Unsealed court documents reveal that the firm behind the infamous ‘Pee-Tape’ Dossier, Fusion GPS, accepted $523,000 from Russia.
The documents show that Fusion GPS accepted a wire transfer from a Russian businessman convicted of tax fraud and money laundering, whose lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was a key figure in the 2016 meeting at Trump Tower arranged by Fusion GPS employee Rob Goldstone.
Ibank Coin reports: In short, D.C. opposition research firm Fusion GPS is the common denominator linked to two schemes used to damage the Trump campaign.
Founded in 2011 by former Wall St. Journal journalist Glenn Simpson and two other WSJ alumni, Fusion was responsible for the Clinton/DNC – funded dossier (which two Kremlin officials participated in), and was also involved in the infamous Trump Tower meeting with the Russian attorney of another Fusion client – an encounter some suspect may have been used to obtain a FISA wiretapping warrant on the Trump campaign.
He worked closely with Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who also showed up at the infamous Trump Tower meeting held on June 9, 2016.
Simpson’s research ended up in the Trump Tower meeting in the form of a four-page memo carried by Veselnitskaya. She also shared Simpson’s work with Yuri Chaika, the prosecutor general of Russia.
Simpson told the House Intelligence Committee earlier this week that he did not know that Veselnitskaya provided the Browder information to Chaika or to Donald Trump Jr., the Trump campaign’s point-man in the Trump Tower meeting. – Daily Caller
Of note, the 34-page dossier created by Fusion was reportedly used to obtain a FISA surveillance warrant on one-time adviser to the Trump campaign, Carter Page.
Quite a bit more notable is the fact that Glenn Simpson met with Natalia Veselnitskaya hours before the Trump Tower meeting, and also met with Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta the day after the 34-page dossier was published by BuzzFeed. Glenn gets around.
InFusion of Funds
The Daily Caller‘s Chuck Ross – who has done an outstanding job turning over stones and finding gold – now reports that the heavily redacted Fusion GPS bank records unsealed Tuesday reveal DNC law firm Perkins Coie paid Fusion a total of $1,024,408 in 2016 for opposition research on then-candidate Donald Trump – including the 34-page dossier.
Ross also reports that law firm Baker Hostelter paid Fusion $523,651 between March and October 2016 on behalf of a company owned by Russian businessman and money launderer Denis Katsyv to research Bill Browder, a London banker who helped push through the Magnitsky Act – named after deceased Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who Browder hired to investigate Russian corruption.
Veselnitskaya, through 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. –Bill Browder, Testimony to Senate Judiciary Committee, 7/26/17
Magnitsky Act
Magnitsky uncovered a high level embezzlement and money laundering scheme, sanctioned by Russian Officials, in which large sums of money were stolen from the Russian government and invested in New York real estate. Some of the missing funds were traced to Katsyv‘s firm, Prevezon Holdings Ltd., which settled with the Justice Department in 2017 – paying $5.9 million in fines.
Magnitsky was arrested and thrown in prison for just under a year, where he died seven days before he was to be released. He developed gall stones, pancreatitis, and a blocked gall bladder for which he received little to no medical care, and was found to have been physically assaulted shortly before he died.
In response to Magnitsky’s horrific death and because Russian money laundering occurred on US soil, Congress and President Obama enacted the Magnitsky act in 2012 – imposing sanctions on Russia and barring Russian officials believed to be involved in Magnitsky’s death from entering the United States. Russia retaliated by halting an adoption program for US foster parents.
Enter Natalia
What’s strange is that Katsyv’s attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya – a John McCain fan, was initially denied entry into the United States, only to be granted entry under “extraordinary circumstances” by Obama’s Homeland Security Department and approved by former AG Loretta Lynch so she could represent Fusion GPS client Denis Katsyv’s company, Prevezon Holdings – and attend the meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr. – arranged by Fusion GPS associate Rob Goldstone.
Let’s Review:
- Russian businessman Denis Katsyv was a key figure in an embezzlement and money laundering scheme involving New York real estate, uncovered by Russian lawyer and accountant Sergei Magnitsky. Magnitsky died in Moscow’s Butyrka prison after a year of inhumane treatment.
- The embezzlement scheme uncovered by Magnitsky along with the circumstances behind his death resulted in the Magnitsky Act – a bipartisan bill signed in December 2012 by President Obama which imposed sanctions on Russia.
- Katsyv settled with the U.S. Justice department in 2017, paying a paltry $5.9 million in 2017 to settle the case – less than 3% of the amount originally sought by federal prosecutors.
- Katsyv’s attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, lobbied to remove the sanctions imposed by the Magnitsky Act.
- Fusion GPS was paid $523,651 by Katsyv to investigate London Banker Bill Browder who pushed for the Magnitsky Act
- Fusion GPS associate Rob Goldstone set up the infamous meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr., Katsyv’s lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and various associates. The meeting was pitched to Trump Jr. as a “discussion on adoption” (not opposition research on Hillary Clinton) and was shut down by Trump after it became clear Veselnitskaya wanted to discuss the Magnitsky Act, which Don Jr. apparently didn’t realize was linked to the adoption issue. Others present at the meeting include Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and Goldstone.
- Hours before the Trump Tower meeting, Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson met with Veselnitskaya.
Meanwhile…
- Fusion GPS was paid $1,024,408 by a DNC law firm, funded in part by Hillary Clinton and the DNC, to create the salacious 34 page dossier.
- Fusion paid former British spy Christopher Steele $168,000 to assemble the document (which had the cooperation of two senior Kremlin officials).
- Clinton campaign manager John Podesta met with Fusion CEO Glenn Simpson the day after the 34 page dossier was made public.
For their efforts, Fusion GPS was paid over $1.5 million dollars between Hillary Clinton, the DNC, and the holding company owned by pro-Kremlin businessman Denis Katsyv.
Russian Ties Galore!
Looking at other Russian affiliations on the left – since that’s the entire impetus of the witch hunt against President Trump:
- Russia gained control over 20% of United States uranium after the Clinton Foundation received $145 million from Uranium One affiliates and Russian oligarchs connected to the deal.
- The Obama administration approved the transaction after the FBI knew of a Russian plot to corner the US Uranium market and a racketeering scheme involving a Kentucky trucking company. Over 5,000 documents and a video of Russians preparing a briefcase stuffed with bribe money for Obama administration officials were obtained by an FBI informant.
- Bill Clinton met with Vladimir Putin at his house in Russia, the same day he collected $500,000 for a speech to a Russian bank which upgraded Uranium One stock. Clinton sought approval from Hillary Clinton’s State Department to meet with 15 Russians.
- Tony Podesta, brother of John Podesta, lobbied for Uranium One after Russia state-owned energy giant Rosatom owned the company outright.
- Tony Podesta met regularly with Clinton Foundation and was considered “basically part” of the organization, according to a former long-time executive of the Podesta Group, who also said Podesta was “peddling Russian oligarchs” all over D.C.
- Clinton campaign chief and longtime DNC operative John Podesta recommended that Tony Podesta hire Hillary Clinton’s chief legislative advisor at the State Department, David Adams, which allowed a direct link between the firm’s Russian clients and the Obama administration.
- John Podesta sat on the board and owned shares in Joule Unlimited – a green-energy company which received $35 million from the Russian government while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State. In addition to Podesta, Joule’s board of directors included senior Russian official Anatoly Chubais and oligarch Reuben Vardanyan – a Putin appointee to the Russian economic modernization council. Podesta jettisoned his shares before the 2016 election, transferring them to his daughter via a shell corporation.
Unfortunately, Attorney General Jeff Sessions feels there isn’t ‘enough basis‘ to investigate any or all of the above.