SPOT THE CRIME IN PROGRESS
Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch are the principals of Fusion GPS. In April 2016 the Clinton presidential campaign and Democratic National Commmittee hired Fusion GPS “to build a Trump-Russia echo chamber,” as Lee Smith puts it in The Plot Agains the President. Simpson promptly circulated allegations of corrupt Russian ties to the Trump campaign to the mainstream media. At the same time, Simpson and Fusion worked for Russian authorities to repeal the Magnitsy Act sanctions. Thus Simpson met on business with Natalie Veselnitskaya both before and after the infamous 20-minute Trump Tower meeting that went nowhere.
In mid-2016 Simpson retained former MI6 spy Christopher Steele to front the allegations of Trump’s treasonous collusion with Russia in the 37-page Steele Dossier. If the Steele Dossier is what it purports to be, Steele picked up the phone in June 2016 and called his old sources high up in the Putin administration. Eager to lend a hand, they helpfully provided the allegations of treasonous collusion that we now know to be a lie. On the face of the Steele Dossier, the allegations appear at best to be disinformation.
In testimony to Congress Simpson touted Steele’s expertise and superhuman powers to identify disinformation: “What he said was disinformation is an issue in my profession, that is a central concern and that we are trained to spot disinformation, and if I believed this was disinformation or I had concerns about that I would tell you that and I’m not telling you that. I’m telling you that I don’t believe this is disinformation.”
What is to be said? Simpson kept a straight face, but this was laughable.
One would have to be a fool to take the dossier allegations at face value. The Obama administration may or may not have taken them at face value, but they certainly found the allegations to be of use for their own nefarious purposes.
We were never supposed to know any of this. Simpson and Steele hid behind cutouts and enlisted the mainstream media as their co-conspirators in the biggest scandal in American political history. Lee Smith names the names of Fusion GPS’s media co-conspirators in his invaluable book.
On the big picture, Cleta Mitchell said it best in her letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee: “Glenn Simpson is a liar.” (You can say that again — and again and again.)
Now Simpson and Fritsch return to the scene of the crime with a new book that is to be published tomorrow. The book is titled, aptly enough, Crime in Progress. Chuck Todd invited Simpson and Fritsch to appear on Meet the Press for a soft-focus interview yesterday in connection with the publication of their book.
Simpson and Fritsch were promoting the book. What was Chuck Todd doing? That is a slightly more difficult question.
Perhaps Todd is poorly informed. Glenn Simpson’s meetings with Veselnitskaya before and after the Trump Tower meeting — they were “an odd coincidence,” as Todd puts it. Sherlock Holmes, he is not.
Video of the segment is below. The Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross reports on the segment here.
Glenn Simpson is a liar, as Cleta noted, but Peter Fritsch – he’s a liar too. It would be something of a challenge to tote up the lies and deceptions unleashed in this 8-minute interview.
It isn’t long into the interview when the retention of Fusion GPS by the Washington Free Beacon is adduced. It should be noted, however, that the Free Beacon terminated its relationship with Fusion in the spring of 2016 and had literally nothing to do with the Steele Dossier. The Free Beacon’s statement on its use of Fusion GPS is posted here and remains undisputed.
Todd asks the men of Fusion GPS how they know Christopher Steele wasn’t himself being used by the friends of Vladimir Putin. Simpson responds: “Because Chris is a true pro at this…he spent his whole life in this area. His single focus of expertise is Russian counterintelligence and Russian disinformation.” What a joke.
Simpson and Fritsch are still on the case. The work continues. Todd asks, who’s paying you for this? “It’s a nonprofit,” Simpson explains. Well, okay.
Bruce and Nellie Ohr are unfortunately missing in action.
In his own deceitful way, Fritsch makes a worthy point indirectly. The Ukraine/impeachment scenario represents a replay of Fusion GPS’s Russia hoax.
Todd lobs a concluding softball: “What kind of toll has this taken on you personally?”
This interview is valuable in its own way. It provides an illuminating display of three tools at work. It’s their world. We’re only living in it.
Quotable quote (Peter Fritsch): “First, it’s important to understand who Christopher Steele is. He’s a former British intelligence officer who rose to run MI6’s Russia desk. This is one of the most capable and one of the most knowledgeable experts on Russia in the world today, and he spent a lot of time going through the dossier to sort out information from disinformation, credible facts from non-credible facts.”
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