https://twitter.com/seanmdav/with_replies
Posted on 10/28/2017 8:30:54 AM PDT by EdnaMode
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 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.
During a segment on his show, he asserted that “some of the details [of the dossier] have been proven accurate.” 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 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. characterizations.
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.
What's the connection between WFB and Billy Kristol.
Another interesting small town lead is the connection from Kristol's daughter to the ever-popular, Mika.
The scorecard needs to updated to include spouses and sons-in-law.
http://nypost.com/2017/06/24/inside-the-shadowy-intelligence-firm-behind-the-trump-dossier/
In September 2016, while Fusion GPS was quietly shopping the dirty dossier on Trump around Washington, its co-founder and partner Peter R. Fritsch contributed at least $1,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund and the Hillary For America campaign, Federal Election Commission data show. His wife also donated money to Hillary’s campaign.
Property records show that in June 2016, as Clinton allies bankrolled Fusion GPS, Fritsch bought a six-bedroom, five-bathroom home in Bethesda, Md., for $2.3 million.
Fritsch did not respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Fusion GPS said the firm’s work is confidential.
Sources say Fusion GPS had its own interest, beyond those of its clients, in promulgating negative gossip about Trump.
Fritsch, who served as the Journal’s bureau chief in Mexico City and has lectured at the liberal Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute, married into a family with Mexican business interests. His wife, Beatriz Garcia, formerly worked as an executive at Grupo Dina, a manufacturer of trucks and buses in Mexico City that benefits from NAFTA, which Trump opposes.
Fritsch’s Fusion GPS partner Thomas Catan, who grew up in Britain, once edited a business magazine in Mexico. A third founding partner, Glenn Simpson, is reported to have shared dark views of both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump. Before joining Fusion GPS, Simpson did opposition research for a former Clinton White House operative.
“What’s the connection between WFB and Billy Kristol.”
*****
Kristol’s daughter is married to Matthew Continetti, the editor of the Washington Free Beacon.
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/with_replies
Talk without indictments is bullsh*t.
When does the bullsh*t stop and the indictments begin?
Can someone please pour a 20 gallon bucket of extremely icy water over the head of our long-slumbering “Attorney General”?
Time to wake his worthless *ss UP!
The Bacon Brand is highly tainted.
Someone on the radio yesterday, a guest on one of the shows, said that Fusion pays payola to media people to control stories by putting out talking points or squashing certain stories. With all the evidence in the form of montages Hannity or Rush have put together using different media sources on air, using the exact same verbiage on an issue, 20+ clips at a time, how can we not believe there is a Lead Source controlling them with $?
Good stuff. Making the connections. They should not get away with this.
It’s not named Fusion for nothing. This is an unlawful collusion of globalist Jo’s, media, government functionaries (Deep State), and foreign operatives. Its a fusion of evil, anti-Constitutional forces.
Sorry, i hate keyboards on phones. Jo’s should be NGOs.
More loose ends....
Searching on DuckDuckGo...
fusion gps, anita dunn, bauer
more... controlled the media
bookmark
Thus far, CNN led with the “indictments Monday” story and MSN and others have run the same story, quoting CNN.
So let’s be smart instead of just accepting everything that runs on CNN as gospel. For all we know this could have been a test to “out” leakers prior to the real indictments. Ironically no “sources” contacted any other media outlet...just CNN, who reported:
“A federal grand jury in Washington, DC, on Friday approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to sources briefed on the matter.
The charges are still sealed under orders from a federal judge. Plans were prepared Friday for anyone charged to be taken into custody as soon as Monday, the sources said. It is unclear what the charges are.
A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment.”
I noted on CNN this morning a coverage of the pre Halloween visits by children, traditionally to the White House. Even then showing the little kids and the President, CNN could not stop themselves. I am sure it is not just me..... but snide remarks were made by CNN. These directed at President Trump. No shame at all, none!
http://freebeacon.com/politics/top-clinton-campaign-lawyer-helped-open-big-money-floodgates/
Top Clinton Campaign Lawyer Helped Open Big Money Floodgates
Clinton has claimed she wants to reduce the amount of money in politics
June 22, 2015 5:00 am
Hillary Clinton’s top campaign lawyer was a key figure in a fight that allowed wealthy individuals to drastically increase the amount of money they could give to party committees, despite pledges by Clinton to combat money in politics.
As the Clinton team was shaping up earlier this year, they quietly brought aboard Marc Elias, a top campaign finance lawyer. Elias, who is a partner at the Washington D.C. law firm Perkins Coie and was general counsel for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, was just one month removed from drafting a provision that contradicted Clinton’s stated promises.
Elias was called in by the office of Harry Reid late last year to help craft a provision added into the $1.1 trillion spending bill at the last minute. The provision effectively raised the amount of money donors can give to political parties from $97,400 to $777,600.
The sudden addition of the provision surprised legislators on both sides of the aisle. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) commented at the time she did not know about it until one day before the vote on the year-end bill.
Politico reported that Elias’ firm, Perkins Coie, could benefit from the provision’s stealth implementation, which also allows for higher contributions to the legal fees of the committees.
Alongside Elias, Perkins Coie is led by Bob Bauer, who served as chief counsel to the Obama White House from January 2010 to June 2011. The firm, which is described as having a “stranglehold” on Democratic clients, has raked in more than $40 million in legal fees since 2000 from clients ranging from Obama to the Democratic National Committee.
(snip)
CNN another member in Sorosville.
Great data.
The DC Swamp runs through the Gulf of Mexico, across Mexico, to the Baha and then up and down the Pacific coast.
My, my, my ....What a precious group of scoundrels.
Lie big and steal big.
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