Guess Who Fusion GPS Was REALLY Working For

Well, I have to assume their business is mercenary, and not partisan.

A new report from Reuters gives an eye-opening account of how Fusion GPS, the firm behind the controversial Trump-Russia dossier, walked the line between both candidates in the 2016 presidential election.

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According to sources who spoke to Reuters, while the firm was working to gather information tying Trump to the Kremlin, they also had some goodies on the Clintons to offer Trump’s campaign.

Hey… Money is money, right?

The sources told Reuters that the negative information that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya wanted to give to Republican Trump’s campaign at a June 2016 meeting in New York had been dug up by Fusion GPS in an unrelated investigation.

Trump’s congressional supporters have suggested that because Fusion also conducted research for lawyers representing a Russian firm in the unrelated matter, the dossier was part of a Russian campaign to help Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Trump backers call the 35-page report a “dodgy dossier” financed by Clinton supporters.

It may be “dodgy,” but it’s not completely discredited, either. Some of the information has been disproven, but other parts have been confirmed, and some have yet to be substantiated.

In an interview with Bloomberg on Monday, Veselnitskaya said she went to the Trump Tower meeting with Donald Trump Jr., his brother-in-law Jared Kushner, and top campaign adviser Paul Manafort to show them proof of tax evasion by major Democratic donors.

She said Donald Jr. asked her for written evidence that illegal funds went to Clinton’s campaign, Bloomberg reported.

Emails made public earlier this year by Trump Jr. showed that a publicist for the son of one of his father’s Russian business contacts helped introduce Veselnitskaya and advised him that she and her associates had “sensitive” information that could damage Clinton.

“I love it,” Trump Jr. responded, according to the emails.

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Veselnitskaya received a legal research memo in 2014, while representing her Russian client in a case against a British-American financier named William Browder. The memo noted that two financiers involved with Browder, the Ziff Brothers, had given a large contribution to a Clinton-linked charity.

The memo had been prepared by Fusion, which had been hired to conduct legal research on Browder by Baker and Hostetler law firm. The firm represented Russian businessman Denis Katsyv, who was engaged in disputes with Browder and U.S. prosecutors.

Glenn Simpson, one of Fusion GPS’ founders, met with Veselnitskaya about that litigation before and after her meeting with Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort, according to a source familiar with the matter.

In August, however, Simpson testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he knew nothing of the meeting.

Not quite true.

Simpson has agreed to further, closed door meetings. Perhaps he’ll come clean in his next round.

Two sources said the Fusion GPS work for Baker and Hostetler that produced the information Veselnitskaya offered Trump Jr. and his associates was unrelated to the firm’s work for Perkins Coie, a law firm that represented the Democratic National Committee and Clinton’s campaign.

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Like I said, money is money. Fusion GPS apparently was making it, hand over fist, and they didn’t care if it was Democrat money or Republican money.

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