The Left continues to use its ready-made excuse for election losses: Just claim Russia meddled. The most prolific purveyors of this excuse (which is only used when the Left loses) are the co-founders of Fusion GPS, the research firm hired by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee in 2016 to tie then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia.
Though the work of Fusion GPS, which culminated in the “Steele Dossier,” has been almost entirely discredited, its founders were allowed to pen an op-ed in The Guardian. Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch are now claiming that the “British political system has become thoroughly compromised by Russian influence.”
“The efforts in both countries had much in common. They were aided by a transatlantic cast of characters loosely organised around the Trump and Brexit campaigns. Many of them worked in concert and interacted with Russians close to the Kremlin. The outcome in both countries was also eerily similar,” the pair wrote. “Both countries have been at war with themselves in the three years since, pulling them back from the international stage at a time when Putin has consolidated his position in Crimea, Ukraine, Syria and beyond.”
Of course, no one believes this op-ed would have been written had the Labour Party won Thursday night.
Incredibly, the two cite their discredited work as the basis for their authority on the subject.
“Our Washington-based research firm, Fusion GPS, conducted much of the early investigations into Russia’s support of the Trump campaign, aided by our colleague Christopher Steele, the former head of MI6’s Russia desk. While our initial focus was on Russian meddling in US politics, it has since become increasingly clear that Britain’s political system has also been deeply affected by Russian influence operations,” Simpson and Fritsch wrote.
The Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross, who has followed the Fusion GPS saga more than most others, said Simpson and Fritsch didn’t disclose that “they’re being paid millions through The Democracy Integrity Project to find evidence wherever they can that Russia meddled in Brexit.”
The Project was launched just after Trump was inaugurated and its sources consist of the same ones that provided false information to Christopher Steele, who compiled the “Steele Dossier.”
Simpson and Fritsch fail to note that much of the disinformation they provided the left-wing media has been discredited by either the report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller or the Justice Department’s Inspector General (IG). The IG report found that the FBI relied almost exclusively on the Steele Dossier to obtain FISA warrants against one-time Trump aide Carter Page. That dossier, the IG determined, was based on Internet rumor and innuendo. One of the most salacious and infamous claims in the Steele Dossier – that Russia had video of Trump urinating on a Russian prostitute – was a joke from one of Steele’s sources. Further, Steele embellished his claims and the FBI failed to corroborate the dossier before obtaining the warrants. They never did corroborate the dossier.
Simpson and Fritsch have proven themselves to be disinformation peddlers. That’s not to say Russia doesn’t meddle in elections, but the specific claims the Fusion GPS co-founders make have proven to be false. In their Guardian article, despite the existence of the Mueller and IG reports, Simpson and Fristch continue to claim that the Russians who meddle are connected to Trump.
It is unclear how much longer the Fusion founders’ schtick will still be accepted.