Reince Priebus: You Know, That Russian Lawyer Might Have Been a Pawn of Fusion GPS

Counter-accusation:

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on Sunday suggested a recent news story about President Trump and his advisers meeting last summer with a Russian lawyer is part of a large political smear campaign orchestrated by a group that pushed out the largely discredited “Steele dossier.”

“The individual who set up the meeting may have been affiliated with Fusion GPS, which is an opposition research firm that is being subpoenaed and talked to by the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Priebus told “Fox News Sunday.”

Although the lawyer apparently got the meeting by suggesting she had information about illegal donations to the DNC and Hillary Clinton from Russian sources, all she wanted to talk about, Don Trump Jr. says, is repealing the Magintsky Act, a punitive measure passed during the Obama Administration against Russians suspected of war crimes.

You know who Chuck Grassley suspects might be a paid foreign agent agitating for the repeal of the Magintsky Act? Fusion GPS, that's who.

From a letter by Grassley to the FBI, demanding they disclose what they know about Fusion GPS' contacts with Russia -- and the FBI's contacts with Fusion GPS:

Also, more information has since come to the Committee's attention about the company overseeing the creation of the dossier, Fusion GPS. Namely, Fusion GPS is the subject of a complaint to the Justice Department, which alleges that the company violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act by working on behalf of Russian principals to undermine U.S. sanctions against Russians. That unregistered work was reportedly conducted with a former Russian intelligence operative, Mr. Rinat Akhmetshin, and appears to have been occurring simultaneous to Fusion GPS's work overseeing the creation of the [Pee-Pee Party] dossier. I wrote to the Justice Department about this issue on March 31, copying you, and I have attached that letter here for your reference. The Justice Department has yet to respond.

In addition to fully answering my March 6, 2017 letter, please also provide the following documents and information:

1. Documentation of all payments made to Mr. Steele, including for travel expenses, if any; the date of any such payments; the amount of such payments; the authorization for such payments.

2. When the FBI was in contact with Mr. Steele or otherwise relying on information in the dossier, was it aware that his employer, Fusion GPS, was allegedly simultaneously working as an unregistered agent for Russian interests? Please provide all related documents.

3. If so, when and how did FBI become aware of this information? Did it include this information about Fusion GPS's alleged work for Russian principals in any documents describing or relying on information from the dossier? If not, why not?

4. If the FBI was previously unaware of Fusion GPS's alleged unregistered activity on behalf of Russian interests and connections with a former Russian intelligence operative, does the FBI plan to amend any applications, reports, or other documents it has created that describe or rely on the information in the dossier to add this information? If so, please provide copies of all amended documents. If not, why not?

Please provide all the requested documents and full answers to all the question by May 12, 2017. I hope that this matter can be resolved without additional holds on nominees. These are important issues that require public transparency.

As my source keeps telling me: This was "an op" from the start.

Is this proof of anything? Well, no, but it's as much proof of something as a less-than-20-minute meeting with Don Trump Junior is.

posted by Ace at 02:16 PM

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