In a case of the Republicans prosecuting the person who called in to report the house was burning down, GOP senators have been going after the British spy, Christopher Steele, who compiled the infamous Trump-Russia dossier— and the company who ordered it. Not only that, there is a big money laundering connection.
The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) issued a criminal referral against Steele, who is a Russian expert and prepared the dossier for Fusion GPS. They suggested that Steele might have not been truthful with the FBI, and that he had contacts with reporters during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a statement Tuesday, saying the Republicans were undermining the investigation, CNBC reported:
‘The innuendo and misinformation circulating about the transcript are part of a deeply troubling effort to undermine the investigation into potential collusion and obstruction of justice. The only way to set the record straight is to make the transcript public.’
The purpose of the dossier was to provide Republicans opposition (background) information on Donald Trump. It is a common political practice. After Trump took the GOP nomination, the Hillary Clinton campaign paid for the information. At that time, the company hired Steele.
In his testimony, Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson talked about William Browder and money laundering. Browder was also interviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. According to The Atlantic, he said:
‘I am the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management. I grew up in Chicago, but for the last 28 years I’ve lived in Moscow and London, and am now a British citizen. From 1996 to 2005, my firm, Hermitage Capital, was one of the largest investment advisers in Russia with more than $4 billion invested in Russian stocks.’
Browder hired attorney Sergei Magnitsky to investigate Russian corruption. Magnitsky died in Russian custody in 2009, so Congress imposed sanctions on Russia, because it held Moscow responsible for the attorney’s death. That lead to the Magnitsky Act in 2012.
Russian President Vladimir Putin retaliated in several ways, including stopping Americans from adopting Russian children. Donald Trump Jr.’s infamous meeting with the Russians in Trump Tower was about rescinding those sanctions against Russia.
Simpson testified about Browder:
‘He set up dozens of shell companies in Cyprus and other tax havens around the world to funnel money into Russia and to hold Russian securities. He also set up shell companies inside of Russia in order to avoid paying taxes in Russia.’
Fusion’s owner said:
‘We investigated William Browder’s business practices in Russia, we began to understand maybe what it was he didn’t want to talk about, and as we looked at that we then began to look at his decision to surrender his American citizenship in 1998. At that point somewhere in there the Panama papers came out and we discovered that he had incorporated shell companies offshore in the mid 1990s, in 1995. I believe it was in the British Virgin Islands, and that at some point his hedge fund’s shares had been transferred to this offshore company.
‘This offshore company was managed — several of his offshore companies were managed by the Panamanian law firm called Mossack Fonseca, M-O-S-S-A-C-K, Fonseca, F-O-N-S-E-C-A, which is known now for setting up offshore companies for drug kingpins, narcos, kleptos, you name it. They were servicing every bad guy around. And I’m familiar with them from other money laundering and corruption and tax evasion investigations that I’ve done.
‘I’ll note parenthetically that William Browder talks a lot about the Panama papers and the Russians who are in the Panama papers without ever mentioning that he’s in the Panama papers. This is, again, a public fact that you can check on-line.’
The Republicans brought Fusion GPS’s co-founder, Glenn Simpson, in front of the committee for 10 hours in early July. They also had him come back in early October. During the closed hearings, Simpson told the committee that the FBI had a source within the Trump network, according to The Washington Post.
The Fusion GPS co-founder found out about Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with the Russian attorney in Trump Tower only through The New York Times. He said:
‘I was stunned. You know, as a sort of question of counterintelligence and just general investigation of Russian methods and that sort of thing, I think that’s a reasonable interpretation.’
Since then, the Republicans have been leaking information that showed Steele and Fusion GPS in a bad light. They also requested the company’s bank records, although not Donald Trump’s bank records. In addition, they did not notify the Democrats on the committee before making the referral to the Department of Justice.
CNBC did a word search on the just-released transcript:
‘According to a word search, the name “Trump” appears 171 times in the transcript. “Putin” appears 19 times.’
Simpson testified about Trump’s business, his tax history, and links to a Felix Sater, who is an alleged Russian organized crime contact.
On taxes, Simpson said the company did not get complete access to the president’s returns, CNBC reported:
‘They were Trump properties and I believe we may have reviewed some public information about estate taxes and things like that. We didn’t have access to his tax returns.
‘One of the things we found out was that, you know, when it comes to paying taxes, Donald Trump claims to not have much stuff. At least the Trump organization. So they would make filings with various state and local authorities saying that their buildings weren’t worth much.’
Simpson talked about Sater and Trump’s relationship:
‘This was something he didn’t want to talk about and testified under oath he wouldn’t know Felix if he ran into him in the street. That was not true. He knew him well and, in fact, continued to associate with him long after he learned of Felix’s organized crime ties. So, you know, that tells you something about somebody.’
Simpson said Trump “exaggerated” the worth of his properties in his legal filings, but that did not mean he had Russian contacts “Not that I recall.”
Featured Image via Getty Images/Win McNamee.
