Chuck Grassley Brings the Burn to the Fusion GPS Boys

If there was ever a phrase which sums up the mendacious bundle of lies and half-truths the founders of Fusion GPS brought to the op-ed page of the New York Times, it is this:

Deny everything. Admit nothing. Blame others. Make counter-accusations.

I have to admit it is hilarious to see the same people who have virtually worshiped the Trump dossier in the manner of a Golden Calf suddenly flip to supporting the ridiculous story about George Papadopoulos being central to the investigation (seriously, you have to have suffered some serious blows to the cranium or had your integrity surgically removed to think that a drunken conversation between George Papdopoulos and High Commissioner to Britain Alexander Downer which Downer at some later point related to Australia’s U.S. ambassador Joe Hockey who at some later point decided to tell the FBI set off an investigation. I will admit to believing the FBI might stand for F***ing Bunch of Idiots but I don’t believe they are that stupid, inept, or corrupt–see my posts here | here) and glom onto this story, especially given the whoppers they tell.

One of the best is this:

Yes, we hired Mr. Steele, a highly respected Russia expert. But we did so without informing him whom we were working for and gave him no specific marching orders beyond this basic question: Why did Mr. Trump repeatedly seek to do deals in a notoriously corrupt police state that most serious investors shun?

What came back shocked us. Mr. Steele’s sources in Russia (who were not paid) reported on an extensive — and now confirmed — effort by the Kremlin to help elect Mr. Trump president. Mr. Steele saw this as a crime in progress and decided he needed to report it to the F.B.I.

We did not discuss that decision with our clients, or anyone else. Instead, we deferred to Mr. Steele, a trusted friend and intelligence professional with a long history of working with law enforcement. We did not speak to the F.B.I. and haven’t since.

Key points. They want us to believe they are hiring a guy who can’t figure out who is investigating Trump when there the primary was clenched by Trump in May but he’s still smart enough to do sophisticated financial investigating when he isn’t examining urine soaked mattresses. Steele had not operated in Russia for a couple of decades because he couldn’t unless he wanted to disappear permanently. They don’t know if Steele’s sources were paid, because he, in court testimony in Britain, has said he paid intermediaries. And while senior Department of Justice officials are not, technically, the FBI, we know Simpson met with the acting assistant deputy attorney general Bruce Ohr on the dossier after the election and we know Ohr’s wife, a Russia specialist, worked for Fusion GPS while the dossier was being cooked up.

But the best part is how they detail their cooperation with the various Congressional investigations and end up by saying:

The public still has much to learn about a man with the most troubling business past of any United States president. Congress should release transcripts of our firm’s testimony, so that the American people can learn the truth about our work and most important, what happened to our democracy.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has lit up the Fusion GPS boys:

Indeed. Fusion GPS is feeling the heat and are trying to detach themselves from the Trump dossier to reduce their own vulnerability. It probably isn’t going to work. But it’s as much fun watching them try as it is watching the former apostles of the Trump dossier now claim it is irrelevant.

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