The Republicans’ Fake Investigations (An Op-Ed by Fusion GPS)
A generation ago, Republicans sought to protect President Richard Nixon by urging the Senate Watergate committee to look at supposed wrongdoing by Democrats in previous elections. The committee chairman, Sam Ervin, a Democrat, said that would be “as foolish as the man who went bear hunting and stopped to chase rabbits.”
Today, amid a growing criminal inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, congressional Republicans are again chasing rabbits. We know because we’re their favorite quarry.
In the year since the publication of the so-called Steele dossier — the collection of intelligence reports we commissioned about Donald Trump’s ties to Russia — the president has repeatedly attacked us on Twitter. His allies in Congress have dug through our bank records and sought to tarnish our firm to punish us for highlighting his links to Russia. Conservative news outlets and even our former employer, The Wall Street Journal, have spun a succession of mendacious conspiracy theories about our motives and backers.
We are happy to correct the record. In fact, we already have.
Three congressional committees have heard over 21 hours of testimony from our firm, Fusion GPS. In those sessions, we toppled the far right’s conspiracy theories and explained how The Washington Free Beacon and the Clinton campaign — the Republican and Democratic funders of our Trump research — separately came to hire us in the first place.
We walked investigators through our yearlong effort to decipher Mr. Trump’s complex business past, of which the Steele dossier is but one chapter. And we handed over our relevant bank records — while drawing the line at a fishing expedition for the records of companies we work for that have nothing to do with the Trump case.
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Republicans have refused to release full transcripts of our firm’s testimony, even as they selectively leak details to media outlets on the far right. It’s time to share what our company told investigators.
We don’t believe the Steele dossier was the trigger for the F.B.I.’s investigation into Russian meddling. As we told the Senate Judiciary Committee in August, our sources said the dossier was taken so seriously because it corroborated reports the bureau had received from other sources, including one inside the Trump camp.
The intelligence committees have known for months that credible allegations of collusion between the Trump camp and Russia were pouring in from independent sources during the campaign. Yet lawmakers in the thrall of the president continue to wage a cynical campaign to portray us as the unwitting victims of Kremlin disinformation.
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We suggested investigators look into the bank records of Deutsche Bank and others that were funding Mr. Trump’s businesses. Congress appears uninterested in that tip: Reportedly, ours are the only bank records the House Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed.
We told Congress that from Manhattan to Sunny Isles Beach, Fla., and from Toronto to Panama, we found widespread evidence that Mr. Trump and his organization had worked with a wide array of dubious Russians in arrangements that often raised questions about money laundering. Likewise, those deals don’t seem to interest Congress.
We explained how, from our past journalistic work in Europe, we were deeply familiar with the political operative Paul Manafort’s coziness with Moscow and his financial ties to Russian oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin.
Finally, we debunked the biggest canard being pushed by the president’s men — the notion that we somehow knew of the June 9, 2016, meeting in Trump Tower between some Russians and the Trump brain trust. We first learned of that meeting from news reports last year — and the committees know it. They also know that these Russians were unaware of the former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele’s work for us and were not sources for his reports.
Yes, we hired Mr. Steele, a highly respected Russia expert. But we did so without informing him whom we were working for and gave him no specific marching orders beyond this basic question: Why did Mr. Trump repeatedly seek to do deals in a notoriously corrupt police state that most serious investors shun?What came back shocked us. Mr. Steele’s sources in Russia (who were not paid) reported on an extensive — and now confirmed — effort by the Kremlin to help elect Mr. Trump president. Mr. Steele saw this as a crime in progress and decided he needed to report it to the F.B.I.
We did not discuss that decision with our clients, or anyone else. Instead, we deferred to Mr. Steele, a trusted friend and intelligence professional with a long history of working with law enforcement. We did not speak to the F.B.I. and haven’t since.
After the election, Mr. Steele decided to share his intelligence with Senator John McCain via an emissary. We helped him do that. The goal was to alert the United States national security community to an attack on our country by a hostile foreign power. We did not, however, share the dossier with BuzzFeed, which to our dismay published it last January.
We’re extremely proud of our work to highlight Mr. Trump’s Russia ties. To have done so is our right under the First Amendment.
It is time to stop chasing rabbits. The public still has much to learn about a man with the most troubling business past of any United States president. Congress should release transcripts of our firm’s testimony, so that the American people can learn the truth about our work and most important, what happened to our democracy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/opinion/republicans-investigation-fusion-gps.html?referer=&_r=0
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Well, this will put a hurt on a few RW snowflakes.
snowflake is a leftwing thing... we do not get "triggered" but we laugh at those who do.
that will put a real hurt on the Clintons and the DNC
Consider this, for the past 30 years they have been investigating the Clintons for everything and, the only thing they have on them is that Bill got a blowjob, wow, that is some really heavy criminal act there. Everything else is either speculation or, defamation.
"Everything else is either speculation or, defamation."
That's all they got.
RWNJ snowflakes are extra white and very fragile.
A full 9 years later and exactly Zero ranking Obama campaign or administration officials have ever been indicted for malfeaseance in office. Not one. Not Clinton. Not Holder. Not Obama. Not any. Consider that is already untrue regarding the Trump administration. So, it is a historic fact that Obama's was the squeeky cleanest least corrupt most transparent presidential administration in history. Trump's is on track to be the most corrupted. Trump's indictments have just begun...
Yep, Trump's administration makes Nixon's administration look like saints.
... not yet anyways.
have faith... the storm is coming
They've had thirty years to "get something" on Hillary and, haven't done it yet and, they aren't going to, unless of course they manufacture it.
They really, really, really don't want to....but it does make for good Press !
Could pull in Other Politico's if they actually REALLY tried !
What's scary to me is, you probably believe this.
I forgot....ALL Politicians are " Saint ...Joe, Fred, Mary, Susan....etc."
What was I thinking.
That's not what I'm saying but, you go ahead and, believe what ever makes you feel good.
So what did you "REALLY" mean ?
I don't think that Hillary Clinton is guilty of any criminal act, she's too smart a lawyer for that, unlike Bill, yes, I think Bill is guilty of being a pig but, that is all he's guilty of. Second, none of the Republicans associated with Bill and, Hillary are involved in anything connected to them, it has too much of a Left wing slant for any current Republican in office to be connected, Fusion GPS is the only issue that might have a conservative lean to it but, Beacon was out of the picture long before Hillary's campaign got involved, that has been established. Everything else involving Hillary has been proven to be false a number of times, no Republicans were involved in it. Everything that is going on that involves Hillary is being pushed by Republicans only, no Democrats are involved, it is nothing but, trying to insure that Hillary doesn't seek another try in 2020 at the presidency, in other words, it is political and, nothing will be proven, they will carry this on until close to the election in 2020 and, then all of a sudden they will find nothing but, they will have achieved what they want, no Hillary Clinton in the White House. Now, ask yourself this, what will that accomplish, the answer is simple, nothing, someone else will step up and, they will be chosen by the DNC to run in place of Hillary. Will that person be better than Hillary, possibly, will they win, maybe.
The fact is this, everything that is going on now with the Republicans going after Hillary and, the FBI is nothing but, politics. SOME of what is going on with Russia/Trump is political but, one thing is for sure, the Mueller investigation isn't one of those political things, I think Mueller will find out what is going on and, whether it involves the president, I will wait and, see. The fact that it involves members of his family and, his campaign is fact and, that is what will tell if it involves Trump.
So. news from the organization that was paid to put together the Trump Dossier? Yeah, they don't have an iron in the fire when it comes to what is news and what is opinion.
And, I suppose FAUX Noise would have been better? I remember someone saying one time that you shouldn't discount the story simply because of where it came from. If someone seeds something from FAUX Noise I'll at least look at it, that is until it starts doing damage to my brain then I quit reading it, the least you can do is read the story and, keep it in mind when you are looking at the fake news from FOX and, Breitbart.
interesting read, thanks for seeding this Galen
Thanks Trout.
first, we are going to see their bank records.
a Federal Judge has ruled fusion gps must turn over bank its records
more here
Wheels appear to be in motion across D.C. on several fronts.
game over
OK, this link of yours goes to some guy I've never heard of, what are his credentials other than being a guy who posts from FAUX Noise? I would rather trust a Russian blogger than him and, the chances of me trusting either one is the same as me jumping off of a 30 story building. FAUX Noise has no reputation for telling the truth, it does for lying its azz off though.
As the Fusion CEO noted it's very revealing that theirs are the only bank records the Senate committee has subpoenaed......apparently the GOP doesn't care about Trump's or Deutche Bank's financial records despite the evidence that Trump used that bank to launder money from Russian mobsters.
Apparently they got what Grover Norquist was talking about in 2012,
As long as Trump is willing to sign anything that crosses his desk then the Republicans are happy.
Here ya go,
and, just so you don't have to work too hard,
Ok, I'm closing this because, I found the pdf for the Fusion GPS testimony and, seeded it.