Two different recollections, given approximately three months apart, with one not knowing what the other was talking about. Both suggest that Donald Trump, in his previous avatar as a Real Estate mogul, may have laundered money for the Russians. Hard to believe?
Fusion GPS
Glenn Simpson, a co-founder at Fusion GPS, a firm that provides premium research, strategic intelligence, told in his testimony to the United States House Intelligence Committee (HIC) in November 2017 that “some information the firm obtained raised questions about the campaign’s involvement with Russians during the election”.
Simpson went on to add that “people were arrested or died mysteriously” after the existence of the now-infamous “Trump-Russia dossier” was made public. The complete transcript of his testimony is available here.
However, Glenn Simpson did not say whether those affected actually contributed information to the unverified dossier, which was compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and which BuzzFeed published in January of last year.
Who funded Fusion GPS?
A conservative website Washington Free Beacon which wanted opposition research on Trump and other GOP (Republican) candidates.
After Trump became the Republican nominee, Clinton and the Democratic National Committee retained Fusion GPS through lawyer Marc Elias and his firm, Perkins Coie.
Hillary Clinton reportedly did not know about the dossier until BuzzFeed News published it in January 2017. Democrats have defended it as simply opposition research.
Steve Bannon and what he said to Michael Wolff, author of Fire and Fury
Now out of favor with Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, considered the architect of Trump’s surprise election win had “sang” to Michael Wolff the same money laundering allegations about Donald Trump. The connection between what Bannon said and what Simpson had testified in the HIC was made by a ranking Democrat in the HIC, Adam Schiff (D-Calif).
What does this mean to Trump’s Presidency?
The 35-page dossier prepared by Christopher Steele, talks of several questionable activities of Trump that could be exploited by the Russians to blackmail Trump and also ensure that he will split the various alliances that the West has formed over several decades.
Beyond this, allegations of Trump performing perverted sexual acts while staying at the same room that President Obama and his wife stayed, just to defile the bed, have surfaced (this happened in 2013 and has been allegedly confirmed by more than one source).
With other allegations of sexual misconduct by Trump surfacing, it is going to be a matter of time before all these chickens come home to roost.
As the Chinese say, we live in interesting times.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
- Supreme Court rejects plea to tally all VVPAT slips with EVM votes; says ‘no going back to paper ballot’ - April 26, 2024
- US report citing human rights violations is deeply biased: India - April 25, 2024
- Kotak Mahindra Bank shares tank 13%. Market Cap erodes by Rs.37,721 cr post-RBI action - April 25, 2024
