.[76][77] A week before being ousted as Director by Christopher Wray, McCabe staged a highly publicized raid on Paul Manafort's home to seize Manafort's Senate Intelligence Committee transcript containing privileged information under attorney-client and immunity deals with Congress.[78][79] Mark Corallo, attorney for Donald Trump, Jr. revealed that FusionGPS misrepresented themselves to arrange a meeting between Donald Trump Jr, and the Russian lawyer Natalie Veselnitskaya in the Summer of 2016 in an effort to compromise the Trump organization.[80] When Comey was summoned before Congress to explain his illegal leaking after his firing,[81] it was not the President, but rather Donald Trump Jr. who sent out a tweetstorm of some 80 tweets in response to Comey's lying and contradictions.[82]

Strzok had given false and misleading information to the House Intelligence Committee's investigation into Hillary Clinton's Steele dossier shortly after the election. House Intelligence Committee investigators were contacted by a whistleblower suggesting that there was “documentary evidence” that Strzok was obstructing the House probe into the dossier.[83] The Steele dossier had been used to obtain fruit of the poisonous tree evidence against National Security Advisor Mike Flynn. In January 2017 Strzok interviewed Flynn at the White House in what appears to be an entrapment sting using the falsified FISA evidence.[84] Flynn was later convicted of misleading Strzok, although Flynn later said he merely didn't recall minor details during the questioning. By midsummer the Inspector General (IG) reported on the existence of the Strzok-Page texts deemed prejudicial to the investigation. Special Counsel Robert Mueller finally fired Strzok from the Trump-Russia investigation for his blatantly anti-Trump texts. Strzok's cohort Lisa Page was fired a month later. After Flynn's conviction on a process charge the Judge who presided over former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn's plea agreement abruptly recused himself from the sentencing phase when the FISA warrant abuses became more widely known. It was the same judge who heard the bogus FISA warrant requests based on Hillary Clinton's Steele dossier.[85]

Roger Stone noted the

Clinton-Obama FBI and NSA apparatchiks who:

1) Politically weaponized the federal government’s electronic intelligence capabilities to spy on a presidential candidate and his campaign,

2) Colluded with foreign and non-state intelligence agents to manufacture evidence used as false pretexts for securing FISA warrants(s) that employed the national security laws of the United States to give illicit, illegal cover to this political espionage,

3) Used the fruits of this political espionage activity to damage or otherwise hinder this candidate once they had become president-elect and eventually President of the United States through surreptitious releases of the criminally-procured information,

4) Fabricated and instigated false allegations about foreign state collusion implicating the president’s election campaign and family members, and

5) Perpetuated this massive criminal fraud on the American people for nearly a full year by manipulating and abusing the investigatory and prosecutorial powers of the Department of Justice.[86]

Steele dossier

Main article: Steele dossier

In April 2016 The Washington Free Beacon dropped FusionGPS whom they hired to do opposition research on Donald Trump.[87][88][89] Attn. Mark E. Elias of Perkins Coie hired FusionGPS to continue the research on behalf of their clients, the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee two weeks later.[90][91]

In early June 2016 FusionGPS hired Christopher Steele to begin working on the Steele dossier.[92] On June 9, 2016 Rinat Akhmetshin[93] and Natalia Veselnitskaya,[94] in the employ of FusionGPS, and Ike Kaveladze,[95] met with Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner at Trump Tower.[96] On June 20, 2016 Christopher Steele filed his first report entitled Company Intelligence Report.[97] Peter Strzok of the FBI Counterintelligence Division exchanged information with Steele days later.[98]

Throughout July, August and September 2016, FusionGPS paid journalists from the New York Times, Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post, ABC News, Ken Dilanian of NBC News, David Corn of Mother Jones, Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News and others to listen to Christopher Steele and shop the Steele dossier narrative for mainstream publication. Court papers confirm payments.[99] In August Christopher Steele went to Sir Andrew Wood to ask him to act as a go-between to reach Sen. John McCain, to try to give his fake dossier credibility.[100]

Although the Obama administration illegally kept secret from Congressional oversight the FBI's surveillance of Trump and the Trump organization, on September 23, 2016 the first fake news story from the joint Obama FBI/FusionGPS operation appeared in the mainstream media. A story in Yahoo! News by Michael Isikoff about an FBI briefing for Congress sourced to the FBI and not Hillary Clinton's opposition researchers at FusionGPS or Christopher Steele was based on the contents of the Steele dossier.[101] Strzok offered to pay Steele to continue work on the fake dossier.

On October 31, 2016 New York Times published a story with the headline, Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link To Russia;[102] The Clinton campaign fell into a tailspin as the FBI reopened the Clinton email investigation over reports classified emails were found on Anthony Weiner's computer. The same day the Times article appeared DNC operative David Corn of Mother Jones magazine reported Steele's fake news allegations under the headline,[103] A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump: Has the bureau investigated this material?.

January 10, 2016 Obama and the CIA leaked the phony Steele dossier to CNN & BuzzFeed who jointly made it available to the public. Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, who with the DNC paid for the dossier, secretly met with Simpson.[104] The dossier alleges Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. Steele personally was paid $168,000 to write the phony dossier.

In November 2017 it was reported that Hillary Clinton was again in talks with Christopher Steele to create second dossier of alleged Trump affairs.[105]

By December outrage of the Obama FBI abuses was omnipresent; in seven hours of testimony before House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) Dep. Dir. Andrew McCabe made statements that contradicted evidence, and was unable to provide any substantive examples of verified allegations in the Steele dossier. When pushed for examples of what was verified in the anti-Trump dossier, McCabe was only able to cite the fact that Trump campaign advisor Carter Page traveled to Moscow — McCabe could not verify anything about the meetings that Page supposedly had. McCabe claimed he could not recall — despite documents with McCabe's own signature on them establishing the fact of his knowledge of the dossier's financing and provenance.[106][107]

FBI Chief Counselor James Baker was fired two hours after McCabe's testimony.[108] Associate Dep. Attn. Gen. Bruce Ohr was demoted, and there were calls for McCabe's firing.[109] Ohr withheld from his boss, Rod Rosenstein, his secret meetings with Steele and Simpson, and the fact his wife Nellie Ohr helped author the phony dossier.[110] The House Committees began investigating possible criminal activity among Obama holdovers in DOJ & FBI.[111]

Rep. Jim Jordan said
"We know, for a fact, the Clinton campaign paid Russians to influence the election...Most of Mueller’s team is anti-Trump. We know that. What concerns me is the intent to carry out a plan to disrupt the election. Because as Mr. Strzok said, we can’t afford to leave this in we the people’s hands....I’m convinced now the FBI actively seeking with intent, actively trying to stop Donald Trump from being president of the United States. Everything points to the fact that there was an orchestrated plan to try to prevent Donald Trump from being the next president of the United States."[112]

Rep. Andy Biggs in USA Today Op-ed called for an end of the Mueller witch-hunt,[113] and Sen. Rand Paul called for an investigation of Obama officials who tried to prevent the election of Donald Trump.[114]

See also

References

  1. the Katsyv family is headed by Pyotr Katsyv, Vice President of ‘Russian Railways’, a huge Russian transportation company in which the Russian government is the sole shareholder. https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/checking-facts-there-evidence-fusion-gps-was-paid-russia-while-compiling-trump
  2. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2018/08/13/trump_tower_meeting_looks_increasingly_like_a_setup.html
  3. Fusion GPS tried to tie Trump to Clinton's pedophile pal Epstein as part of smear campaign, By Rowan Scarborough, The Washington Times, December 10, 2017.
  4. http://www.fusiongps.com
  5. https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304203604577397031654422966
  6. https://www.nationalreview.com/article/423246/planned-parenthoods-fusion-inc-videos-review
  7. https://dailycaller.com/2017/11/21/unsealed-fusion-gps-bank-records-show-russia-related-payments/?utm_source=site-share
  8. https://www.politico.com/tipsheets/politico-influence/2016/12/fara-complaint-alleges-pro-russian-lobbying-217776
  9. https://dailycaller.com/2017/01/13/exclusive-oppo-researcher-behind-trump-dossier-is-linked-to-pro-kremlin-lobbying-effort/
  10. ... Magnitsky, who helped Browder investigate many of the corrupt Russian firms, was arrested in Nov. 2008 and accused of engaging in fraud and tax evasion. Magnitsky was tortured for months in a Russian prison and deprived of medical treatment, all in order to elicit a false confession that he and Browder were engaged in fraud and tax evasion, Browder has alleged. After Magnitsky’s health deteriorated, he was transferred to another jail. There, the lawyer was allegedly beaten with blunt objects by prison guards. He died on Nov. 16, 2009 at the age of 37. Soon after his friend’s murder, Browder began lobbying American lawmakers — Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin and Arizona Sen. John McCain, in particular — to pass a law that would provide a mechanism to punish Kremlin-linked Russian criminals. https://dailycaller.com/2017/01/16/think-tank-appears-to-cut-ties-with-oppo-researcher-behind-trump-dossier/#ixzz4d5c0xHTC
  11. http://www.wbur.org/npr/561768006/book-reveals-clinton-campaign-effectively-controlled-dnc-as-early-as-2015
  12. Confessore, Scott Shane, Nicholas; Rosenberg, Matthew (11 January 2017). "How a Sensational, Unverified Dossier Became a Crisis for Donald Trump". The New York Times.
  13. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/clinton-campaign-dnc-paid-for-research-that-led-to-russia-dossier/2017/10/24/226fabf0-b8e4-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?utm_term=.10bece00087f
  14. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/how-the-explosive-russian-dossier-was-compiled-christopher-steele
  15. Open Source Works is described as "CIA's in-house open source analysis component, devoted to intelligence analysis of unclassified, open source information." The directive itself that established Open Source Works is classified, as is the charter of the organization. CIA says the existence of any such records is a classified fact. “The CIA can neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence of records responsive to your request,” wrote Susan Viscuso, CIA Information and Privacy Coordinator, in a November 29 response to a Freedom of Information Act request from Jeffrey Richelson of the National Security Archive for the Open Source Works directive and charter.
    "The fact of the existence or nonexistence of requested records is currently and properly classified and is intelligence sources and methods information that is protected from disclosure,” Dr. Viscuso wrote. This is a surprising development since Open Source Works — by definition — does not engage in clandestine collection of intelligence. Rather, it performs analysis based on unclassified, open source materials. -FAS
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-12/mccabe-cancels-testimony-something-far-more-sinister-fusion-gps
  16. http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/LicArchive/license.jsp?archive=Y&licKey=12382876
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  20. https://www.wsj.com/articles/lifting-the-steele-curtain-1510274070
  21. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/fusion-gps-paid-journalists-court-papers-confirm/article/2641454
  22. https://goodlatte.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=939
  23. http://www.dailywire.com/news/22445/firm-connected-russia-and-democrats-made-trump-ryan-saavedra
  24. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/clinton-campaign-dnc-paid-for-research-that-led-to-russia-dossier/2017/10/24/226fabf0-b8e4-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?utm_term=.458088f4d37c
  25. https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/10/24/clinton-campaign-dnc-paid-for-research-that-led-russia-dossier/WfYqXZf9lvbL5ujqnpp2FJ/story.html
  26. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/10/25/the-clinton-camp-and-the-dnc-helped-pay-for-that-trump-russia-dossier-heres-what-it-means/?utm_term=.44ba2d3fe34b
  27. http://www.independentsentinel.com/john-podesta-appears-to-have-lied-to-the-senate-intel-committee-its-illegal/
  28. https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/26/politics/john-podesta-debbie-wasserman-schultz-trump-dossier/index.html
  29. http://ntknetwork.com/panetta-intelligence-committee-needs-to-look-into-clintondnc-dossier-payment/
  30. https://dailycaller.com/2017/10/28/cnns-undisclosed-ties-to-fusion-gps/
  31. http://nypost.com/2017/10/26/how-team-hillary-played-the-press-for-fools-on-russia/
  32. https://thefederalist.com/2017/10/29/obamas-campaign-gave-972000-law-firm-funneled-money-fusion-gps/
  33. http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/document/fec-complaint-hillary-america-dnc-failure-disclose
  34. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/nov/5/journalist-pay-questioned-in-russian-dossier-court/
  35. https://web.archive.org/web/20171117203451/https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/democratic-mega-donor-mostyn-dies-amid-mental-health-51199029
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  43. http://nypost.com/2017/11/05/graham-calls-for-special-counsel-to-prove-clinton-on-russia-ties/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow&sr_share=twitter
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  47. https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/11/15/rep-mark-meadows-special-counsel-must-investigate-russia-dossier-explain-why-obamas-fbi-was-involved.html
  48. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/yes-the-clintons-should-be-investigated/2017/11/19/d88bb652-cb15-11e7-b0cf-7689a9f2d84e_story.html?utm_term=.f31ee84c1d43
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  56. https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/complaint-firm-behind-dossier-former-russian-intel-officer-joined-lobbying-effort
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  58. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/11/07/fusion-gps-official-met-with-russian-operative-before-and-after-trump-jr-sit-down.html
  59. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-dossier-firm-also-supplied-info-used-meeting-russians-trump-n819526
  60. https://pjmedia.com/trending/honeypot-confirmed-russian-lawyer-met-with-fusion-gps-before-and-after-meeting-with-trump-camp/
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  66. https://sharylattkisson.com/when-incidental-intel-collection-isnt-incidental/
  67. https://www.dailywire.com/news/24643/one-insane-text-message-may-have-just-fatally-ben-shapiro
  68. https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2017/03/04/summary-of-media-articles-discussing-obamas-fisa-warrants-to-monitor-candidatepresident-trump/
  69. https://heatst.com/world/exclusive-fbi-granted-fisa-warrant-covering-trump-camps-ties-to-russia/
  70. https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/politics/fbi-dossier-carter-page-donald-trump-russia-investigation/index.html
  71. https://causeofaction.org/coa-institute-sues-records-potential-fbi-payment-democratic-opposition-researcher-compiled-infamous-trump-dossier/
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  73. https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-morris/levin-landmark-legal-foundation-filed-memo-asking-secret-court-investigate
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  76. https://www.circa.com/story/2017/06/28/fbi-chief-mccabe-faces-three-separate-federal-inquiries-into-his-behavior
  77. http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/new-fbi-director-mccabe-compromised-by-serious-conflict-941110851569
  78. https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/05/politics/russia-mueller-hill/index.html
  79. http://heavy.com/news/2017/08/trump-manafort-raid-fbi-director-mccabe-tweets-fired-removed/
  80. https://www.circa.com/story/2017/07/08/donald-trump-jr-met-with-russian-lawyer-during-election-but-didnt-follow-up
  81. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3860979-Untitleddocument.html
  82. https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-80-tweets-comey-2017-6
  83. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/12/texts-between-ex-mueller-team-members-emerge-calling-trump-loathsome-human-idiot.html
  84. https://www.hannity.com/content/2017-12-04-exclusive-fbi-supervisor-booted-from-mueller-probe-interviewed-mike-flynn/
  85. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-flynn/judge-presiding-over-michael-flynn-criminal-case-is-recused-court-idUSKBN1E202V
  86. https://stonecoldtruth.com/confirmed-clinton-operatives-in-fbi-manufactured-russiagate/
  87. 'none of the work product that the Free Beacon received appears in the Steele dossier. The Free Beacon had no knowledge of or connection to the Steele dossier, did not pay for the dossier, and never had contact with, knowledge of, or provided payment for any work performed by Christopher Steele. Nor did we have any knowledge of the relationship between Fusion GPS and the Democratic National Committee, Perkins Coie, and the Clinton campaign.
  88. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-free-beacon-responds-to-report-it-funded-fusion-gps-anti-trump-opposition-effort/article/2638855
  89. http://truepundit.com/new-evidence-shows-mccain-helped-fund-fbi-plot-to-frame-trump-backed-bogus-russian-trump-dossier/
  90. Confessore, Scott Shane, Nicholas; Rosenberg, Matthew (11 January 2017). "How a Sensational, Unverified Dossier Became a Crisis for Donald Trump". The New York Times.
  91. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/clinton-campaign-dnc-paid-for-research-that-led-to-russia-dossier/2017/10/24/226fabf0-b8e4-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?utm_term=.10bece00087f
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  93. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rinat-akhmetshin-who-russian-lobbyist-who-met-trump-team-n783161
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  96. https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/complaint-firm-behind-dossier-former-russian-intel-officer-joined-lobbying-effort
  97. The report consisted solely if the infamous 'pep-pee' memo. https://thefederalist.com/2018/01/10/10-takeaways-from-glenn-simpsons-fusion-gps-senate-testimony/
  98. https://www.wsj.com/articles/lifting-the-steele-curtain-1510274070
  99. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/fusion-gps-paid-journalists-court-papers-confirm/article/2641454
  100. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/11/inside-trump-dossier-handoff-mccains-go-between-speaks-out.html
  101. https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-s-intel-officials-probe-ties-between-trump-adviser-and-kremlin-175046002.html
  102. later FBI Director. James Comey, the name entrusted to investigate government leaks, admits to being an anonymous source for the New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/us/politics/fbi-russia-election-donald-trump.html
  103. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3571705/posts
  104. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/us/politics/john-tony-podesta-mueller-russia-investigation.html?mtrref=t.co
  105. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5056421/Hillary-Clinton-talks-buy-SECOND-dossier-Trump.html
  106. https://www.dailywire.com/news/24938/report-mccabe-contradicts-himself-testimony-unable-ryan-saavedra
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  108. http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-22/fbi-fires-suspected-leaker-and-comey-ally-james-baker
  109. https://www.populistwire.com/politics/top-republican-senator-grassely-wants-mcgabe-replaced-after-fbi-trail-of-corruption-comes-to-fruition/
  110. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/20/mccabe-draws-blank-on-democrats-funding-trump-dossier-new-subpoenas-planned.html
  111. https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/20/house-republicans-quietly-investigate-doj-fbi-310121?lo=ap_f1
  112. https://www.toddstarnes.com/show/rep-jim-jordan-im-convinced-fbi-tried-stop-trump-president/
  113. https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/12/26/mueller-end-witch-hunt-andy-biggs-editorials-debates/108932714/
  114. https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/943852014055944192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fallenwestrepublic.com%2Fsenator-calls-for-investigation-on-barack-obama%2F