Fresh revelations from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/death-row-or-wanted-for-murder-the-cursed-lives-of-hunter-bidens-associates">Hunter Biden</a>&#8216;s laptop raise new questions about his possible effort to buy a stake in a Russian oil company, and what President Joe Biden knew about his son&#8217;s dealings.
They also underscore the profound dishonesty of the &#8220;Steele dossier&#8221; created by ex-British spy Christopher Steele and funded by the Democratic National Committee: With a Russian oil company preparing to sell shares, the dossier claimed a Donald Trump official had set up a secret deal to make favorable Russian policy in exchange for the shares. In reality, it was a Chinese firm <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-family-sought-to-make-money-by-giving-china-preferential-access-to-us-energy">paying the Biden family</a> that ultimately tried to buy them.
&#8220;But amidst all of that and the NYTs calling about the major article they are doing on me and discussing with dad about what I need to get in order before he runs for president I spent an equal amount of time dealing with&#8230; your sh&#8211;,&#8221; read an August 2, 2018, text from Hunter Biden to Elizabeth Secundy, the sister of Beau Biden&#8217;s widow, who Hunter began dating after his brother&#8217;s death. Another text indicates that Hunter believed the Times was probing whether he did deals with Russia.
Hunter Biden&#8217;s involvement with Chinese energy firm CEFC first came to light in a December 12, 2018, New York Times story. The company&#8217;s chairman, Ye Jianming, was imprisoned in China at the time, and Patrick Ho, another top CEFC official, who was Hunter Biden&#8217;s &#8220;client&#8221; who was arrested on corruption charges in New York. Shortly after the Times story was published, Joe Biden left his son a voicemail saying: “I thought the article released online, it’s going to be printed tomorrow in the Times, was good. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joe-biden-spoke-with-hunter-about-dealings-with-chinese-oil-tycoon-voicemail-reveals">I think you’re clear</a>.”
Other messages culled from the laptop and reviewed by The Daily Wire provide more clues about what that reassurance might have meant.
Two days after the story ran, Hunter Biden texted his sister-in-law-turned-girlfriend Hallie Biden that he was &#8220;dealing with the aftermath of the abduction and likely assassination (that’s what NYT’s suspects) of my business partner the richest man in the world, the arrest and conviction of my client the chief of intelligence of the people’s republic of China by the U.S. government, the retaliation of the Chinese in the ouster and arrest of US suspected CIA operatives inside China, my suspected involvement in brokering a deal with Vladimir Putin directly for the largest sale of oil gas assets inside Russia to China&#8230; And Dads running for president.&#8221;
A Times reporter, Mathew Goldstein, had reached out to Hunter about his story by May, laptop materials show. The eventual Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/business/cefc-biden-china-washington-ye-jianming.html">story</a> did not say that Ye had been assassinated, only that he &#8220;disappeared into the custody of the Chinese authorities.&#8221; Hunter Biden&#8217;s message suggests that a Times reporter discussed additional information or impressions with him that were not included in the article. It also implies that it was the Times that &#8220;suspected&#8221; Biden of brokering a deal with Putin. The Times ultimately reported only that Ye had &#8220;bought a $9 billion stake in Rosneft, Russia’s state oil giant,&#8221; but did not implicate Hunter Biden &#8212; a possible reason for his father&#8217;s relief.
The “largest sale” of Russian oil referred to by Hunter Biden likely refers to the fact that in September 2016, Vladimir Putin said state-owned oil company Rosneft hoped to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-rosneft-privatisation/russia-aiming-for-over-11-billion-from-rosneft-stake-sale-idUSKCN1181A9">sell</a> a 19.5% stake, valued at some $11 billion, to “strategic” private investors by the end of the year.
The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-top-steele-dossier-source-arrested-charged-with-making-false-statements-to-fbi">discredited</a> Steele <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Allegations">dossier</a> commissioned by Democrats &#8212; which ironically involved engaging with Russians to falsely assert that Trump was engaged with Russians &#8212; claimed that Trump official Carter Page met with Rosneft President Igor Sechin in July 2016 and that Sechin &#8220;offered Page/Trump&#8217;s associates the brokerage of up to a 19 per cent (privatised) stake in Rosneft&#8221; if Trump would lift U.S. sanctions on Russia. &#8220;Page had expressed interest and confirmed that were Trump elected US president, then sanctions on Russia would be lifted,&#8221; it claimed.
But it was associates of Hunter Biden, not Trump, who ultimately made a deal for Rosneft shares. In late 2016, Rosneft <a href="https://www.caixinglobal.com/2018-11-21/failed-rosneft-deal-costs-cefc-china-a-quarter-billion-101350092.html">sold</a> the 19.5% stake <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/11/qatar-glencore-to-buy-195-percent-stake-in-russia-state-oil-major-rosneft.html">to</a> a partnership between the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Glencore. Less than a year later, in September 2017, CEFC made arrangements to <a href="https://www.nsenergybusiness.com/news/deals/glencore-qia-consortium-scarps-9-1bn-worth-stake-sale-in-rosneft-to-cefc/">buy</a> a 14% stake, valued at $9 billion, from the pair.
That deal fell apart after Ho&#8217;s arrest, as did another deal Hunter was working on for CEFC in the U.S.
The Daily Wire did not find evidence of Hunter Biden brokering a “deal with Vladimir Putin directly” in a review of his laptop materials. However, the materials do suggest that Hunter Biden was used by CEFC and others to facilitate top-level introductions for deals, and that he might have been in a position to play such a role for a deal involving Russian oil and China.
Glencore is a mining and commodity company founded by Marc Rich, the Democratic Party super-donor who was pardoned by President Bill Clinton on his last day in office in 2001. Rich exited the company in 1994, but Hunter Biden&#8217;s associates had numerous ties to Glencore alums.
Devon Archer, one of Hunter Biden’s closest business partners, cultivated a relationship with a former Glencore executive named Jonathan Dimitry, who he called &#8220;our little Glencore PM,&#8221; an email showed.
Archer also had a relationship with oligarch Mikhail Gutseriyev, who with Glencore co-owned <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/exclusive-glencore-sells-stake-russias-russneft-cap-20-year-partnership-2022-02-15/">RussNeft</a>, a different Russian oil company unrelated to Rosneft. In 2013, Archer forwarded a news article on Glencore&#8217;s involvement with RussNeft, saying &#8220;This could be useful down the line with our O&amp;G play.  As you know Gutseriev is our guy.  Keep in mind for when we get out of AAA ball.&#8221;
Hunter Biden also had a relationship with Mohammed Bin Hamad Khlaifa Al-Thani, who was at one point in charge of QIA and is the brother of Qatar&#8217;s Emir. &#8220;Let me know if you need anything with regards to QIA, I would be more than happy to help,&#8221; Al-Thani wrote to Biden in 2014. Biden&#8217;s partner Eric Schwerin contemplated deals to do with the Qataris, saying &#8220;Thinking big but with QIA you have to.&#8221;
A lawyer for Hunter Biden did not return a request for comment.

World Food Program USA’s Annual McGovern-Dole Leadership Award Ceremony

Steele Dossier Falsely Linked Trump To Russian Oil Shares Actually Sought By Biden Associates

Christopher Steele

Energy

Fusion GPS

Hunter Biden

Russia

Michael Sussmann’s defense team requested a mistrial be declared after the jury heard testimony from Sussmann’s former boss, Marc Elias, on Wednesday.
Elias, a former partner at the Democrat-linked law firm Perkins Coie, testified in a D.C. federal court in the trial over whether Sussmann lied to the FBI in 2016 when he fed the agency debunked evidence of a secret backchannel between the Trump Organization and Alfa-Bank. Elias hired Fusion GPS, which commissioned the Steele dossier, in 2016 to aid the Clinton campaign’s opposition research into the Trump team.
Sussmann is accused of hiding his then-clients, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and tech executive Rodney Joffe, from FBI general counsel James Baker during a September 2016 meeting.
During his testimony, Elias told prosecutors to “ask Mr. Sussmann” if he had requested the meeting with Baker on behalf of a client. Sussmann’s legal team argued that Elias’ directive was prejudicial against Sussmann’s Fifth Amendment right not to testify, which Sussmann’s team is still weighing whether to invoke for the trial.
“Here, Mr. Elias expressly invited the jury to look to Mr. Sussmann for answers,” Sussmann&#8217;s lawyers said, according to the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/marc-elias-throws-durham-trial-into-disarray-with-sussmann-comments">Washington Examiner</a>. “This has caused obvious prejudice to Mr. Sussmann, who has not yet decided whether or not to testify in this case.”
Judge Christopher Cooper ruled out ending the case in a mistrial. Sussmann’s attorneys requested in lieu of a mistrial that Elias’ comments in question be stricken from the record. To that, Cooper said he would wait until after Sussmann made a decision to testify or not.
The defense attorneys also hit Durham’s prosecution team over part of its line of questioning toward Elias, which focused on how to determine if Sussmann spoke with Baker on behalf of a client or, as he <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/05/18/durham-team-reveals-damning-text-from-hillary-clinton-lawyer-sussmann-to-fbi/">claimed</a> at the time, “on [his] own.”
“Mr. Elias’s nonresponsive testimony on cross-examination, as well as the repeated, improper questioning by the special counsel, directly suggested to the jury that in order to answer a key question in this case, whether Mr. Sussmann went to the FBI on Sept. 19, 2016, on behalf of a client, Mr. Sussmann would need to testify,” Sussmann’s defense team said. “But as the special counsel and Mr. Elias are well aware, a defendant in a criminal trial has a constitutional right not to testify.”
Sussmann’s trial is the first courtroom test of special counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy that hounded the former president for most of his presidency.
Elias’ testimony grew somewhat political as the discussion moved around Trump and Clinton. Elias <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrats-high-powered-attorney-marc-elias-testifies-in-sussmann-trial">described</a> Trump as a “bully” and criticized the former president’s comments about Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign. On Clinton, Elias said that her treatment by the FBI was “unfair.”
The jury in the Sussmann case was drawn from a pool in deep-blue Washington, D.C. Many potential jurors, and some who were eventually picked to serve in the trial, expressed disdain toward Trump and support for Clinton. Cooper urged jurors to put their biases aside during the trial and focus on the evidence.

Marc Elias

Sussmann Defense Team Requests Mistrial Over Testimony From Steele Dossier-Linked Attorney

Sussmann Defense Team Requests Mistrial Over Marc Elias Testimony

Donald Trump

Hillary Clinton

Russiagate

Washington D.C.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the research firm Fusion GPS to turn over nearly two dozen emails to special counsel John Durham, a victory for the special counsel over Fusion’s and others’ claims that the emails were privileged communications.
Durham asked D.C. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sussmann-judge-to-review-docs-clinton-campaign-tried-to-keep-out-of-courts-sight">review</a> 38 Fusion emails “in camera,” or out of view of the public, to determine whether they were being improperly withheld from Durham’s team. After reviewing the documents, Cooper ruled that over half of them did not fall under attorney-client privilege as cybersecurity attorney Michael Sussmann, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and Fusion argued.
Sussmann is set to stand trial next week for allegedly lying to the FBI in 2016 when he approached then-FBI general counsel James Baker about a secret backchannel between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, one of the largest private banks in Russia. Durham has alleged that, contrary to Sussmann’s claims, the cybersecurity attorney approached Baker as a Clinton campaign operative to spread now-debunked claims about former President Donald Trump.
While Durham has gained access to the 22 of the 38 emails he requested, Cooper forbid prosecutors from introducing them as evidence in the Sussmann trial. Cooper said that entering the emails into evidence days before the trial would “prejudice Mr. Sussmann’s defense.”
“Still, the record shows that these discussions ended in January 2022—yet the Special Counsel waited to file this motion until April 6, 2022, just over a month before trial was set to begin. And, given the number of privilege holders involved and the fact-bound nature of the issues, resolving the motion has naturally taken us to the eve of trial,” Cooper <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.235638/gov.uscourts.dcd.235638.129.0_6.pdf">wrote</a>. “Under these circumstances, allowing the Special Counsel to use these documents at trial would prejudice Mr. Sussmann’s defense.”
“Accordingly, the government will not be permitted to introduce the emails and attachments that the Court has ruled are not subject to privilege,” the judge said. “The Court takes no position on the other approximately 1500 documents that Fusion GPS withheld as privileged, as they are not the subject of the government’s motion. However, the Court will apply the principles set forth above to any assertions of privilege during witness testimony at trial.”
The batch of 38 emails Durham originally asked Cooper to review were part of a larger batch of some 1,500 emails that Sussman, the Clinton Campaign, Fusion GPS, and the Perkins Coie law firm claimed fell under attorney-client privilege.
Sussmann was an attorney for Perkins Coie in 2016 when the law firm was representing the Clinton Campaign. He is accused of intentionally hiding his connection to the Clinton campaign when he approached Baker with purported evidence of a Trump-Russia connection. At least part of the supposed evidence Sussmann provided to the FBI was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sussmann-judge-to-review-docs-clinton-campaign-tried-to-keep-out-of-courts-sight">determined</a> by the CIA to be not “technically plausible” and “user created and not machine/tool generated,” Durham revealed in an earlier court filing.

John Durham

Court Grants Durham Access To 22 Emails Fusion GPS Claimed Were Privileged

2016

2016 Election

Special counsel John Durham released a cache of emails between Fusion GPS operatives and journalists in a court filing earlier this week, giving a first-hand look at how the investigative firm pushed unverified claims of Trump-Russia collusion to a willing media.
Durham said in a Monday filing that he had obtained hundreds of emails from Fusion GPS and wanted to submit them to the court under seal, or barred from public view, ahead of attorney Michael Sussmann’s trial in May. Durham appeared to accidentally release a batch of those emails publicly on the court docket Monday before the mistake was corrected on Tuesday morning, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/durham-accidentally-releases-fusion-gps-emails-that-were-meant-to-be-under-seal">The Washington Examiner</a>.
Fusion GPS along with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, the Democratic National Committee, and the Perkins Coie law firm are fighting Durham’s attempts to convince the court to compel the release of withheld documents and communications related to the Sussmann case. Fusion GPS and the others have claimed that their records are protected under attorney-client privilege.
Durham’s team argues that the records are material to Sussmann trial over whether the former Perkins Coie attorney lied to the FBI in meetings about former President Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia. “These parties are advancing a highly novel, and seemingly broad, theory of attorney-client privilege, namely, that Fusion GPS’s political opposition research – which triggered a sizeable outflow of unverified derogatory information into the media, the government, and the public – was, in reality, confidential expert work intended to support legal advice regarding libel and defamation,” Durham wrote in a Monday <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.235638/gov.uscourts.dcd.235638.97.0.pdf">filing</a>.
In the emails released on Monday, Fusion GPS co-founders Peter Fritsch and Glenn Simpson and Fusion employee Jake Berkowitz pass opposition research on the Trump campaign to journalists from Slate, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and others.
In one June 28, 2016, exchange, then-Slate journalist Franklin Foer shared a file titled “Manchuriancandidate.foer,” which Foer said was a “draft” he had already given to an editor, with Fritsch for the Fusion operatives to “scan it for omissions and errors.” “Obviously keep it to yourselves,” Foer told Fritsch, adding “promise me you won’t use it as a prod to the competition, whoever they are now.”
Fritsch responded positively and said “jake (sic) and i (sic) will read more closely and make some suggestions.”
In other emails, Fusion GPS pushed research and information about Carter Page and Sergei Millian. Former Trump campaign advisor Page was targeted by the FBI and his communications tapped under flawed FISA court warrants, but he was never convicted of any crime. Millian, a U.S. businessman from Belarus, is not accused of any wrongdoing, and reporting connecting him to the infamous Steele dossier later <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/who-is-sergei-millian/2017/03/29/379846a8-0f53-11e7-9d5a-a83e627dc120_story.html">fell apart</a>.
The day before Foer sent Fritsch the “draft,” Fritsch sent Foer an email stating that Millian was “clearly kgb [sic].”
In a July 2016 email, Reuters’ Mark Hosenball sent Simpson an email asking for research on Millian and Page. “Pls (sic) remember to send me stuff on Sergei the Millian-aire. Also if you have stuff on the Carter Page guy, including his most recent Russia excursions, pls (sic) send.”
In another July 2016 exchange, The Washington Post’s Tom Hamburger went to Fusion GPS looking for information on Page. “you (sic) guys have any of the underlying docs for Page companies in Oklahoma and elsewhere?” Hamburger wrote in an email to Simpson and Berkowitz.
Fritsch made several contacts with Eric Lichtblau of The New York Times. In September 2016, the Fusion founder sent Lichtblau information on the Russian bank Alfa Bank and Millian. Then in October, Fritsch sent Lichtblau a zip file named “Alfa and Trump.”
Allegations of collusion between Trump and Russian agents were never substantiated. The allegations hounded the former president for years before former special counsel Robert Mueller concluded his investigation.
In 2016 when the claims were gaining traction in the media, Fusion GPS’s office in Washington’s Dupont Circle was “something of a public reading room” for information and opposition research on Trump and his allies’ supposed ties to Russia, Simpson and Fritsch <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/11/steele-dossier-fusion-gps/602341/">wrote</a> in their 2019 book on their work investigating the Trump campaign.

Latest Durham Drop Reveals Startling Emails From Fusion GPS To Media Figures

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 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/12/britain-mueller-report-russian-media-uk-us">an op-ed</a> 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 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/22/annexing-crimea-putin-make-russia-great-again">Crimea</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/08/ukraine-president-volodymyr-zelenskiy-vladimir-putin-paris">Ukraine</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/23/putin-middle-east-russia-turkey-syria">Syria</a> 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 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/22/donald-trump-links-to-russia-steele-dossier-uk-book-claims">Russia’s support of the Trump campaign</a>, 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, <a href="https://twitter.com/ChuckRossDC/status/1205323286873333760">said</a> 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 href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-critic-eviscerates-media-and-fbi-over-trump-russia-investigation">a joke</a> 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.

Simpson and Fritsch

Russia Collusion Conspiracy Theorists Take Their Show Global, Now Claim Russia Meddled In U.K Election

The men behind the narrative that President Donald Trump colluded with Russia in 2016 to steal the election still believe the dubious allegations set forth in the infamous Steele Dossier, even though the special counsel investigation failed to prove them.
Let’s back up. Much of the information surrounding the Russian collusion narrative game from ex-British Intelligence officer Christopher Steele, who was hired by Fusion GPS (which was hired by Perkins Coie which was hired by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC) to compile a dossier of dirt on then-candidate Trump. Steele did not disappoint, and returned with a dossier filled with salacious allegations. The dossier was shopped to media outlets, which doubted its accuracy. Then the media learned Trump was “briefed” on the dossier, and it gave them an opening to report on it. Once Buzzfeed irresponsibly published the dossier, which was essentially a campaign opposition research document, the media felt free to run with all the wild allegations contained therein.
One of those allegations involved former Trump attorney Michael Cohen. The dossier claimed Cohen traveled to Prague in August 2016 to meet with Kremlin operatives to discuss payments to Russian hackers who stole Democrat emails. Cohen denied the allegations and provided photos of his passport, which contained no indication that he had ever traveled to Prague.
McClatchy was one of the biggest supporters of the Cohen-in-Prague narrative, writing in April 2018 that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had evidence that Cohen was in Prague. They wrote an additional article in late December claiming the special counsel had evidence that Cohen’s cell phone “pinged” briefly in Prague in the summer of 2016. The story contained no additional details.
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/emails-reveal-media-outlet-ran-non-story-designed-ashe-schow">reported</a> in early January, the idea that Cohen was in Prague should have been the easiest part of the dossier to confirm. Yet it never was. Though The Washington Post never reported this, one of its reporters <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/16/fbi-cia-doubted-dossier/">admitted</a> that the newspaper sent multiple reporters to every hotel in Prague to try and prove Cohen was there, but they found nothing.
Mueller’s final report also found no evidence to conclude Cohen was in Prague. After the Mueller report was released, McClatchy added an “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mcclatchy-tries-save-face-after-mueller-report-ashe-schow">editor’s note</a>” to its two stories about Cohen in Prague that acknowledged Mueller stated that Cohen was not in Prague.
Despite all of this, Fusion GPS founders Peter Fritsch and Glenn Simpson believe the allegation that Cohen went to Prague is still “credible.”
The two were asked whether Cohen went to Prague by ABC News producer Matthew Mosk on Tuesday, The Daily Caller <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/11/26/fusion-gps-dossier-michael-cohen-prague/">reported</a>.
“I mean, it’s unresolved. If you look at the Mueller report, Mueller report reports what Michael Cohen told him,” Fritsch said. The pair was then asked if they still believed Cohen was in Prague, to which Fritsch responded, “we’re sticking by the credibility of Chris’s reporting.”
“We believe it’s credible. Whether it’s true or not is another matter,” he added.
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” NBC News reporter Ken Dilanian explained that Mueller’s report debunked the dossier’s main assertion that there was a “well-developed conspiracy of coordination”  between Trump and Russia, yet the Fusion GPS founders stood by the document. After comparing the dossier to the warnings before the Pearl Harbor attack (saying the basic outlines of the Steele dossier were correct just as the Pearl Harbor warnings turned out to be), Glenn Simpson pointed out that many things in the dossier weren’t disproven.
“There isn’t a long list of things in the dossier that have been disproven. There are many things that have not been resolved as to whether or not they are true,” Simpson said.
The Mueller report tried to prove portions of the Steele dossier, but could not.

Michael Cohen

Fusion GPS Founders Still Think It’s ‘Credible’ That Michael Cohen Went To Prague, Despite Lack Of Evidence

During Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s congressional testimony on Wednesday, he was asked by Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) about Fusion GPS, the firm that hired Christopher Steele to produce the infamous and dubious “Steele Dossier” that helped spark the investigation into President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Despite the fact that the Steele Dossier was mentioned throughout Mueller’s final report, the origins of that report were not. Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion and a key player in creating the “evidence” against Trump, was not mentioned once. Fusion’s involvement in the alleged Russia collusion was also not investigated.
At the hearing, Chabot asked Mueller a simple question. Chabot referred Mueller to page 103 of Volume 2 of his final report, in which he describes “the firm that produced the Steele reporting,” but does not name the firm. Chabot asked Mueller: “The name of that firm was Fusion GPS, is that correct?”
Mueller, who has appeared confused at numerous questions so far during this hearing, looked at his binder, which contained a copy of his report, and asked: “And you’re on page 103?”
Chabot asked the same question again.
“When you talk about the firm that produced the Steele reporting. The name of the firm that produced that was Fusion GPS. Is that correct?&#8221; Chabot asked.
Mueller responded: “I’m not familiar with that.”
As my former editor at The Washington Examiner, Phil Klein, <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/robert-mueller-said-he-was-not-familiar-with-fusion-gps-how-is-that-possible">asked</a>, “How is that even possible?”
“It&#8217;s one thing to argue that he isn&#8217;t going to answer questions with reference to Fusion GPS (something he did in follow up questions, with the phrase &#8216;it&#8217;s outside my purview&#8217;), but how on earth could he not be familiar with the firm that has played such a key role in the Russia story?” Klein wrote.
Chabot also grilled Mueller on why the special counsel didn’t dig into Fusion GPS’s own collusion with Russia during the 2016 election.
“At the same time Fusion GPS was working to collect opposition research on Donald Trump from foreign sources on behalf of the [Hillary] Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, it also was representing a Russian-based company which had been sanctioned by the U.S. Government. Are you aware of that?” Chabot asked.
Mueller said it was “outside my purview.”
Chabot went on to bring up that Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with top members of the Trump campaign — including Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner — had been working with Fusion GPS since “at least early 2014.”
“You didn’t mention that or her connections to Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS in your report at all,” Chabot said. “NBC News reported the following: Russian lawyer says she first received supposedly incriminating information she brought to Trump Tower describing alleged tax evasion and donations to Democrats from none other than Glenn Simpson, the Fusion GPS owner.”
Mueller said the “matter was being handled by others at the Department of Justice,” but did not go into detail.
Chabot then explained that Mueller’s report spent “14 pages discussing the June 9th, 2016 Trump Tower meeting” and asked about the resources spent on that part of the investigation, leaving the impression that despite the resources spent on investigating the Trump Tower meeting, Mueller’s team ignored Fusion GPS’s role in that meeting.
“Now in stark contrast to the actions of the Trump campaign we know the Clinton campaign did pay Fusion GPS to gather dirt on the Trump campaign from persons associated with foreign governments. But your report doesn’t mention a thing about Fusion GPS in it and you didn’t investigate their connections to Russia,” Chabot said. “Let me ask you this, can you see that neglecting to mention that with the Clinton campaign and focusing on a Trump Tower meeting that produced nothing and ignoring the Clinton’s own ties to Fusion GPS why some view your report as a one-sided attack on the president?”
Mueller responded: “I tell you this is still outside my purview.”
WATCH:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">This exchange between Rep. Steve Chabot and Robert Mueller raised eyebrows in our live chat.
“If Mueller doesn&#8217;t know who Fusion GPS is, this could be a long hearing,” said reporter <a href="https://twitter.com/joshgerstein?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@joshgerstein</a>.
Live analysis: <a href="https://t.co/7S5ElYTkj8">https://t.co/7S5ElYTkj8</a> <a href="https://t.co/bnS2e1l596">pic.twitter.com/bnS2e1l596</a>
— POLITICO (@politico) <a href="https://twitter.com/politico/status/1154031615829393409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
In a later exchange, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) asked if Mueller could say that the Steele Dossier wasn’t itself Russian disinformation, since many of its central claims have either been debunked or have been uncorroborated.
Mueller claimed the report predated his investigation. Gaetz reminded him that Manafort’s crimes also predated the investigation, to which Mueller claimed the Steele Dossier’s origins were outside his purview, even though he references the dossier throughout the report.

Mueller Can’t Explain Why Fusion GPS And Glenn Simpson Weren’t Included In His Report

Robert Mueller

A Fusion GPS contractor who provided her Department of Justice (DOJ) husband with research about President Donald Trump and Russia has received <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/408347748/Final-Criminal-Referral-Nellie-Ohr-5-1-19">a criminal referral</a> from congressional Republicans.
Nellie Ohr provided her husband, Bruce Ohr, with research she had done on behalf of Fusion GPS, which Bruce then passed on to the FBI. The criminal referral, sent Wednesday night from Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), suggests Nellie lied to congress when she testified before the House Judiciary Committee and House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in October 2018.
Nellie testified at that time that she &#8220;would not have any knowledge of what [was] going on in an ongoing investigation&#8221; at the DOJ nor would she &#8220;have any knowledge of the Department of Justice&#8217;s investigations on Russia.&#8221; She also testified that she didn&#8217;t share her research with anyone besides her employer, her husband, or ex-British Intelligence Officer Christopher Steele, who compiled the infamous dossier on Trump that was shown to be not credible by Special Counsel Robert Mueller&#8217;s investigation.
Meadows wrote in his criminal referral that &#8220;documents reviewed by our committees raise concerns Ms. Ohr not only had knowledge of an ongoing DOJ investigation, but that she shared information and research on Russian organized crime to assist DOJ, in direct contradiction with her testimony.&#8221;
&#8220;For example, in March 2016, DOJ official Lisa Holtyn sent Bruce Ohr an email asking if Nellie would be able to speak with Ivana Nizich and Joe Wheatley to discuss her research as part of an ongoing investigation as she was told &#8216;Nellie might be a great resource,&#8217;&#8221; Meadows continued. &#8220;When Mr. Ohr checked if Nellie would feel comfortable speaking with DOJ, Nellie emailed &#8216;Sure!&#8217;&#8221;
Nellie also shared her research to the people named above and other DOJ officials, counter to her testimony.
As John Solomon <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/441580-nellie-ohrs-hi-honey-emails-to-doj-about-russia-collusion-should-alarm-us#.XMo3POquQ5U.twitter">wrote</a> at The Hill, Nellie regularly emailed her husband with information regarding her research into Russian organized crime and alleged connections to Trump and his campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
&#8220;Hi Honey, if you ever get a moment you might find the penultimate article interesting &#8212; especially the summary in the final paragraph,&#8221; Nellie wrote in one email quoted by Solomon.
In another email, Nellie wrote: &#8220;If Putin wanted to concoct the ideal candidate to service his purposes, his laboratory creation would look like Donald Trump.&#8221;
Solomon wrote that &#8220;such overt political content flowing into the email accounts of a DOJ charged with the nonpartisan mission of prosecuting crimes is jarring enough.&#8221; He added that the emails raise &#8220;additional questions about potential conflicts of interest when it is being injected by a spouse working as a Democratic contractor trying to defeat Trump, and she is forwarding her own research to her husband&#8217;s department and co-workers.&#8221;
The emails from Nellie to her husband, which <a href="https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-uncovers-doj-records-showing-numerous-bruce-ohr-communications-with-fusion-gps-and-christopher-steele/">were released</a> following a Freedom of Information Act request from conservative government watchdog Judicial Watch, may also cause a headache for Bruce Ohr.
Bruce made no mention of the emails in his closed-door testimony to congress on August 28, 2018. Then-Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) told Bruce: &#8220;If I heard you correctly, there was one occasion where she provided information to you.&#8221; Bruce responded, &#8220;That is correct.&#8221;
Bruce was referring to a &#8220;memory stick&#8221; Nellie gave him at some point in 2016 that she wanted turned over to the FBI.
Gowdy further pressed Bruce on whether there were any previous conversations about the FBI&#8217;s Russia investigation.
&#8220;Well, all marriages are different, so I&#8217;m trying to envision this cold start to a conversation with Here, honey, here&#8217;s a thumb drive,&#8221; Gowdy said. &#8220;There were no conversations before that?&#8221;
Bruce responded by saying Nellie was with him when he first met with Steele.
Later in his testimony, Bruce says he &#8220;had some conversations&#8221; with his wife about the Russia investigation, but the emails released by Judicial Watch never come up, giving the impression that Bruce downplayed the interactions between him and his wife regarding the Russian investigation.
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46667/rep-meadows-new-info-suggests-fusion-gps-anti-james-barrett">previously reported</a> that House Republicans believe the new documents revealed may help an investigation into how the Trump-Russia collusion narrative began.

Nellie Ohr, Fusion GPS Contractor And Wife Of DOJ Investigator, Criminally Referred By House Republicans

Over the weekend, President Trump repeatedly drew attention to the real &#8220;Russia collusion&#8221; story he maintains the left-leaning media is deliberately ignoring to promote the Democrats&#8217; ever-elusive &#8220;collusion&#8221; narrative.
In a series of tweets and retweets on Saturday and Sunday, Trump let his 59 million followers know about the most recent work by conservative government watchdog Judicial Watch regarding the Trump-Russia dossier, the Democrat-funded documented that sparked the &#8220;collusion&#8221; narrative. Judicial Watch obtained the transcript of communications of former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr, whose wife Nellie worked for Fusion GPS, the oppo research firm that hired Christopher Steele to produce the dossier.
In multiple posts, Trump promoted Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton&#8217;s interview with Fox News&#8217; Maria Bartiromo on Sunday about his organization obtaining &#8220;major Ohr-Steele-Fusion GPS collusion&#8221; documents. Those <a href="https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-uncovers-doj-records-showing-numerous-bruce-ohr-communications-with-fusion-gps-and-christopher-steele/">documents</a>, Fitton told Bartiromo, &#8220;confirm to a shocking degree how closely &#8230; and how dishonestly the Justice Department and the FBI were working with this Clinton operative, Christopher Steele&#8221; (video below). In its release of the documents, Judicial Watch <a href="https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-uncovers-doj-records-showing-numerous-bruce-ohr-communications-with-fusion-gps-and-christopher-steele/">reported</a>:
<blockquote>
Judicial Watch announced today it received <a href="http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/JW-v-DOJ-Ohr-Steele-Fusion-GPS-00490.pdf">339 pages</a> of heavily redacted records from the U.S. Department of Justice which reveal that former Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr remained in regular contact with former British spy and Fusion GPS contractor Christopher Steele after Steele <a href="https://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/judicial-watch-fbi-records-show-dossier-author-deemed-not-suitable-for-use-as-source-show-several-fbi-payments-in-2016/">was terminated</a> by the FBI in November 2016 for revealing to the media his position as an FBI confidential informant.
The records show that Ohr served as a go-between for Steele by passing along information to &#8220;his colleagues&#8221; on matters relating to Steele&#8217;s activities. Ohr also set up meetings with Steele, regularly talked to him on the telephone and provided him assistance in dealing with situations Steele was confronting with the media.
</blockquote>
In the interview with Fox, Fitton underscored the connection between former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele and the Clinton campaign, noting that Steele was &#8220;hired by Fusion GPS, who was paid with Clinton campaign and DNC funds, to dig up and create dirt on candidate Trump.&#8221; Steele, said Fitton, had repeated contact with Ohr in 2016 and in 2017 &#8212; well after Steele had been fired by the FBI. Judicial Watch has now documented around 60 communications between Ohr and Steele.
The relationship between Ohr and Steele was not only &#8220;friendly,&#8221; Fitton told Fox, but &#8220;compromised&#8221; because of his wife&#8217;s professional connection to Fusion GPS. &#8220;This &#8216;get Trump&#8217; conspiracy run out of the DOJ and through the Mueller operation deserves a lot of attention,&#8221; Fitton stressed.
Two examples of the pieces of communication between Ohr and Steele that Judicial Watch obtained was Steele stating after Jim Comey was fired, &#8220;Hoping that important firewalls will hold,&#8221; and urging Orh, &#8220;Please do fight [for] our cause&#8221;:
<blockquote>
On March 7, 2017, messages are exchanged between Steel and Bruce Ohr about the Grassley letter:
Steele: Would it be possible to speak later today please? We&#8217;re very concerned by the Grassley letter and it&#8217;s possible implications for our operations and our sources. We need some reassurance. Many thanks
Ohr: Bruce: Sure Would 1:30 today, DC time, work?
Steele: Yes thanks it would&#8230;. I know you&#8217;ll appreciate why we are concerned.
Ohr: Bruce: Of course. [&#8230;]
Steele: Thanks for that, old friend. Please do fight our cause and keep in touch. Really fundamental issues at stake here. Very Best
Ohr: Bruce: Likewise, hang in there!
An exchange beginning on March 18, 2017, tells of apprehension regarding Comey&#8217;s scheduled March 20, 2017, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/comey-confirms-fbi-probing-russia-trump-team-links-disputes-wiretap-claim">testimony</a> before Congress and hopes that &#8220;important firewalls will hold&#8221;:
Steele: Hi! Just wondering if you had any news? Obviously we&#8217;re a bit apprehensive given Comey&#8217;s scheduled appearance at Congress on Monday. Hoping that important firewalls will hold. Many thanks,
Ohr: Bruce: Sorry, no new news. I believe my earlier information is still accurate. I will let you know immediately if there is any change.
</blockquote>
Fitton and Bartiromo also discuss Democrat House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff meeting with Michael Cohen for ten hours prior to his explosive testimony in front of Congress, more &#8220;collusion&#8221; between Democrats and those trying to bring Trump down.
Video and tweets below:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe loading="lazy" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wct0CZ8vKPI" width="853"></iframe></div>

Trump&#8217;s tweets and retweets below:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/JudicialWatch?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JudicialWatch</a> uncovers major Ohr-Steele-Fusion GPS collusion docs PLUS did Schiff conspire with Cohen to smear <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RealDonaldTrump</a>? Joining <a href="https://twitter.com/foxandfriends?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FoxandFriends</a> on <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FoxNews</a> to discuss. <a href="https://t.co/FORpvMngGX">pic.twitter.com/FORpvMngGX</a>
&#8212; Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomFitton/status/1104352803244388352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet"></div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
The real collusion scandal&#8230; why haven&#8217;t Hillary Clinton and her lawyers been questioned about their collusion with Fusion GPS/Russia/DOJ/FBI to get <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>. Great interview with <a href="https://twitter.com/MariaBartiromo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MariaBartiromo</a> this am. <a href="https://t.co/yAVLDrLEAV">https://t.co/yAVLDrLEAV</a> <a href="https://t.co/q84JoDKRno">pic.twitter.com/q84JoDKRno</a>
&#8212; Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomFitton/status/1104828096170074112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
BIG:<a href="https://twitter.com/JudicialWatch?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JudicialWatch</a> Uncovers DOJ Docs Showing Numerous Bruce Ohr Communications with Clinton/DNC&#8217;s Fusion GPS, Christopher Steele &amp; Glenn Simpson; House Dems Harass <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RealDonaldTrump</a>; and <a href="https://twitter.com/JudicialWatch?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JudicialWatch</a> sues to expose FISA abuse cover-up. Our latest Update! <a href="https://t.co/qCWdOjeqbw">https://t.co/qCWdOjeqbw</a> <a href="https://t.co/aTPpAJeA71">pic.twitter.com/aTPpAJeA71</a>
&#8212; Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomFitton/status/1104180883215564800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44438/trump-heres-big-takeaway-manafort-sentencing-no-james-barrett">Trump: Here&#8217;s The Big Takeaway From Manafort&#8217;s Sentencing</a>

Trump: Here’s The Major Democrat ‘Collusion’ Scandal Media’s Ignoring

Democratic Party

Journalism is facing a crisis of credibility in America, yet all so-called journalists want to do about it is claim President Donald Trump is unfairly attacking them.
A <a href="https://www.cjr.org/special_report/how-does-journalism-happen-poll.php/">new poll</a> for the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) has found that not only do Americans have little confidence in our press institutions, but they have little confidence in what journalists actually do. For example, 60% of those polled (including 54% of Democrats and 70% of Republicans) &#8220;believe reporters get paid by their sources sometimes or very often.&#8221;
That&#8217;s a surprisingly high percentage, and one has to wonder where people are getting that idea, as it&#8217;s not a widely reported phenomenon.
Maybe more people are paying attention than we think. There is a looming scandal in American journalism. Court documents relating to an investigation by the House Intelligence Committee into Fusion GPS &#8212; the opposition firm responsible for the uncorroborated &#8220;dossier&#8221; claiming Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election &#8212; revealed the oppo firm paid several journalists who went on to report on the Russia probe.
Court documents from November 2017 reviewed by The Daily Wire include a section about &#8220;requested records&#8221; of &#8220;12 transactions associated with payments to four journalists and/or researchers&#8221; and &#8220;12 transactions associated with payments from Media Company A.&#8221; The names of the company and journalists are not given, and are currently behind a gag order, meaning they cannot be released.
Also in November, my former employer, the Washington Examiner, <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/fusion-gps-paid-journalists-court-papers-confirm">reported on court documents</a> relating to this same case which mentioned &#8220;payments to three journalists between June 2016 until February 2017.&#8221;
&#8220;The revelation could be a breakthrough for House Republicans, who are exploring whether Fusion GPS used the dossier, which was later criticized for having inaccurate information on Trump, to feed anti-Trump stories to the press during and after the presidential campaign. The three journalists who were paid by Fusion GPS are known to have reported on &#8216;Russia issues relevant to [the committee&#8217;s] investigation,&#8217; the House Intelligence Committee said in a court filing,&#8221; the Examiner reported.
Fusion GPS denied that the journalists were paid to write stories for the firm, saying instead it paid them for research.
&#8220;Fusion GPS is a research firm set up by former investigative journalists,&#8221; Fusion GPS lawyer Josh Levy told the Examiner. &#8220;As such, it sometimes works with contractors that have specialized skills seeking public information. Contractors are not permitted to publish any articles based on that work, and Fusion GPS does not pay journalists to write stories.&#8221;
Fusion GPS also set up meetings between ex-British spy Christopher Steele, who created the dossier, and media outlets, including Yahoo News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and CNN, as well as a reporter from Mother Jones.
The percentage of Americans who believe journalists are routinely paid by their sources to write articles is one interesting point from the CJR study. The media needs to take a look in the mirror and wonder why, as an institution, Americans distrust it.
Steve Cortes, a contributor to Real Clear Politics and CNN political commentator, <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/02/25/stop_earning_the_enemy_of_the_people_label_139569.html">recently wrote of three examples</a> of why people should distrust the media, including former RNC chair Michael Steele saying on MSNBC that Trump must have been upset that a mentally disturbed former Coast Guard lieutenant wasn&#8217;t able to murder journalists. An MSNBC host said he was &#8220;brave&#8221; to say so.

Americans Think Journalists Are Paid By Their Sources. At Least Some Actually Are.

Journalism

Media Bias

Poll

A woman married to a Justice Department official involved with the investigation into whether President Donald Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election was asked by her employer, opposition research firm Fusion GPS, to investigate Trump&#8217;s children.
Nellie Ohr used to work for Fusion GPS. Her husband, Bruce Ohr, works for the Justice Department and is heavily tied to the Russian collusion investigation. While working for Fusion, Nellie was asked to investigate Trump&#8217;s children. She also told lawmakers in her October 19, 2018 deposition that ex-British Spy Christopher Steele, who was also a contractor for Fusion and responsible for the infamous Steele Dossier used to accuse Trump of a number of salacious acts, had passed information from his dossier to Bruce in the hopes that he would turn it over to the FBI.
Nellie&#8217;s testimony has been recently leaked, transcripts of which <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/01/30/nellie-ohr-ivanka-trump-fusion-gps/">were confirmed</a> by The Daily Caller News Foundation&#8217;s (DCNF) Chuck Ross.
Ross reported that it was &#8220;unclear whether Ohr shared any information that she gathered working for Fusion GPS with her husband, who served as associate deputy attorney general until he was reassigned in December 2017.&#8221; He also reported there is &#8220;no indication that Ohr&#8217;s research of the Trump children wound up in the dossier, which the FBI used to obtain surveillance warrants against Carter Page.&#8221;
Is it possible that Nellie did not share information with her husband, even though Steele did? Sure, but it&#8217;s hard to look past Bruce Ohr&#8217;s clear conflict of interest.
Fusion GPS was working on behalf of a law firm hired by Hillary Clinton&#8217;s campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Nellie testified that she was given information from Steele&#8217;s dossier without knowing it, and did not see the completed dossier until Buzzfeed broke journalistic ethics to publish it on January 10, 2017. She also testified that she was asked to research Trump&#8217;s family.
&#8220;But in terms of actually performing research, did you begin to break out President Trump&#8217;s family in terms of Melania Trump, all of his children? Were you doing independent research based off of each family member?&#8221; Nellie was asked during her testimony, according to the DCNF.
Nellie responded that she &#8220;did some research on all of them, but not into much depth.&#8221;
When asked if she looked into Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump specifically, Nellie said she did, but &#8220;it was relatively superficial.&#8221; She said she looked into their travels &#8220;to see whether they were involved in dealings and transactions with people who had had suspicious pasts.&#8221;
Ross also notes several conflicting accounts in the testimony of Bruce Ohr and Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion:
&#8220;Simpson testified to the Intelligence committee on Nov. 14, 2017 that he did not meet with anyone from the Justice Department or FBI until after the election. But Ohr testified that he met Simpson on Aug. 22, 2016.&#8221;
&#8220;Democrats on House Intelligence also claimed in a memo released last year that Ohr did not pass information he gleaned from Fusion GPS or Steele until after the election. But Ohr testified that he contacted top FBI officials almost immediately after his July 30, 2016 meeting with Steele.&#8221;

Fusion GPS Had Wife Of DOJ Official Investigate Trump’s Children: Report

Donald Trump Jr.

Ivanka Trump

Way back in March of 2018, McClatchy <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180316010153/https:/www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article205412394.html">ran a story</a> with the headline &#8220;NRA lawyer said to have had concerns about group&#8217;s ties to Russia.&#8221; The premise of the story was that Cleta Mitchell allegedly told someone, at some point, that she had concerns about the National Rifle Association&#8217;s potential involvement in helping Russia steal the election for President Donald Trump in 2016.
The original article, published March 15, 2018, claimed &#8220;two sources familiar with the matter&#8221; had said this, but the sources were anonymous and not listed as anyone from the NRA or in Mitchell&#8217;s current circles. In the fourth paragraph, McClatchy quotes Mitchell saying the entire story was a &#8220;complete fabrication.&#8221; The article goes on to continue claiming Mitchell said this and what the consequences for the NRA might be if it was actually tied to Russia and if Trump actually colluded with the country to steal the election from Hillary Clinton. The article mentioned Mitchell was on a list of people House Democrats wanted to talk to regarding alleged Russian collusion.
The whole story appeared to be a Fusion GPS smear. Fusion GPS is an opposition research firm associated with the Russia-collusion theory. The McClatchy story follows a basic pattern that indicates involvement from Fusion GPS:
1. The story is reported from the angle that someone is investigating an alleged claim as a way to report the story without the media outlet engaging in libel by making the claim themselves.
2. The sources for the story are incredibly vague, such as people &#8220;familiar with the matter&#8221; or unnamed people with no direct connection to the claims being made.
3. The story appears to confirm a claim made by the dossier compiled by ex-British Spy Christopher Steele that included numerous salacious claims about Trump and alleged Russian collusion.
4. Few, if any, details are given to prove the story other than what&#8217;s stated in the headline.
For the Mitchell story, the claim is made that &#8220;Congressional investigators&#8221; are looking to talk to Mitchell about the NRA&#8217;s alleged involvement with Russia and Trump&#8217;s campaign. &#8220;[T]wo sources familiar with the matter&#8221; are the only sources listed in the story. The article appears to confirm one of the Steele dossier claims &#8211; that the Trump campaign received money from Russia to win the election. Finally, the headline gives almost all the information in the story except that congressional investigators are looking into the matter.
Mitchell vehemently denied the claims, and no one knew where they originated.
Fast forward to August 13, 2018, and you see how the story came about. In an article for The Daily Caller, Chuck Ross <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/08/13/bruce-ohr-glenn-simpson-nra/">reported on handwritten notes</a> by Bruce Ohr, a Justice Department official heavily involved with Fusion GPS and the Russia investigation. In the notes, Ohr wrote that Glenn Simpson, founder of Fusion GPS, was the one who made the claim about Mitchell.
&#8220;An NRA lawyer named Cleta Mitchell found out about the money pipeline and was very upset, but the election was over,&#8221; Simpson said, according to Ohr.
This is the only on-the-record documentation of anyone making this claim, so it appears this is McClatchy&#8217;s &#8220;sources familiar with the matter.&#8221; It also looks like Fusion GPS researchers made a mistake, as both Simpson and McClatchy misstate Mitchell as a current NRA lawyer. She had not represented the NRA for a decade.
McClatchy eventually <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180425041745/https:/www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article205412394.html">corrected its article</a>, changing the headline to &#8220;Lawyer who worked for NRA said to have had concerns about group&#8217;s Russia ties&#8221; and moving her limited denial from the fourth paragraph to the third paragraph.
Also in August 2018, The Wall Street Journal published an article about the smear of the NRA and Mitchell in an article titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/anatomy-of-a-fusion-smear-1535757026">Anatomy of a Fusion Smear</a>.&#8221; Five days later, on September 5, Scott Johnson of Powerline Blog <a href="https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2018/09/fake-news-a-case-study-2.php">published the actual email exchange</a> between Mitchell and McClatchy reporters Greg Gordon and Peter Stone. This appears to be the only article about the actual emails written and part of the reason I&#8217;m writing about them now.
The <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/387915015/Cleta-Mitchell-McClatchy-Email-Correspondence-Google-Docs#from_embed">emails show</a> just how committed McClatchy was to pushing a narrative no matter what Mitchell said. I&#8217;ve never gotten such a vehement denial from someone I was reporting on. The McClatchy article includes one section &#8211; 13 paragraphs into the story &#8211; of her full denial.
<blockquote>
&#8220;I have no knowledge of anything like this and zero concerns whatsoever about anyone &#8212; Russians or otherwise &#8212; who &#8216;funneled&#8217; funds to / through NRA,&#8221; she said. The NRA &#8221; [sic]is meticulous about following all the rules. This is all a complete fabrication.&#8221;
</blockquote>
The full exchange, beginning on March 14, 2018, shows reporter Peter Stone gave Mitchell limited details about his information on her while asking for her to comment. In his first email, he wrote, &#8220;Hi Cleta&#8211;I&#8217;m working on a short piece today that deals with the Congressional probes into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections and saw your name on the House Intel document that was released yesterday and have heard other details from sources about your concerns. Can you talk briefly on background today pre or post lunch? thanks Peter.&#8221;
Mitchell asked for more information, and Stone told her it was a follow-up post about &#8220;Russian banker and life time NRA member Alexander Torshin and whether he may have funneled funds improperly through the NRA or an allied conduit to influence the elections and help Trump win.&#8221; He noted Mitchell&#8217;s name was on the list sent out by House Democrats and that a source he trusts claims she expressed concern about the group&#8217;s alleged links to Russia. The first of Mitchell&#8217;s denials followed:
<blockquote>
No. I have no knowledge of anything like this and zero concerns whatsoever about anyone &#8211; Russians or otherwise &#8212; who &#8220;funneled&#8221; funds to / through NRA. Anyone who says otherwise is lying. NRA is meticulous about following all the rules. This is all a complete fabrication. And it is absolutely outrageous that the Democrats are leaking documents to you and other reporters. If they want to talk to me, they are wasting everyone&#8217;s time and money but I would be happy to talk to them in order to tell them how offensive and horrible I think they are. You are welcome to quote me that this is all totally ridiculous. You guys are all outrageous. Wish all of you would get over your fantasies, get a life and do something productive and useful. This certainly isn&#8217;t.
</blockquote>
Stone told her the list wasn&#8217;t leaked, to which Mitchell responded they were just &#8220;grasping at straws&#8221; and that the Democrats &#8220;have nothing.&#8221;
Stone didn&#8217;t give up the story and ended up publishing the next day. Mitchell sent an email on March 16, 2018 demanding Stone and McClatchy change the headline and calling the story &#8220;fake news.&#8221;
<blockquote>
Peter. Either you get this headline changed or don&#8217;t ever ever ever call me again. This is a COMPLETE lie and don&#8217;t tell me the old &#8220;I don&#8217;t write the headlines&#8221;. You go tell your editor that this is a lie and you obviously didn&#8217;t write your lead paragraph correctly. This is FAKE NEWS and you need to fix it. You better do that. Such lies. Such liars. All of you. It is disgraceful.
</blockquote>
She then sent another email saying the first paragraph was a lie, from an unnamed source and posted her denial paragraphs later. Stone responded that the outlet would be &#8220;changing the headline at the top of the home page, tweaking the first sentence, and moving up your denial from the 4th graf to the 3rd.&#8221;
Mitchell responded by asking why the denial wasn&#8217;t the crux of the story, or why the story wasn&#8217;t about how the Democrats &#8220;are full of crap to even list me?&#8221; She continued to say she wasn&#8217;t simply &#8220;denying&#8221; the story, she&#8217;s telling them there is no story. She also informed them she hadn&#8217;t done legal work for the NRA for a decade and certainly wasn&#8217;t a lawyer for them in 2016. She continued calling McClatchy &#8220;fake news.&#8221; Mitchell also notes that several other outlets approached her with this story (meaning it was shopped around) but didn&#8217;t write about it after speaking with her. McClatchy was the only story to bite, and allowed other outlets to then write up the story from the angle that &#8220;McClatchy reported.&#8221; See how this circular reporting works?
The McClatchy story is still reported from the view that Mitchell said these things, but that she denies doing so.
The reason I report these emails even though they&#8217;re months old is that Stone and Gordon are also behind the recent McClatchy article claiming former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen&#8217;s cell phone &#8220;pinged&#8221; from somewhere near Prague, where he allegedly paid Russia-linked hackers for stealing emails from Democrats. Cohen, like Mitchell, has vehemently denied doing any such thing and says he hasn&#8217;t even been to Prague.
In April, McClatchy <a href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article208870264.html">wrote an article</a> titled &#8220;Sources: Mueller has evidence Cohen was in Prague in 2016, confirming part of dossier.&#8221; The authors were none other than Stone and Gordon. This story also followed the Fusion GPS formula: Someone, in this case, the &#8220;Justice Department special counsel,&#8221; who is investigating alleged Russia collusion with the Trump campaign; again, there are &#8220;two sources familiar with the matter&#8221;; the story appears to confirm part of the Steele dossier; and no real details are given beyond the headline.
The Cohen-in-Prague story should have been one of the easiest to verify. You can&#8217;t travel to another country undetected. Cohen has shown his passport has not been stamped by the Czech Republic and no media outlet has been able to find one shred of evidence that he ever visited the country. A Washington Post reporter <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/16/fbi-cia-doubted-dossier/">said during his recent book tour</a> that the media outlet &#8220;sent reporters through every hotel in Prague, through all over the place, just to try to figure out if he was ever there, and came away empty.&#8221; Naturally, the Post hasn&#8217;t reported this and continues to publish Fusion GPS-planted stories about Russian collusion.
McClatchy then wrote <a href="https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/investigations/article219016820.html">a follow-up article</a> on December 27 claiming a cell signal from Cohen&#8217;s phone &#8220;briefly sent signals ricocheting off cell towers in the Prague area in late summer 2016, at the height of the presidential campaign, leaving an electronic record to support claims that Cohen met secretly there with Russian officials, four people with knowledge of the matter say.&#8221;
First, &#8220;in the Prague area&#8221; doesn&#8217;t mean Prague. Second, this story again follows the Fusion GPS model, with the alleged cell-phone data supposedly in the possession of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who&#8217;s leading the investigation into alleged Russian involvement. The obvious question is that if Mueller really had evidence Cohen was in Prague, why wasn&#8217;t this reported by outlets other than McClatchy (instead of just linking to McClatchy) as the smoking gun in the whole Russia theory, and why was Cohen allowed to plea down instead of being charged with treason?
Other outlets, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/is-the-michael-cohen-prague-story-true">including the left-leaning Daily Beast</a>, pointed out how questionable the McClatchy reporting was on the cell data.
&#8220;A number of major media outlets have attempted to stand up the allegation that Cohen visited Prague in 2016, but McClatchy remains the only outlet that has published evidence suggesting a meeting may have taken place. Multiple prominent national security reporters told The Daily Beast they were unconvinced by the story, noting its lack of detail and both reporters&#8217; interviews, at times tortured, about their report on MSNBC,&#8221; the Beast wrote.
During one of these interviews, Gordon acknowledged that he had no direct evidence or sources to confirm his reporting, just that he had sources who had sources (that&#8217;s not a typo).
&#8220;The sources have&#8212;some of the sources have government sources, and some of the sources are&#8212;are people who have told us that they have trusted intelligence-type sources that they get information from,&#8221; Gordon told MSNBC&#8217;s Joy Reid. He also told Reid he &#8220;wish we had&#8221; corroborating evidence for the story.
If nothing else, this demonstrates clear bias on the part of Gordon and Stone, who rushed to report something they could not verify.
Other outlets then link to the McClatchy reports to insulate themselves from making the unverified, improbably claims themselves. This is how America knows about the Steele dossier in the first place. Multiple media outlets who wouldn&#8217;t report on the salacious and unverifiable claims about then-president elect Donald Trump. It wasn&#8217;t until CNN reported that Trump had been briefed on this alleged dossier and Buzzfeed broke journalistic ethics to publish the dossier that the media began reporting about it. No one could verify the dossier (no matter how badly they wanted to) so they had to couch their reporting behind something official. In this case, that Trump was briefed on the dossier, therefore that&#8217;s what the outlets reported on and somehow that makes the dossier legitimate.

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