Wednesday, January 03, 2018

Fusion GPS op-ed in the New York Times blows the Trump Administration talking points out of the water.

Glenn R. Simpson, founder of Fusion GPS.
Courtesy of the New York Times:  

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. 

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.

"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."

I think that's the money quote right there.

Fusion GPS also says that they alerted investigators to look into Trump's dealings with  Deutsche Bank, and told Congress that there was widespread evidence of Russian money laundering.

They also said this:

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.

So to sum up the Russian sources were not paid, Christopher Steele was not working with a political agenda, his dossier was not the impetus for the FBI investigation, and what he uncovered indicated to him that Trump was involved in criminal behaviors, and that is why he notified the authorities in America.

Well that certainly crushes the life out of a number of Right Wing conspiracy theories. 

32 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:34 AM

    Who is full of shit now?

    magaTURDS!

    All those colon cleansing shakes for the win!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:59 AM

      The hardcore Trump supporter will think he was just a brilliant business man and they will continue to support him. You can’t fix stupid.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:51 AM

      Who really cares what those idiotic trump supporters think, they are not the majority.
      We have had almost a year of a presidency chosen by an ignorant minority of voters and look at the disaster.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous8:38 AM

    facts, schmacts (and fake at that) the GOP congressional enablers/stooges/threat-bribe-blackmail victims will say (many of whom are under or soon will be investigation).
    Watch your back, Mueller...

    T's +/-30,000,000 supporters could are less and won't even read that article above in the first place, just listen to Faux News.

    What The Fuck will it take to convince them? -- Fuck All!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous8:38 AM

    Except RW conspiracy dupes just ignore it all and turn up to volume on the Alex Jones show.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:01 AM

      Someone I know quite well, used to work for Alex Jones. He quit because he said Jones was bat shit crazy. Scary that people believe
      Jones’s crazy rants!

      Delete
  4. Anonymous8:52 AM

    I still think Hillary did it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm sorry.

      Is there a contest for dumbest comment of the day that I am not aware of?

      Delete
    2. Why, it’s Billy Joe Bubba!

      What did she do, sweetheart? You can tell us. We promise not to laugh. (much)

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:50 AM

      I posted that. I meant it to be sarcastic. Inevitably, the Trumpsters will drag her name up or bring up the email nonsense. She’s still the ultimate scapegoat.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous11:19 AM

      I got the sarcasm 😀 and the sad part is that it is true to the trumpster true believers.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:52 PM

      8:52: Nope. It was that Kenyan Muslim, Obummer!

      Delete
    6. Anonymous10:53 PM

      yes. as we all know trump can do no wrong(snort).

      Delete
  5. Anonymous9:09 AM

    CON is all he knows>
    “Everybody in his rich-guy social circle knew about his wide-ranging ignorance,”
    “I got as far as the Fourth Amendment,” Nunberg told Wolff, “before his finger is pulling down on his lip and his eyes are rolling back in his head.”
    rump has “the attention span of a kindergartner.”
    “It’s impossible to keep him focused on any topic, other than his own $ELF-aggrandizement, for more than a few minutes,” "

    https://www.rawstory.com/2018/01/trumps-eyes-rolled-back-in-his-head-as-aide-struggled-to-explain-the-constitution-to-him-report/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They should have made the Constitution into a cartoon and showed each amendment during the commericials.

      You know, like the old Grammar Rock cartoon series.

      Set it to a catchy tune too. Be sure to include Trump’s name and even a cartoon Trump to keep his attention.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous9:15 AM

    http://www.politicususa.com/2018/01/03/white-house-ethics-lawyer-trump.html

    "It’s not something we have to prosecute under the treason provisions of the Constitution. There are plenty of ways of dealing with treasonous behavior and Robert Mueller is on top of it. And it may very well involve money laundering. And that’s what Robert Mueller is going to find out. But this Russia investigation is real, and I’ve been a Republican for 30 years, I would like to support Republicans, but I am not going to support any Republican who refuses to acknowledge that we have a serious problem on our hands. And Congress needs to stop trashing on Robert Mueller, making up stories about Robert Mueller, and focus on its own investigation of what happened in 2016, the election, money laundering, and any other connections with the Russians inside our government or for any of the families of people inside our government. This is very, very serious."

    "Richard Painter said that it is over for Trump as his and family’s treasonous money laundering game is up."

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous9:25 AM

    Another interesting fact from Fusion GPS is that Congress has had this information since AUGUST, yet the Republicans have chosen to not release that information to the public. Meanwhile, in the last few months the idiotic Hannity, and Republican thugs have attacked the FBI and Mueller.

    Things that make you want to scream. Will this nightmare ever end?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:52 PM

      When someone goes to Russia, it will!. ;)

      Delete
    2. Anonymous4:53 PM

      This is what I find most worrying. How many of the Republicans are actual traitors? It appears quite a few.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous9:02 PM

      It was started a century ago. Sad really
      I suppose it was done out of necessity.
      But when you target someone, they dig.
      Until they pass Russia and go to Norway.
      Current events says lots to worry about.

      Delete
  8. Anonymous9:26 AM

    New York Magazine has an explosive excerpt from Michael Wolff's forthcoming book, "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House," in which Wolff reports that Trump's confidants all expected him to lose — and many thought he deserved to.

    The big thing: Everybody from Kellyanne Conway, who was interviewing for television gigs with networks in the campaign's last days, to Trump himself, who boasted about starting his own television network, had an exit strategy.

    Some of the juiciest quotes:

    "Shortly after 8 p.m. on Election Night, when the unexpected trend—Trump might actually win—seemed confirmed, Don Jr. told a friend that his father, or DJT, as he calls him, looked as if he had seen a ghost. Melania was in tears—and not of joy."

    "[Rupert] Murdoch suggested that taking a liberal approach to H-1B visas, which open America's doors to select immigrants, might be hard to square with his promises to build a wall and close the borders. But Trump seemed unconcerned, assuring Murdoch, 'We'll figure it out.' 'What a fucking idiot,' said Murdoch, shrugging, as he got off the phone."
    "Between themselves, [Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump] had made an earnest deal: If sometime in the future the opportunity arose, she'd be the one to run for president. The first woman president, Ivanka entertained, would not be Hillary Clinton; it would be Ivanka Trump."
    "[Trump] retreated to his own bedroom—the first time since the Kennedy White House that a presidential couple had maintained separate rooms. In the first days, he ordered two television screens in addition to the one already there, and a lock on the door, precipitating a brief standoff with the Secret Service, who insisted they have access to the room….He had a longtime fear of being poisoned, one reason why he liked to eat at McDonald's—nobody knew he was coming and the food was safely premade."

    https://www.axios.com/no-one-on-team-trump-expected-to-win-in-the-2016-races-last-days-2522138280.html

    Donald Trump Didn’t Want to Be President

    One year ago: the plan to lose, and the administration’s shocked first days.

    ...From the moment of victory, the Trump administration became a looking-glass presidency: Every inverse assumption about how to assemble and run a White House was enacted and compounded, many times over. The decisions that Trump and his top advisers made in those first few months — from the slapdash transition to the disarray in the West Wing — set the stage for the chaos and dysfunction that have persisted throughout his first year in office. This was a real-life version of Mel Brooks’s The Producers, where the mistaken outcome trusted by everyone in Trump’s inner circle — that they would lose the election — wound up exposing them for who they really were.

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/01/michael-wolff-fire-and-fury-book-donald-trump.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:46 AM

      Wanna bet they were making money and deals with the russsians,figuring he would lose and no one would ever find out.
      Oops,trump has never done a legal deal in his life,but this time he us going to get caught

      Delete
    2. Anonymous1:54 PM

      More like money laundering. Got caught.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous9:14 PM

      Lord of War. Ever wonder why Nicks character was so cynical? Hahaha.
      Gees. Same shit. Different day.
      What laws do anyone follow? $$$$$$$$$

      Delete
  9. Anonymous9:28 AM

    Bannon believes that Junior took the Russians to meet DJT directly from the infamous meeting that took place in Trump Tower last summer.

    Kushner and Junior are in the Mueller crosshairs.

    The heat is on...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous9:36 AM

    Gryphen, visit any RW site for bat-cheet crazier. Rwingers are idiots.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous9:49 AM

    Donald Trump Responds To Steve Bannon Bombshell: ‘He Lost His Mind’

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-steve-bannon_us_5a4d200ce4b0b0e5a7aa6f15?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

    https://twitter.com/PeterAlexander/status/948620185937895430/photo/1

    Yep, there he is projecting again. More like Trump is losing his mind.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous9:51 AM

    NEW: Mike Flynn “had been told by friends that it had not been a good idea to take $45,000 from the Russians for a speech. “Well it would only be a problem if we won,” he assured them, knowing that it would therefore not be a problem.”

    Fire & Fury, by Michael Wolff, page 17.

    NEW: White House staffers were taken aback by some of Trump’s unusual habits and demands.
    He reprimanded the housekeeping staff for picking up his shirt, saying, “If my shirt is on the floor, it’s because I want it on the floor.”

    Source: Fire & Fury, by Michael Wolff, page 84

    https://twitter.com/PeterAlexander

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous10:16 AM

    https://theintercept.com/2018/01/03/my-life-as-a-new-york-times-reporter-in-the-shadow-of-the-war-on-terror/

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous10:59 AM

    Now we're learning that Fusion was also working with that Trump Tower meeting lawyer Veselnitskaya (?sp) to repeal the Magnitzky Act.

    We'd better have our smelling salts ready when Mueller's work becomes public.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous11:13 AM

    Pence and a Trump cannot be removed from office until January 1, 2019... Slow down horsey!

    ReplyDelete

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