Democrat Likely Links to Fusion GPS Has Turned the Russia Collusion Story Back on Them

Sorry, dear readers, tonight I have to post early. If you haven't read yesterday's post, just spool down to it. • • • TODAY'S TRUTH IS THAT FUSION GPS AND THE DEMOCRATS SEEM TO BE THE REAL RUSSIAN COLLUDERS. After more than a year of daily / hourly Democrat and mainstream media bashing of President Trump and his team and family about their supposed "collusion" with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton, it now appears that it was the Democrats all along who were "colluding" with Russia to defeat Donald Trump. • • • VESELNITSKAYA'S MEETING WITH DONALD TRUMP JR. ZeroHedge reported last Friday that "a few weeks ago we wrote a post entitled 'How Hermitage Capital, Ziff Brothers and The Clinton Global Initiative Prompted the Trump Jr. Meeting.' " According to ZeroHedge, there is a long-standing feud between the founder of Hermitage Capital, William Browder, and the now infamous Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who met with Trump Jr. last summer. Browder, on the one hand, lobbied in favor of the Magnitsky Act after being expelled from Russia under controversial circumstances -- the Moscow-based accountant serving as hedge fund manager Browder's tax attorney allegedly uncovered a $230 million tax-refund ripoff being looted by Russian agents from the Russian government, refused to back down on the finding and was subsequently arrested, beaten, and murdered in a Russian prison; his death was the basis for the sanctions on Russian thugs enacted through the Magnitsky Act -- while Veselnitskaya has made it her mission to repeal the Magnitsky Act. • So, ZeroHedge says that when Democrats decided to have Browder testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, they undoubtedly expected Browder, an anti-Russian witness, to confirm what had been front page news in the US for over a year : "that Russian intelligence was behind the Summer 2016 meeting between Veselnitskaya and Trump Jr. and that the meeting really had nothing to do with the Magnitsky Act but rather was a carefully-plotted, nefarious attempt to collude with the Trump campaign to steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton." • The Democrats got a big surprise and have been shocked into silence. Browder failed to deliver for them. Instead, Browder delivered the exact opposite message from what the Democrats had hoped for -- he confirmed that the Trump Jr. meeting was entirely linked to Veselnitskaya's mission of repealing the Magnitsky Act. That isn't terribly shocking news, BUT, Browder offered an even more interesting piece of information, one that has been completely ignored by the mainstream media, and it casts the entire Democrat structure of the Trump / Ruissia collusion story into outer darkness. Browder confirmed that Fusion GPS, now known as the infamous firm behind the 'Trump Dossier,' was actually being paid by -- the Russians !!! • Here is the relevant exchange between Senator Lindsey Graham and William Browder, as published by ZeroHedge : "GRAHAM : You believe that Fusion GPS should of registered under FARA, because they were acting on the behalf of the Russians? BROWDER : That’s correct. GRAHAM : So, I just want to absorb that for a moment. The group that did the dossier on President Trump hired this British spy, wound up getting it to the FBI. You believe they were working for the Russians? BROWDER : And in the Spring and Summer of 2016 they were receiving money indirectly from a senior Russian government official. GRAHAM : Okay. So, these are the people that were trying to undermine Donald Trump by showing the nefarious ties to Russia. Is that what you’re saying? BROWDER : Well, what I’m saying with 100% certainty is that they were working to undermine the Magnitsky Act and the timing of that. GRAHAM : But, the Fusion GPS produced apparently, as they hired a guy to look into Trump? BROWDER : Yes. GRAHAM : Right. BROWDER : Correct." • ZeroHedge summarizes : "it does seem weird that if your sole mission in life is to 'collude' with the Trump administration to defeat Hillary Clinton that you would simultaneously fund research intended to undermine the Trump campaign and then share that information with the FBI." • Excellent point. • • • KELLYANNE CONWAY SPEAKS OUT ON RUSSIA. Christian Post contributor Anugrah Kumar wrote on Monday that Kellyanne Conway, senior advisor to President Trump, appearing on Fox News Sunday, said that while media was obsessed with the "ridiculous Russian collusion delusion" about the 2016 presidential election, they should have looked at the left-wing firm Fusion GPS, which is allegedly responsible for the Trump-Russia dossier, which is full of "falsities and lies." Kellyanne, who never minces words, told Fox : "Look what's happened with this ridiculous Russian collusion delusion. You see all these journalists who built entire TV sets and lower thirds and screaming graphics and breathless coverage now slinking away this week...from Russian collusion coverage, why, because you have everybody from Jared Kushner giving his -- meeting with the Senate and giving his public statement....We were promised the next Watergate. We don't even have water polo. We don't even have watermelon. It's so ridiculous and the only thing I can see happening with Russia right now is this Fusion GPS matter....Somebody's being paid by the Russians to compile a damaging dossier on Donald Trump, again, filled with falsities and lies." • Kellyanne was referring to the dossier revealed in January that was allegedly commissioned by the Hillary Clinton-backed firm Fusion GPS and paid for by a large contributor to the Hillary campaign. The dossier was an unverified intelligence dossier with salacious allegations about Trump, and it was referenced by James Comey when he testified before the Senate Intelligence Committtee this summer as the reason he began the Trump / Russia collusion investigation. The unverified dossier is seen by most experts as a fake document full of lies. • • • FUSION GPS AND RUSSIA. In her Wall Street Journal column that we discussed in Monday's blog, Kim Strassel points out that "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 [Trump Dossier] memos, based on allegations from unnamed Kremlin insiders and other Russians. Many of the claims sound eerily similar to the sort of 'oppo' [former Soviet counterintelligence officer] [Rinat] Akhmetshin peddled. [Akhmetshin attended the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump, Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner.]" • Strassel notes that Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson "is tight with Democrats. His current attorney, Joshua Levy, used to work in Congress as counsel to no less than Chuck Schumer," according to Strassel. • In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Heritage Capital founder Bill Browder's prepared remarks said : "Veselnitskaya, through [US law firm] Baker Hostetler, hired Glenn Simpson of the firm Fusion GPS to conduct a smear campaign against me and Sergei Magnitsky in advance of congressional hearings on the Global Magnitsky Act. He contacted a number of major newspapers and other publications to spread false information that Sergei Magnitsky was not murdered, was not a whistle-blower, and was instead a criminal. They also spread false information that my presentations to lawmakers around the world were untrue. As part of Veselnitskaya's lobbying, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, Chris Cooper of the Potomac Group, was hired to organize the Washington, DC-based premiere of a fake documentary about Sergei Magnitsky and myself. This was one the best examples of Putin's propaganda." • When the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier asked Fusion GPS to provide records about the financing of the dossier, it refused to cooperate, according to the New York Post. • In a statement to the New York Times, Trump Jr. said he had met the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which his father took to Moscow. Here is Donald Trump Jr's account : "After pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Mrs. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information." He added that the lawyer's real intent appeared to be adoption of Russian children and the Magnitsky Act in the US, which blacklists suspected Russian human rights abusers, adding : "It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting." • The Daily Beast wrote last week that a surprising news report "in the sprawling, surging octopus of the Russiagate investigation have reintroduced the probability that we are much closer to the beginning than to the end of the scandal....on Friday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein of California demonstrated their impatience with Glenn Simpson, founder of the opposition research company Fusion GPS : 'Glenn Simpson, through his attorney, has declined to voluntarily attend Wednesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing regarding compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Therefore, a subpoena has been issued to compel his attendance. Simpson’s attorney has asserted that his client will invoke his Fifth Amendment rights in response to the subpoena.' What is it that Simpson knows about that he has decided to take the risk of becoming a target of major voices of both the Republican and Democratic parties?" The Daily Beast says Fusion GPS looms as a crossroads in the inquiry into Russian meddling, adding one new bit of information : "In 2013, well-connected Russian citizen Denis Katsyv turned to his attorney, Veselnitskaya, in order to refute money-laundering charges brought by then-US Attorney Preet Bharara. Veselnitskaya, not licensed in the United States, hired American law firm BakerHostetler. BakerHostetler hired Fusion GPS to develop information to help defend Katsyv and his enterprise, Prevezon Holdings. The entanglement also included Fusion GPS investigating information about principals in the Magnitsky Act of 2012. The now controversial meeting in June 2016 at Trump Tower, including Donald Trump Jr. and Veselnitskaya, is said to have turned on a discussion of the Magnitsky Act. There is new information that Veselnitskaya has in the past represented the Russian intelligence service FSB." All the Russiagate elements are unlikely to be explained in the near future, but says the Daily Beast : "it would be a satisfying start just to have clarity about the striking role played by Fusion GPS in the 2016 election." • • • FUSION GPS AND VENEZUELA. American Thinker wrote on Friday that Fusion GPS is deeply in bed with Venezuelan Chavista thugs. Monica Showalter asks in the article : "Was Fusion GPS or its sleazy Venezuelan client, Derwick Associates, behind the thuggish break-in into the apartment of blogger Alek Boyd? It's a question that should be asked, given the other activities coming to light in congressional testimony about this opposition research firm, run by two leftist former reporters from the Wall Street Journal named Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch. Testimony has revealed that this pair, in addition to being behind the 'golden showers' fake dossier on President Trump, were also paid by boliburguesa oligarchs made rich by their affiliation with the Venezuelan government [and] known as Derwick Associates. The latter have been accused in sworn testimony of absolutely filthy opposition research tactics that steps over the line of both ethics and probably the law. They tried to stop Human Rights Foundation President Thor Halvorssen (born in Venezuela but of Norwegian descent) from exposing Derwick, according to his testimony this week, and then tried to falsely smear him as a pervert and criminal. They also threatened Wall Street Journal reporter Jose de Cordoba and got him to stop reporting on the multi-billion-dollar thievery of Derwick....Alek Boyd in his blogging has reported that UK's intelligence service, MI-6, got the London cops to stop investigating his case of clear political violence -- it was a break-in at his London apartment in 2012 with clear threats to his children. That raises questions about Fusion's murky ties to MI-6, which had an ex-agent cook up the phony Trump file on "golden showers." Is MI-6 compromised? It sure looks like a pattern." • Those are several very interesting questions from Showalter. Showalter also says that when she was at American Media Institute, her editor didn't want to touch any story about Fusion GPS's ties to Chavista thugs because he knew how tangled and sleazy it was going to be, as well as becoming a huge drain on resources. So, Showalter has written small articless about Fusion GPS and Venezuela -- BUT, Showalter says that "a Google search will only turn up Berwick references, not Derwick ones under a search of my name. I am very suspicious of my inablity to find any of my past pieces on this issue to link." • Showalter says Fusion GPS is also 'behind the smearing of Sergio Magnitsky, who was William Browder's Moscow tax attorney. • And, according to Showalter, Fusion GPS was behind the counter-smear attempts put on by Planned Parenthood after activists caught them red-handed on film trying to sell baby parts, and was behind the digging in the trash cans of Mitt Romney 2012 campaign donor Frank VanderSloot of Idaho, and attempting to smear him. • If Showalter is right about even a part of this, we can only hope that Senator Grassley will persist until he gets to the bottom of the numerous allegations about Fusion GPS. If these kinds of activities are proven, Fusion GPS lives in the deepest part of the Swamp and should be sought out and eliminated by the FBI and the Justice Department after Senator Grassley provides the background material. • • • DEAR READERS, the Democrats must be in a real state of shock over Fusion GPS -- the Daily Caller last week wrote an article about Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley "blasting Democrats" for shutting down a Committee hearing focused on Russian meddling in the 2016 election, particularly on the opposition research firm behind the infamous Trump dossier, Fusion GPS. The Daily Caller explains that by deploying the Senate’s two hour rule, the Democrats can keep committee meetings from happening beyond the first two hours of the upper chamber’s work day. Senator Grassley was not pleased : "Over the last few weeks, my Democrat colleagues have delayed and blocked Judiciary Committee hearings, shuttered a national security briefing and now cut off a hearing about interference in our political system by agents working for foreign powers.” The hearing was expected to include as witnesses Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Hinckley, Assistant Director of the FBI Counter Intelligence Division E.W. “Bill” Priestap, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, CEO of Hermitage Capital Management Mr. William Browder. This was the third time the hearing was rescheduled because of the Democrats’ procedural blocking. Grassley said : “I don’t know if the minority is intentionally trying to block testimony that may be critical of a firm behind the unverified Trump dossier, but I’ll bet two bits that had Paul Manafort or Donald Trump, Jr. appeared at today’s hearing, it would not have been prematurely shut down. The Democrat leadership is playing politics, plain and simple. But our national security and our democratic systems are no game. So we will reconvene tomorrow to get more of the information we need.” • Republican Senator Lindsey Graham isn't too happy, either. After his questioning of Bill Browder, Graham tweeted : "What we learned today is that the Russians were behind the organization that tried to get dirt on Trump." • And it doesn't stop there. Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, whose Russia-connected firm produced the Trump dossier, was asked to testify in front of the Committee last week but allegedly refused to appear unless the Committee promised not to ask the question about who paid for the Trump dossier. He has since agreed to a transcribed interview. Chairman Chuck Grassley and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein released a joint statement : “Last week, we subpoenaed Mr. Simpson after he initially declined to voluntarily cooperate with the Committee’s request for information and asserted that he would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights at a public hearing. However, since that time, Mr. Simpson, through his attorney, has agreed to provide a transcribed interview and requested that the subpoena compelling his attendance at Wednesday’s hearing be waived. We’ve reached an agreement on this request and have withdrawn the subpoena. As with other witnesses who have agreed to provide interviews, this agreement does not constitute a waiver of Mr. Simpson’s rights nor prejudice the committee’s right to compel his testimony in the future. Our goal remains obtaining substantive information from witnesses to advance our oversight work and get answers the American people deserve." • It should be noted that transcribed testimony is usually done around pre-submitted questions and leaves very little room for follow-up questions. • President Trump has weighed in on the Fusion GPS matter using Twitter : "One of the things that has been lost in the politics of this situation is that the Russians collected and spread negative information.....about then candidate Trump....So why doesn't Fake News report this? Witch Hunt! Purposely phony reporting." • As Senator Grassley says, this is not a game. It is about the integrity of America's security systems and election processes. The Democrats can run, but they can't hide from Fusion GPS. Finally, America's constitutional procedures will uncover the Russia / Democrat collusion, if these allegations are true. • And, while we heap deserved scorn on those Republicans in Congress whose goal seems to be to get rid of President Trump because the Swamp has always been easy pickings for them, we should remember that there are honorable House members and Senators like Chuck Grassley, who love America and work hard every day to serve and protect the Republic and her Constitution.