Fusion GPS has been used by
both Dems and GOP as a source of Oppo Research by political candidates. Fusion
GPS is not alone in this political function. Oppo Research is essentially mudslinging
that might be the truth but often is mixed with half-truths. If there is a half-truth,
then there is a half-lie.
Pertaining to Fusion GPS and President Trump, Oppo Research
was first requested by a yet undisclosed Republican candidate for the GOP
nomination for President (perhaps via Washington Free Beacon).
The MSM reports this but fails to inform readers – whoever that candidate was –
dropped their involvement with Fusion GPS when Donald Trump wrapped up the GOP
nomination.
THEN Fusion GPS shopped out the Oppo Research to the Dems.
That is where the now proven fraudulent so-called Trump Dossier was fabricated
by an ex-MI6 British agent (Christopher Steele) probably
with Russian help.
Now unsurprisingly, it is being reported Fusion GPS has a
close relationship with the Communist News Network – aka CNN, the very network
that has been pushing Fake News Trump/Russia collusion rather telling the truth
of Crooked Hillary/DNC/Fusion GPS/Russian collusion in the November 2016 U.S.
election.
JRH 10/29/17 (Hat Tip: Digg Deeper Email from Digg.com)
********************
CNN’s Undisclosed Ties To Fusion GPS
10/28/2017 1:07
AM
CNN’s reporting on
the Trump-Russia dossier has left out at least one crucial fact: the close ties
between the network and the opposition research firm at the center of the
dossier controversy.
CNN’s reporting on
the dossier, led by justice correspondent Evan Perez, has been favorable
to the firm, Fusion GPS, and hyped the dossier’s credibility. Left out of
Perez’s reporting, which has relied largely on unnamed sources, is his personal
closeness to Fusion GPS’ operatives. Fusion has repeatedly been described in
Senate testimonies as a smear-for-hire operation that manufactures misleading
or false media narratives for its clients.
Glenn Simpson, the
Fusion co-founder most often associated with the dossier, is used to working on
stories with Perez. As reporters at The Wall Street Journal, Perez and
Simpson regularly co-authored stories on
national security.
Another Fusion
founder, Tom Catan, worked as a reporter for the Journal at the same time as
Perez and Simpson. The third Fusion co-founder, Peter Fritsch, worked
above Perez and Simpson as the senior national security editor.
Simpson and Fritsch
left the WSJ in 2011 to launch Fusion. Perez jumped from the paper to CNN in
2013. Another longtime Journal reporter, Neil King, left the paper to join
Fusion in December 2016.
Photos posted to
Facebook underscore the personal closeness between Perez and the Fusion GPS
operatives. One photo posted by Perez shows King, who left the Journal for
Fusion in December 2016, and another man posing for a picture at The Bullpen,
an outdoor bar right outside of the Washington Nationals’ stadium.
The Bullpen is a
popular fan destination before baseball games. King is shown wearing a shirt
with the Nationals name and logo across the front. The photo was posted in
August 2016, four months before King joined Fusion GPS.
Another photo, from
September 2015, shows Perez, King and Fusion co-founder Peter Fritsch.
In 2011, the same
year that Fritsch co-founded Fusion, Perez posted two photos on Facebook from
an apparent fishing trip with Fritsch. The photos show the Wall Street Journal
alum holding a fishing rod and standing ankle-deep in a lake. In one of the
photos, Fritsch can be seen flipping the camera his middle finger.
At no point in
Perez’s reporting did he disclose his close ties to the Fusion GPS operatives.
The Wall Street
Journal’s editorial board sounded the alarm about its former reporters in a
remarkable editorial earlier
this month, accusing Beltway media of being complicit in a coverup with Fusion.
“Americans don’t need a Justice Department coverup abetted by Glenn Simpson’s
media buddies,” the editors wrote in a scathing takedown of the firm.
Simpson’s wife, Mary
Jacoby, bragged about his role in the dossier in a lengthy June 2017 Facebook
post reviewed by The Daily Caller.
Jacoby claimed that
“some people still don’t realize what Glenn’s role was in exposing Putin’s
control of Donald Trump,” referencing the dossier’s thesis. The dossier claimed
that Russians had evidence of damaging information on Trump that they would use
to blackmail him, an explosive accusation for which there remains no public
evidence.
CNN’s coverage of
the dossier has been relatively soft. CNN anchor Jake Tapper, usually known for
his aggressive coverage, gave Fusion a pass while reporting on the story
Wednesday evening.
“Certainly some of
the more lurid charges in that dossier remain uncorroborated, but some of the
details have been proven accurate,” Tapper said. But the newsman failed to
mention reporting he did back in January that called the dossier’s credibility
into question.
On Jan. 10, the day
that BuzzFeed published the dossier, Tapper cited a government source who told
him that a key claim in the dossier about Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, was
false. The dossier alleged that Cohen traveled to Prague last August to meet
with Kremlin operatives. But Tapper reported that government officials believed
that a different Michael Cohen had actually traveled to the Czech Republic. Tapper
has not acknowledge[d] that reporting since that initial segment. (RELATED: Jake
Tapper’s Dodgy Dossier Reporting)
CNN’s reporting on
the dossier has similarly muddied the waters with incorrect information
on multiple other occasions.
CNN did not respond
to The Daily Caller’s request for comment about Perez’s ties to Fusion’s
partners.
Fusion GPS,
currently at the center of the Russia investigation, has a reputation for
working misinformation into the media for political clients.
Thor Halvorssen,
founder of the Human Rights Foundation, described Fusion
GPS as “highly paid smear experts” in written testimony to the Senate Judiciary
Committee. He says that the firm went after him several years ago because he
criticized a corrupt Venezuelan company Derwick Associates that counted Fusion
as a client.
Alek Boyd, a former
associate of Halvorssen’s, says he was also targeted in a similar smear
campaign because he drew attention to Derwick’s alleged financial misdeeds. He
said he also faced false allegations of being a pedophile, sexual deviant and
drug addict.
“Fusion is basically
a pen-for-hire shop, whose owners are prepared to concoct completely spurious
stories that are fed to media contacts developed over years of legitimate work
in reputable outlets,” Boyd told TheDC.
Bill Browder, a
renowned human rights activist and top Putin enemy, offered similar testimony
before the committee.
Browder described
how Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, the same attorney that met with
Donald Trump Jr. last year, used Fusion GPS to conduct a smear campaign against
him.
“Veselnitskaya,
through Baker Hostetler, hired Glenn Simpson of the firm Fusion GPS to conduct
a smear campaign against me and Sergei Magnitsky in advance of congressional
hearings on the Global Magnitsky Act,” Browder stated in his written testimony.
“He contacted a
number of major newspapers and other publications to spread false information
that Sergei Magnitsky was not murdered, was not a whistle-blower, and was
instead a criminal. They also spread false information that my presentations to
lawmakers around the world were untrue,” Browder said.
Browder’s testimony
drew bipartisan praise, with California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking
Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, praising Browder’s account as
“some of the best testimony I’ve ever heard.”
CNN has faced
scrutiny in the past for its reporting on the Russia probe. Two prominent CNN
reporters and an editor were forced to leave the network after repeated mistakes in
covering the Russia probe, including one report that CNN retracted entirely. (RELATED: CNN’s Wolf
Blitzer Humiliates Colleague Over Quality Of Her Sources)
This article has
been updated to include Tapper’s full quote, in which he neglected to mention
his previous reporting calling the dossier’s credibility into question.
__________________
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