Unsealed court documents reveal that the firm behind the salacious 34-page Trump-Russia Dossier, Fusion GPS, was paid $523,000 by a Russian businessman convicted of tax fraud and money laundering, whose lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, was a key figure in the infamous June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower arranged by Fusion GPS associate Rob Goldstone.
In short, D.C. opposition research firm Fusion GPS is the common denominator linked to two schemes used to damage the Trump campaign.
Founded in 2011 by former Wall St. Journal journalist Glenn Simpson and two other WSJ alumni, Fusion was responsible for the Clinton/DNC – funded dossier (which two Kremlin officials participated in), and was also involved in the infamous Trump Tower meeting with the Russian attorney of another Fusion client – an encounter some suspect may have been used to obtain a FISA wiretapping warrant on the Trump campaign.
He worked closely with Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who also showed up at the infamous Trump Tower meeting held on June 9, 2016.
Simpson’s research ended up in the Trump Tower meeting in the form of a four-page memo carried by Veselnitskaya. She also shared Simpson’s work with Yuri Chaika, the prosecutor general of Russia.
Simpson told the House Intelligence Committee earlier this week that he did not know that Veselnitskaya provided the Browder information to Chaika or to Donald Trump Jr., the Trump campaign’s point-man in the Trump Tower meeting. –Daily Caller
Of note, the 34-page dossier created by Fusion was reportedly used to obtain a FISA surveillance warrant on one-time adviser to the Trump campaign, Carter Page.
Quite a bit more notable is the fact that Glenn Simpson met with Natalia Veselnitskaya hours before the Trump Tower meeting, and also met with Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta the day after the 34-page dossier was published by BuzzFeed. Glenn gets around.
InFusion of Funds
The Daily Caller‘s Chuck Ross – who has done an outstanding job turning over stones and finding gold – now reports that the heavily redacted Fusion GPS bank records unsealed Tuesday reveal DNC law firm Perkins Coie paid Fusion a total of $1,024,408 in 2016 for opposition research on then-candidate Donald Trump – including the 34-page dossier.
Ross also reports that law firm Baker Hostelter paid Fusion $523,651 between March and October 2016 on behalf of a company owned by Russian businessman and money launderer Denis Katsyv to research Bill Browder, a London banker who helped push through the Magnitsky Act – named after deceased Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who Browder hired to investigate Russian corruption.
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. –Bill Browder, Testimony to Senate Judiciary Committee, 7/26/17
Magnitsky Act
Magnitsky uncovered a high level embezzlement and money laundering scheme, sanctioned by Russian Officials, in which large sums of money were stolen from the Russian government and invested in New York real estate. Some of the missing funds were traced to Katsyv‘s firm, Prevezon Holdings Ltd., which settled with the Justice Department in 2017 – paying $5.9 million in fines.
Magnitsky was arrested and thrown in prison for just under a year, where he died seven days before he was to be released. He developed gall stones, pancreatitis, and a blocked gall bladder for which he received little to no medical care, and was found to have been physically assaulted shortly before he died.
In response to Magnitsky’s horrific death and because Russian money laundering occurred on US soil, Congress and President Obama enacted the Magnitsky act in 2012 – imposing sanctions on Russia and barring Russian officials believed to be involved in Magnitsky’s death from entering the United States. Russia retaliated by halting an adoption program for US foster parents.
Enter Natalia
What’s strange is that Katsyv’s attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya – a John McCain fan, was initially denied entry into the United States, only to be granted entry under “extraordinary circumstances” by Obama’s Homeland Security Department and approved by former AG Loretta Lynch so she could represent Fusion GPS client Denis Katsyv’s company, Prevezon Holdings – and attend the meeting at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr. – arranged by Fusion GPS associate Rob Goldstone.
Let’s Review:
- Russian businessman Denis Katsyv was a key figure in an embezzlement and money laundering scheme involving New York real estate, uncovered by Russian lawyer and accountant Sergei Magnitsky. Magnitsky died in Moscow’s Butyrka prison after a year of inhumane treatment.
- The embezzlement scheme uncovered by Magnitsky along with the circumstances behind his death resulted in the Magnitsky Act – a bipartisan bill signed in December 2012 by President Obama which imposed sanctions on Russia.
- Katsyv settled with the U.S. Justice department in 2017, paying a paltry $5.9 million in 2017 to settle the case – less than 3% of the amount originally sought by federal prosecutors.
- Katsyv’s attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, lobbied to remove the sanctions imposed by the Magnitsky Act.
- Fusion GPS was paid $523,651 by Katsyv to investigate London Banker Bill Browder who pushed for the Magnitsky Act
- Fusion GPS associate Rob Goldstone set up the infamous meeting at Trump Tower between Donald Trump Jr., Katsyv’s lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and various associates. The meeting was pitched to Trump Jr. as a “discussion on adoption” (not opposition research on Hillary Clinton) and was shut down by Trump after it became clear Veselnitskaya wanted to discuss the Magnitsky Act, which Don Jr. apparently didn’t realize was linked to the adoption issue. Others present at the meeting include Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and Goldstone.
- Hours before the Trump Tower meeting, Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson met with Veselnitskaya.
Meanwhile…
- Fusion GPS was paid $1,024,408 by a DNC law firm, funded in part by Hillary Clinton and the DNC, to create the salacious 34 page dossier.
- Fusion paid former British spy Christopher Steele $168,000 to assemble the document (which had the cooperation of two senior Kremlin officials).
- Clinton campaign manager John Podesta met with Fusion CEO Glenn Simpson the day after the 34 page dossier was made public.
For their efforts, Fusion GPS was paid over $1.5 million dollars between Hillary Clinton, the DNC, and the holding company owned by pro-Kremlin businessman Denis Katsyv.
Russian Ties Galore!
Looking at other Russian affiliations on the left – since that’s the entire impetus of the witch hunt against President Trump:
- Russia gained control over 20% of United States uranium after the Clinton Foundation received $145 million from Uranium One affiliates and Russian oligarchs connected to the deal.
- The Obama administration approved the transaction after the FBI knew of a Russian plot to corner the US Uranium market and a racketeering scheme involving a Kentucky trucking company. Over 5,000 documents and a video of Russians preparing a briefcase stuffed with bribe money for Obama administration officials were obtained by an FBI informant.
- Bill Clinton met with Vladimir Putin at his house in Russia, the same day he collected $500,000 for a speech to a Russian bank which upgraded Uranium One stock. Clinton sought approval from Hillary Clinton’s State Department to meet with 15 Russians.
- Tony Podesta, brother of John Podesta, lobbied for Uranium One after Russia state-owned energy giant Rosatom owned the company outright.
- Tony Podesta met regularly with Clinton Foundation and was considered “basically part” of the organization, according to a former long-time executive of the Podesta Group, who also said Podesta was “peddling Russian oligarchs” all over D.C.
- Clinton campaign chief and longtime DNC operative John Podesta recommended that Tony Podesta hire Hillary Clinton’s chief legislative advisor at the State Department, David Adams, which allowed a direct link between the firm’s Russian clients and the Obama administration.
- John Podesta sat on the board and owned shares in Joule Unlimited – a green-energy company which received $35 million from the Russian government while Hillary Clinton served as Secretary of State. In addition to Podesta, Joule’s board of directors included senior Russian official Anatoly Chubais and oligarch Reuben Vardanyan – a Putin appointee to the Russian economic modernization council. Podesta jettisoned his shares before the 2016 election, transferring them to his daughter via a shell corporation.
Unfortunately, Attorney General Jeff Sessions feels there isn’t ‘enough basis‘ to investigate any or all of the above.
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From the Approved by Lynch link
The Homeland Security Department confirmed Friday that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was granted special entry to the United States on multiple occasions in 2015 and 2016 at the request of the Justice Department.
It also said Veselnitskaya eventually won a nonimmigrant work visa around the time she met President Trump’s eldest son in New York last summer.
Homeland told The Hill that Veselnitskaya was allowed to enter the United States on multiple occasions between September 2015 and February 2016 under a “Significant Public Benefit Parole” document requested by the Justice Department so she could participate in a court case for a client.
The request was done “in concurrence” with the U.S. attorney’s office in New York City, which was enforcing a civil asset forfeiture case against Prevezon Holdings, a company owned by Russian businessman Denis Katsyv, whom Veselnitskaya represented as a private attorney in their home country.
Katsyv is one of three Moscow businessmen connected to a lobbying campaign against the Magnitsky Act, a U.S. law punishing Russia for human rights violations. The lobbying campaign was spearheaded in Washington by Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin, who was revealed on Friday to have been in an election-year meeting with Veselnitskaya and Donald Trump Jr.
Homeland’s statement confirmed court testimony and records cited by The Hill on Wednesday that Veselnitskaya was initially turned down for a visa to enter the United States and required the special immigration parole permission as late as January 2016. The court records did not indicate how she entered the country after that time.
A federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan told the court in a hearing in January 2016 that the “extraordinary circumstances” parole request needed to be approved by Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
“In October the government bypassed the normal visa process and gave a type of extraordinary permission to enter the country called immigration parole,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Monteleoni was quoted in the court transcript as saying. “That’s a discretionary act that the statute allows the attorney general to do in extraordinary circumstances. In this case, we did that so that Mr. Katsyv could testify. And we made the further accommodation of allowing his Russian lawyer into the country to assist.”
Lynch issued a statement Thursday that distanced herself from any government decision to let the Russian lawyer enter the country, saying the former attorney general “does not have any personal knowledge of Ms. Veselnitskaya’s travel.”
The statement was issued after President Trump suggested Lynch might have been responsible for the Russian lawyer’s encounter with his eldest son Donald Jr. that is now under investigation…
They are protecting Podesta, Clinton of course…but for Lynch to be triggered Obama was involved.
….Where is Weiner’s laptop ?
I always knew Goldstone knew Simpson. That was the set up, to push the narrative of collusion.
That was supposed to be Hillary’s insurance plan to win.
Whatever it is that the deep state is holding over Sessions head to deflect investigation, it must be a doozy.
Too many factual inaccuracies in this article. Sergei Magnitsky was not a lawyer. Browder did not hire him to investigate Russian corruption, he hired him (as early as 2003 but possibly earlier) to set up a tax dodging scheme which subsequently turned out to be illegal. Browder owed taxes in Russia but instead of paying up he bankrupted the entities that owed taxes. Magnitsky was arrested because all other of Browder’s agents fled Russia (including Magnitsky’s boss Jamie Firestone) and some of them are in his employment to this day.
Much of this article is based on Browder’s own self-serving narrative which has since proven false (as his deposition in USA vs. Prevezon Holdings abundantly showed). I wrote a book about this titled “The Killing of William Browder: Deconstructing Browder’s Dangerous Deception” but can unfortunately not direct you to it – Browder had Amazon suppress it so it’s no longer available (Amazon obliged, no questions asked). Happy to forward a pdf / mobi / epub versions to anyone interested
Shoot it over. None of what you said is common knowledge. Why not publish elsewhere and/or make the PDF available online?
Every single reference to Magnitsky online lists him as an attorney or tax attorney. A search for “magnitsky not a lawyer” returns nothing along the lines of what you are stating. I’ll be glad to check out whatever you’ve got on him.
@zpn, the wiki states that Magnitsky was a specialist in civil law, the Russian-untouchables claim he was a ” tax lawyer and auditor”, the russia-insider refers to him several times as a “lawyer” (not lawyer) and while Magnitsky allegedly attended the Plekhanov Institute, there’s no mention to which bar magnitsky was admitted and when; or where. Firestone Duncan ([email protected]) would prolly distance themselves from him.
Alex I’m curious who the hell gave you a thumbs down. Jesus. I don’t get libtards. Allegiance to perverts and traitors before country… because Katy Perry liked a tweet? Public fool system for you.
When you drain the swamp, that’s when the alligators thrash the most.
We are watching the Dems implode on stage for all the world to see. Their third leg of power in Hollywood disintegrating, becoming irrelevant.
So Obama turned out to have a low IQ after all.
Do you have a link for the aforementioned “Unsealed court documents”?
Jim,
Just the pictures which pop up when you click on each law firm’s name in the article. You may want to contact Chuck Ross from the Daily Caller as he’s the original source of the story.
http://www.twitter.com/chuckrossdc