Tag Archives: Fusion GPS

Indicted Clinton lawyer hired CrowdStrike, firm behind dubious Russian hacking claim, by Aaron Maté

Posted on October 20, 2021 | Leave a comment

Nobody has investigated the dark nooks and crannies of the Russiagate story more thoroughly than Aaron Maté. From Maté at mate.substack.com:

The indictment of Michael Sussmann raises new questions about Russiagate’s foundational Russian hacking allegation. That claim originates with CrowdStrike — a firm hired and overseen by Sussmann.

CrowdStrike’s May 2016 contract with Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann

The indictment of Hillary Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann for allegedly lying to the FBI sheds new light on the pivotal role of Democratic operatives in the Russiagate affair. The emerging picture shows Sussmann and his Perkins Coie colleague Marc Elias, the chief counsel for Clinton’s 2016 campaign, proceeding on parallel, coordinated tracks to solicit and spread disinformation tying Donald Trump to the Kremlin.

In a detailed charging document last month, Special Counsel John Durham accused Sussmann of concealing his work for the Clinton campaign while trying to sell the FBI on the false claim of a secret Trump backchannel to Russia’s Alfa Bank.

But Sussmann’s alleged false statement to the FBI in September 2016 wasn’t all. Just months before, he helped generate an even more consequential Russia allegation that he also brought to the FBI. In April of that year, Sussmann hired CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm that publicly triggered the Russiagate saga by lodging the still unproven claim that Russia was behind the hack of Democratic National Committee emails released by WikiLeaks.

At the time, CrowdStrike was not the only Clinton campaign contractor focusing on Russia. Just days before Sussmann hired CrowdStrike in April, his partner Elias retained the opposition research firm Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Trump and the Kremlin.

These two Clinton campaign contractors, working directly for two Clinton campaign attorneys, would go on to play highly consequential roles in the ensuing multi-year Russia investigation.

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FISA Report Reveals Clinton Meddled In 2016 Election, by Tyler Durden

Posted on December 10, 2019 | 3 comments

For some reason all the underhanded things Hillary Clinton did during the 2016 election are above reproach or investigation. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

If Russia spending $100,000 on Facebook ads constitutes election interference, and Donald Trump asking Ukraine to investigate the Bidens is too – then Hillary Clinton takes the cake when it comes to influence campaigns designed to harm a political opponent.

Contained within Monday’s FISA report by the DOJ Inspector General is the revelation that Fusion GPS, the firm paid by the Clinton campaign to produce the Steele dossier, “was paying Steele to discuss his reporting with the media.” (P. 369 and elsewhere)

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The Russian collusion hoax meets unbelievable end, by Rep. Devin Nunes

Posted on April 6, 2019 | Leave a comment

It’s time to put the shoe on the other foot. From Representative Devin Nunes at washingtonexaminer.com:

As the Russia collusion hoax hurtles toward its demise, it’s important to consider how this destructive information operation rampaged through vital American institutions for more than two years, and what can be done to stop such a damaging episode from recurring.

While the hoax was fueled by a wide array of false accusations, misleading leaks of ostensibly classified information, and bad-faith investigative actions by government officials, one vital element was indispensable to the overall operation: the Steele dossier.

Funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democrat National Committee, which hid their payments from disclosure by funneling them through the law firm Perkins Coie, the dossier was a collection of false and often absurd accusations of collusion between Trump associates and Russian officials. These allegations, which relied heavily on Russian sources cultivated by Christopher Steele, were spoon-fed to Trump opponents in the U.S. government, including officials in law enforcement and intelligence.

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“Everybody Knew” WSJ Exposes Bruce Ohr’s Shocking Admission To The FBI, by Tyler Durden

Posted on January 19, 2019 | 1 comment

Well before the infamous FISA warrant, the FBI knew the Christopher Steele was  an unreliable source and that his dossier on Trump was paid for by the Clinton campaign. The tissue of lies is falling apart. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

The Wall Street Journal continues to counter  the  liberal mainstream media’s Trump Derangement Syndrome, dropping uncomfortable truth-bombs and refusing to back off its intense pressure to get to the truth and hold those responsible, accountable (in a forum that is hard for the establishment to shrug off as ‘Alt-Right’ or ‘Nazi’ or be ‘punished’ by search- and social-media-giants).

And once again Kimberley Strassel  – who by now has become the focus of social media attacks for her truth-seeking reporting – does it again. Confirming what we detailed yesterday – that The Justice Department was fully aware that the notorious Steele Dossier was connected to Hillary Clinton and might be biased, a crucial detail which was omitted just weeks later from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant used to spy on the Trump campaign – Strassel makes the aggressive and correct statement that the Justice Department official’s testimony raises new doubts about the bureau’s honesty.

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Seven Days in September, by Joe Lauria

Posted on October 3, 2018 | Leave a comment

The Deep State has tried to depose a duly elected president on totally specious grounds. None dare call it treason. From Joe Lauria at consortiumnews.com:

A new book, an anonymous Op-Ed and an Obama speech in the first seven days of September appeared to reveal dangerous insider moves against a dangerous, but constitutionally elected president, writes Joe Lauria.

In the first seven days of September efforts to manage and perhaps oust a constitutionally elected president were stunningly made public,  raising complex questions about America’s vaunted democratic system.

What unfolded appears reminiscent of the novel and film Seven Days in May: the story of an attempted military coup against a U.S. president who sought better relations with Russia. The fictional president was based on the real one, John F. Kennedy, who opened the White House in 1963 to director John Frankenheimer to film the only scenes of a Hollywood movie ever made there.

Kennedy was well aware of the Pentagon brass’ political fury after his refusal to proceed with a full-scale assault against Cuba in the Bay of Pigs operation. It was compounded by his desire for detente with Moscow after the Cuban Missile Crisis, which Kennedy expressed forcefully in his seminal American University address, five months before his death.

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Judge Forces Fusion GPS To Disclose Murky Details Behind Steele Dossier, by Tyler Durden

Posted on July 27, 2018 | Leave a comment

It will be interesting to see what Fusion GPS principals have to say about the Steele dossier in a deposition, under oath. Their disclosures, judging by how hard they’ve fought to keep quiet, will come none too willingly. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Opposition research firm Fusion GPS was dealt a major blow on Tuesday when the a federal judge in a lawsuit against BuzzFeed ordered them to answer a wide-ranging series of questions on the infamous Steele dossier, reports the Daily Caller‘s Chuck Ross.

U.S. District Court Judge Ursula Ungaro issued the decision Tuesday in a defamation lawsuit a Russian tech executive filed against BuzzFeed News, which published the dossier on Jan. 10, 2017.

The trial is scheduled to begin in Miami in November.

Ungaro ruled that attorneys for the executive, Aleksej Gubarev, can ask Fusion GPS representatives in a deposition about the firm’s dossier clients, its efforts to verify the dossier, its decision to hire dossier author Christopher Steele and its interactions with government officials and media outlets, including BuzzFeed. –Daily Caller

“This ruling gave us everything that we had hoped for,” Evan Fray-Witzer, a lawyer for Gubarev, told The Daily Caller News Foundation – adding “After a year of trying everything they could think of to avoid being deposed, Fusion is finally going to have to sit down and answer our questions.”

Aleksej Gubarev, owner of global tech firm XBT Holding – which owns Dallas-based Webzilla, is suing BuzzFeed for defamation, claiming they failed to properly investigate the dossier’s allegations before publishing the 35-page document – which include the claim that Gubarev was “recruited under duress” by Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB.

To continue reading: Judge Forces Fusion GPS To Disclose Murky Details Behind Steele Dossier

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Does Mueller Indictment Mean Clinton Campaign Can Be Indicted for Chris Steele? by Robert Barnes

Posted on February 17, 2018 | 1 comment

This article is repetitive, perhaps annoyingly so, but the author makes a very good point. From Robert Barnes at lawandcrime.com:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted foreign citizens for trying to influence the American public about an election because those citizens did not register as a foreign agent nor record their financial expenditures to the Federal Elections Commission. By that theory, when will Mueller indict Christopher Steele, FusionGPS, PerkinsCoie, the DNC and the Clinton Campaign? Mueller’s indictment against 13 Russian trolls claimed their social media political activity was criminal because: they were foreign citizens; they tried to influence an election; and they neither registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act nor reported their funding to the Federal Elections Commission.

First, if Mueller’s theory is correct, three things make Steele a criminal: first, he is a foreign citizen; second, he tried to influence an election, which he received payments to do (including from the FBI itself); and third, he neither registered as a foreign agent nor listed his receipts and expenditures to the Federal Election Commission. Also, according to the FBI, along the way, Steele lied…a lot, while the dossier he disseminated contained its own lies based on bought-and-paid for smears from foreign sources reliant on rumors and innuendo.

Second, if Mueller’s theory is correct, three things make FusionGPS a criminal co-conspirator: it knew Steele was a foreign citizen; it knew, and paid, Steele to influence an election; and it knew, and facilitated, Steele neither registering as a foreign agent nor reporting his funding from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign to the Federal Election Commission.

Third, if Mueller’s theory is correct, then three things make PerkinsCoie a potential target: it knew Steele was a foreign citizen; it knew, and paid, Steele to influence an election; and it knew, and facilitated, Steele neither registering as a foreign agent nor reporting his funding from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign to the Federal Election Commission, by disguising its receipt of payments from the Clinton campaign as a “legal expense.”

To continue reading: Does Mueller Indictment Mean Clinton Campaign Can Be Indicted for Chris Steele?

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A Bombshell House Intelligence report exposing extensive FISA abuse could lead to the removal of senior government officials, by Sara Carter

Posted on January 19, 2018 | 4 comments

It remains to be seen if the intelligence report matches the billing in the headline, because it’s only been released to House members. So take it with a grain of salt until it’s released to the public, if it is released to the public. From Sara Carter at saracarter.com:

A review of a classified document outlining what is described as extensive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act abuse was made available to all House members Thursday and the revelations could lead to the removal of senior officials in the FBI and Department of Justice, several sources with knowledge of the document stated. These sources say the report is “explosive,” stating they would not be surprised if it leads to the end of Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation into President Trump and his associates.

The House Intelligence Committee passed the motion along party lines Thursday to make the classified report alleging extensive ‘FISA Abuse’ related to the controversial dossier available to all House members. The report contains information regarding the dossier that alleges President Trump and members of his team colluded with the Russians in the 2016 presidential election. Some members of the House viewed the document in a secure room Thursday.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., offered the motion on Thursday to make the Republican majority-authored report available to the members.

“The document shows a troubling course of conduct and we need to make the document available, so the public can see it,” said a senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the document. “Once the public sees it, we can hold the people involved accountable in a number of ways.”

The government official said that after reading the document “some of these people should no longer be in the government.”

The document also apparently outlines “several problematic” issues with how FISA warrants were “packaged, and used” state several sources with knowledge of the report.

Over the past year, whistleblowers in the law enforcement and intelligence community have revealed to Congress what they believe to be extensive abuse with regard to FISA surveillance, as previously reported. 

To continue reading: A Bombshell House Intelligence report exposing extensive FISA abuse could lead to the removal of senior government officials

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Feinstein’s leak of Fusion GPS’s Glenn Simpson’s Senate testimony backfires, by Alexander Mercouris

Posted on January 11, 2018 | 1 comment

They’re splitting hairs on the Fusion GPS Trump Dossier and its use by the FBI, even as it’s now obvious that the unverified dossier was the basis of the Russiagate investigation against Trump. Heads will roll. From Alexander Mercouris at theduran.com:

Attempt to give Trump Dossier credibility fails, instead highlighting its role in triggering Russiagate investigation

An infallible sign that a bad case is collapsing under its own weight comes when its proponents show that they have misunderstood the evidence which is supposed to underpin it.

A classic example of this happened yesterday in the Russiagate case when Senator Dianne Feinstein unilaterally published the transcript of the testimony of Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS given to the Senate Judiciary Committee on 22nd August 2017.

Fusion GPS is the political consultancy firm which acting on behalf of the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign commissioned from the ex British spy Christopher Steele the ‘research’ which became the Trump Dossier.

As it has become increasingly clear that the Trump Dossier is the primary evidence – indeed so far it is the only evidence – behind the allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and that information from it was used by the Justice Department and the FBI to obtain surveillance warrants on members of the Trump campaign from the FISA court, hard questions have increasingly been asked about it by the Republicans in the Senate and the House.

Recently the FBI has admitted that it has been unable to verify the collusion claims in the Trump Dossier, whilst Senators Grassley and Lindsey Graham have recently written a letter to the Justice Department asking for an investigation of Christopher Steele – the Trump Dossier’s compiler – because of inconsistencies in his statements.

Grassley’s and Lindsey Graham’s letter about Steele to the Justice Department annoyed Feinstein, who has now countered by publishing Simpson’s testimony without first consulting Grassley, who is the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Feinstein’s reasons for doing this are not entirely clear – her statement explaining her reasons is vague and unhelpful – but initial media reports strongly suggest that she thought Simpson’s testimony would rescue the credibility of the Trump Dossier by showing that its claims had been corroborated by a source within the Trump campaign who had independently contacted the FBI.

To continue reading: Feinstein’s leak of Fusion GPS’s Glenn Simpson’s Senate testimony backfires

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Trump Attorney Sues Fusion GPS, BuzzFeed For Dossier Defamation, by Tyler Durden

Posted on January 10, 2018 | Leave a comment

Defamation law is yet another weapon being brought to bear on those who sought to use the unverified Trump dossier for political ends. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

A fourth individual has filed a lawsuit against opposition research firm Fusion GPS and Buzzfeed over the infamous unverified “Trump-Russia” dossier, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.

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Donald’ Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, filed suit against the two companies involved in the creation and distribution of the salacious 34-page dossier, which has been a key focus of Congressional inquiries into the FBI conduct during the 2016 election – and in particular, whether it was used to launch a counterintelligence investigation against Mr. Trump.

The dossier contains unverified claims that Cohen and Trump had suspicious connections with Russian figures. Most other U.S. news organizations declined to publish the document because many of its claims — some of them salacious — havent been substantiated.

It will be proven that I had no involvement in this Russian collusion conspiracy, Cohen said in an interview on Tuesday. My name was included only because of my proximity to the president. –Bloomberg

Cohen is mentioned in the dossier 15 times, though he told Bloomberg that he and the President “don’t talk about” the Russia investigations, adding “Why waste time talking about something that’s not legitimate.”

During testimony in front of Congressional investigators, the Trump attorney said that he has never engaged with, received money from, or communicated with anyone representing the Russian government, or anyone else about hacking or interfering with the US election, creating fake news stories to assist the Trump campaign, or hacking the Democratic party. 

Cohen’s suit specifically names Fusion GPS and its co-founder Glenn Simpson, as well as Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith, reporter Ken Bensinger and editors Miriam Elder and Mark Schoofs.

While Fusion GPS attorney Joshua Levy said he hadn’t heard of the suit, Buzzfeed attorney Matt Mittenthal responded, stating The dossier is, and continues to be, the subject of active investigations by Congress and intelligence agencies. It was presented to two successive presidents, and has been described in detail by news outlets around the world. Its interest to the public is obvious.

 

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