Bank records from Democrat-aligned Fusion GPS show firm made Russia-related payments

The more that is revealed about “opposition research” firm Fusion GPS, the more it begins to appear as though it is at the center of a major scandal involving real Russia collusion to steal the election not from Hillary Clinton but from Donald J. Trump.

The most recent evidence is contained in heavily-redacted documents unsealed this week by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., which show the firm making Russia-related payments throughout last year.

As reported by The Daily Caller, Fusion — which commissioned the infamous “Trump dossier” filled with unsubstantiated, often salacious allegations against our current president — also paid at least three liberal journalists to spread what appears to be little more than Russia-supplied propaganda contained in the document disguised as ‘news reporting.’

The records were ordered opened last week by U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who sits on the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, following a ruling they were relevant to an ongoing case. Though most of the records are redacted, there is evidence of transactions between two law firms that worked with Fusion GPS last year on Russia-related projects.

One of the firms is Perkins Coie, which represented the Democratic presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, as well as the Democratic National Committee, both of which paid for the creation of the dossier. (Related: FEC complaint charges Hillary campaign, DNC violated campaign finance law with dossier payments.)

Perkins Coie paid Fusion $1,024,408 between May 24, 2016, and Dec. 28, 2016, according to the unsealed records.

The biggest payment was made right before the Nov. 8 election when Perkins Coie made a payment amounting to $365,275 to Fusion — on Oct. 28, 2016. Also, a payment that was made to Fusion was made later than previously thought, The DC reported.

“The transaction list does not show payments that Fusion made to Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the dossier. The firm reportedly paid Steele a total of $168,000 for his work, which lasted from June 2016 until the election,” said the website.

Fusion also worked on behalf of another law firm, BakerHostetler, to investigate Bill Browder, a London banker who helped to push through the Magnitsky Act, a sanctions law that was vehemently opposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government.

Another interesting aspect regarding the unsealed documents is that Fusion — known to keep reporters on its payroll — paid at least three “who have reported on Russia issues relevant to” the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into alleged Russia-Trump campaign collusion.

In a memo that was filed earlier this week, lawyers for the Intelligence Committee said they are looking for transition records related to “three individual journalists…each of whom have reported on/or been quoted in articles regarding topics related to the Committee’s investigation, some of which were published as recently as October 2017.”

While it’s not clear whether Fusion paid the journalists to hype the dossier contents, something is up — and Clinton, along with DNC officials and the founders of Fusion, Peter Fritsch, Thomas Catan and Glenn Simpson, know what it is.

Keep in mind that Fusion went to court to block a House Intelligence Committee subpoena for certain bank records belong to the firm — records that the firm eventually turned over and which showed that Clinton and the DNC paid for the dossier.

Another aspect that needs further investigation: Whether the journalists may have violated national security statutes by passing along or reporting on intelligence information damaging to the United States.

18 U.S. Code § 793 – “Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information” says that no one can gather and then pass along (publish) information that “is to be used to the injury of the United States;” there is a legal argument to be made that this entire scheme, which may have involved classified information being made public, was done to sabotage — to “injure” — a presidential candidate and then an actual presidential administration.

Where is the FBI? Where is Attorney General Jeff Sessions?

J.D. Heyes is also editor-in-chief of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

DailyCaller.com

TheNationalSentinel.com