Our friends at Twitchy had this earlier yesterday. It’s just adorable. The firm that was behind the infamous Trump dossier insists that this document was never meant to be made public, which is why they shared it with every liberal reporter under the sun, right? I mean do these folks think they’re fooling anyone with this line. Fusion GPS was the research firm behind the dossier. They hired ex-MI6 spook Christopher Steele to compile this political opposition research project. The Democrats and the Hillary Clinton campaigned had hired Fusion to do just that. The principals at the Fusion, Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, detail their side in their new book, “Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump.”
It looks like the men of Fusion GPS are going to go with a "mistakes were made" defense of the dossier. https://t.co/2FSWWHMtro pic.twitter.com/K8A11blQfm
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) November 22, 2019
We never intended the dossier to see the light of day, that's why we gave it to every reporter in Washington, DC. pic.twitter.com/GKKG4xdxB3
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) November 22, 2019
“I don’t want this to get out, let m give it to buzzfeed.” said no one ever
— Chaos Actual (@actual_chaos) November 22, 2019
And then it was given to the DOJ spouse of a Fusion employee to push it at the DOJ (which is an illegal pay-to-play but who is counting? It's not like the Ohrs lied to Congress about a legal act as Roger Stone did).
— Yossi Gestetner (@YossiGestetner) November 22, 2019
Yeah, I know. I threw up a bit in my mouth too. The entire document hasn’t been verified and some of it is false on its face. There’s the infamous story involving Trump and call girls, which we will not discuss, but you all know what I’m referencing. It’s one of the main points highlighted when you search about the Trump dossier. And yet, this political opposition research that wasn’t vetted was used to secure FISA spy warrants against Trump official Carter Page. It’s the document that birthed the Russian collusion myth. Its biased garbage, even the State Department knew that; Steele told them. Simpson and Fritsch’s response to the inaccuracies is akin to saying stuff happens (via NPR):
How then, to explain glaring questions about the Russia reporting? The Ritz-Carlton story wasn't the only problematic allegation.
There was also the story about Trump's then-attorney Michael Cohen allegedly taking part in a direct relationship with Russian agents as part of the 2016 election interference — an allegation that Cohen denied vociferously and which also has never been verified.
Well, sources report what they know or what they've heard, Simpson and Fritsch argue, but that doesn't mean it's always right.
[…]
It was Steele, the authors write, who felt compelled to go outside the arrangement he had with Fusion GPS and transmit what he had learned to the FBI.
If it had been up to Simpson and Fritsch, they write, Steele's reporting never would have seen the light of day.
But they and Steele felt so alarmed by what his sources reported that they arranged for it to pass via intermediaries to the authorities — and, eventually, it found its way to news organizations, including NPR, in early 2017.
Oh, yes, the much-discussed FBI connection with this firm and the dossier, which Katie wrote extensively about:
Government watchdog Judicial Watch has uncovered and released hundreds of documents showing the Obama Justice Department working directly with Fusion GPS, a research firm hired by the Clinton campaign, to frame President Trump.
The documents show Fusion GPS' Nellie Ohr, who was specifically hired in 2016 to dig up dirt on Trump and his children Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric, working directly with U.S. Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr on a spread sheet linking President Trump to a number of Russian operatives. Nellie and Bruce are married and while Bruce was demoted, he's still working at the Department of Justice in Washington D.C.
And the details concerning the dossier, FISA, the FBI, and its conduct during the 2016 election will all be unveiled on December 9 when the inspector general report on these alleged Obama-era FISA abuses will be revealed. Still, the dossier was the reason for the Russian collusion hysteria, which was nuked by the final report on the matter by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which stated conclusively that there was no Trump-Russia collusion.