Fusion GPS Didn't "Set Up" Don Jr — Trump Tower Meeting Explained in Context

It had been revealed some months ago that Fusion GPS had done work through law firm BakerHostetler as part of the defense of Prevezon and efforts to repeal the Magnitsky Act. It didn't take long for a theory to form that Fusion GPS was involved in a "set up" of Donald Trump Jr. When the details emerged for the funding of the Fusion GPS opposition research into Trump, this theory got a big boost in the eyes of many.

However, with the release of the most recent details and considering what has already been reported going back months, it's now possible to piece together a picture of what led up to the meeting and what the meeting's purpose was. I will do so as briefly as possible now.

1. Fusion GPS is a firm comprised of former investigative journalists who are paid by their clients to dig up dirt. In 2013, Fusion GPS was hired by BakerHostetler to do research as part of the defense of their client, Prevezon Holdings. We now know the Fusion GPS research was the source of information in a series of similar (in some cases identical) memos that were provided to an array of US politicians/political operatives.

Josh Rogan, Inside the link between the Russian lawyer who met Donald Trump Jr. and the Trump dossier, Washington Post, 2017-07-11

Fusion GPS has said that it was working for the law firm BakerHostetler, which was representing Prevezon, a Russian holding company based in Cyprus, in its defense against Justice Department allegations that Prevezon laundered money stolen in the fraud Magnitsky uncovered. Veselnitskaya was Prevezon’s lawyer. Fusion GPS started working on the case in 2013 and the case settled in May with no admission of guilt by Prevezon.

Mar k Hosenball, Trump, Clinton camps both offered slice of dossier firm's work: sources, Reuters, 2017-11-09

The sources told Reuters that the negative information that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya wanted to give to Republican Trump’s campaign at a June 2016 meeting in New York had been dug up by Fusion GPS in an unrelated investigation.

In December, 2014, the sources said, Veselnitskaya, who then was involved in litigation pitting her Russian client against British-American financier William Browder, received a legal research memo reporting that the Ziff Brothers, two New York financiers allied with Browder, had made a large contribution to a Clinton charity.

The memo had been prepared by Fusion, which had been hired to conduct legal research on Browder by Baker and Hostetler law firm. The firm represented Russian businessman Denis Katsyv, who was engaged in disputes with Browder and U.S. prosecutors.

2. In October of 2015, Natalia Veselnitskaya reportedly approached Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika with dirt we now know was dug by Fusion GPS.

Sharon LaFraniere, Andrew E. Kramer, Talking Points Brought to Trump Tower Meeting Were Shared With Kremlin, New York Times, 2017-10-27

But interviews and records show that in the months before the meeting, Ms. Veselnitskaya had discussed the allegations with one of Russia’s most powerful officials, the prosecutor general, Yuri Y. Chaika. And the memo she brought with her closely followed a document that Mr. Chaika’s office had given to an American congressman two months earlier, incorporating some paragraphs verbatim.

While investigating Mr. Browder and his investors, Ms. Veselnitskaya unearthed what she considered evidence of a financial and tax fraud scheme. In October 2015, she took her findings about Mr. Browder and the Ziff brothers directly to Mr. Chaika, Russia’s top prosecutor and a man whom she has said she knows personally.

3. In April of 2016, either Chaika's office or Veselnitskaya handed a document to Rep. Dana Rohrabachar (R-CA) during a congressional trip to Moscow. During that same trip, Rohrabacher's aide, Paul Behrends, introduced Rep. French Hill (R-AR) to Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin, who presented him with a copy of the memo.

Sharon LaFraniere, Andrew E. Kramer, Talking Points Brought to Trump Tower Meeting Were Shared With Kremlin, New York Times, 2017-10-27

In April 2016, Ms. Veselnitskaya teamed with Mr. Chaika’s office to pass the accusations to an American congressional delegation visiting Moscow. An official with the Russian prosecutor general’s office gave a memo detailing the charges — stamped “confidential”— to Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican who is considered to be one of the most pro-Russia lawmakers in Congress and who heads a subcommittee that helps oversee U.S. policy toward Russia.

Ms. Veselnitskaya handed a nearly identical memo to Representative French Hill, Republican of Arkansas. She has said she also met with Mr. Rohrabacher then, although he said that he does not recall the encounter.

Ben Schreckinger, The Hill Staffer at the Center of the Russia Intrigue, Politico Magazine, 2017-07-20

In the spring of 2016, a longtime Washington operative pulled aside French Hill during a trip to Moscow and introduced the conservative Arkansas congressman to two Russians who are now at the center of a firestorm over the activities of Donald Trump Jr.

In the brief encounter, which took place two months before their now-infamous meeting with the president’s son in Trump Tower, the jet-setting pair proposed the same trade they would soon be pitching all over Washington: Lift the sanctions on Russia, and we’ll make sure Americans can adopt Russian babies once again.

4. In the US, Paul Behrends was escorting Veselnitskaya and Akhmetshin around the Hill, introducing them to members of Congress so that they could lobby for the repeal of the Magnitsky Act. Paul Behrends got the axe for his activities.

Ben Schreckinger, The Hill Staffer at the Center of the Russia Intrigue, Politico Magazine, 2017-07-20

Behrends has been the chief Capitol Hill contact for the lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya and the lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin, a former Soviet intelligence officer, whose contacts with Trump Jr., along with Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, are now at the center of questions about whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.

After arranging their impromptu meeting with Hill in Moscow, Behrends later escorted Akhmetshin around Capitol Hill—“almost by the hand” in the words of one congressional staffer—after the Moscow meeting last year, introducing him to lawmakers as part of an effort to undermine human rights legislation opposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, drawing on his significant experience and connections to give the Kremlin’s version of events a hearing.

Rosie Gray, A Top Rohrabacher Aide Is Ousted After Russia Revelations, The Atlantic, 2017-07-20

Paul Behrends, a top aide to Representative Dana Rohrabacher, has been ousted from his role as staff director for the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee that Rohrabacher chairs, after stories appeared in the press highlighting his relationships with pro-Russia lobbyists.

“Paul Behrends no longer works at the committee,” a House Foreign Affairs Committee spokesperson said on Wednesday evening

5. According to the lawyer for the Agalarov family, Veselnitskaya contacted the Agalarovs for help setting up a meeting with the Trumps as they were known acquaintances. At this point she was put in contact with Rob Goldstone, representative of Emin Agalarov. According to Veselnitskaya, she also sent him the memo which we now know detailed the Fusion GPS research.

Sharon LaFraniere, Andrew E. Kramer, Talking Points Brought to Trump Tower Meeting Were Shared With Kremlin, New York Times, 2017-10-27

Precisely how Ms. Veselnitskaya ended up at the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting to present her findings remains in dispute. She asked Aras Agalarov, a well-connected Russian oligarch who knows the Trump family, to help her share her allegations with the Trump campaign, according to Mr. Agalarov’s attorney, Scott Balber.

She may have told Mr. Agalarov that she had previously conveyed the same information to Mr. Chaika, Mr. Balber said. Mr. Agalarov’s son then enlisted his publicist, Rob Goldstone, to broker the meeting.

6. According to Veselnitskaya's lobbying partner and meeting participant, Akhmetshin, Veselnitskaya provided the memo to Donald Trump Jr during the meeting. When Don Jr asked if she had documentation showing money going into the Clinton campaign and she did not, he lost interest and the meeting concluded.

Desmond Butler, Chad Day, Russian-American lobbyist joined Trump’s son’s meeting, too, AP, 2017-07-15

Veselnitskaya brought with her a plastic folder with printed-out documents that detailed what she believed was the flow of illicit funds to the Democrats, Akhmetshin said. Veselnitskaya presented the contents of the documents to the Trump associates and suggested that making the information public could help the campaign, he said.

“This could be a good issue to expose how the DNC is accepting bad money,” Akhmetshin recalled her saying.

Trump Jr. asked the attorney if she had sufficient evidence to back up her claims, including whether she could demonstrate the flow of the money. But Veselnitskaya said the Trump campaign would need to research it more. After that, Trump Jr. lost interest, according to Akhmetshin.

Irina Reznik, Henry Meyer, Trump Jr. Hinted at Review of Anti-Russia Law, Moscow Lawyer Says, Bloomberg, 2017-11-06

In the interview, Veselnitskaya said she sent her memo to Goldstone in advance so Trump Jr. could familiarize himself with the issues, but he seemed not to have done so. When she began laying out the case against the Ziffs, she said that he asked: “This money the Ziffs got from Russia, do you have any financial documents showing that this money went to Clinton’s campaign?”

Oh I am tagging this to follow and say " I told you so " +++

So what's the takeaway?

It would appear that the June 19th, 2016 Trump Tower meeting was one in a series of lobbying meetings conducted by the Veselnitskaya/Akhmetshin team who had coordinated with Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika. They used the Agalarov's connection to the Trumps to get a meeting where they provided information they'd previously presented to among others, two US Congressmen.

It seems likely that Rob Goldstone was under the impression that this was a meeting where the Trump team would be provided with exclusive information coming from the Prosecutor General. It's not clear if it was pitched that way to him or if he made assumptions, however that's clearly how it was conveyed to Donald Trump Jr.

The lack of knowledge of the other meetings by Donald Trump Jr (and Goldstone for that matter) and the communication with Goldstone likely left Donald Trump Jr with the impression (deliberate or not on the part of Veselnitskaya, I tend to think it was) that they were to be provided exclusive information from the Kremlin that would be damaging to Hillary Clinton.

Because Hillary Clinton was not directly implicated, the meeting turned out to be a bust.

But I believe this false impression that Donald Trump Jr and Team Trump were left with explains the concealment of the meeting and the deliberate mischaraterization of its nature once he was compelled to release the emails to head off their release in the New York Times.

a reply to: the2ofusr1

Give it another read, when I was pasting the posts, I missed #'s 4 and 5.

Hmm...


Wasn't she part of F.GPS?

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

No. She was not part of Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS was hired in 2013 to dig up dirt for the Prevezon defense. She was/is a lawyer for Prevezon's owner.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

No. She was not part of Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS was hired in 2013 to dig up dirt for the Prevezon defense. She was/is a lawyer for Prevezon's owner.

One thing, there was at very least one other Russian at the Tower, I forget his name, but he has stated that he handed Trump Jnr (if Trump senior wasn't there that is) an envelope, the contents of which he had no knowledge of?

Good work putting this together.

I am busy now so I want to go through this in detail before I add anything, but I just wanted to let you know I appreciate your work and effort into looking into this.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Okay, what about:

British tycoon to tell Senate Trump Jr Russia lawyer is linked to secretive group behind Steele Dossier
A British businessman says he will next week testify on Capitol Hill that researchers who helped produce the infamous Steele dossier, previously worked at the direction of the Russian lawyer who met Donald Trump Jr, and failed to declare they were doing so.

Fusion GPS was in the headlines earlier this year when it emerged its investigators, and a former British spy, Christopher Steele, had worked to produce a dossier of salacious, unverified claims about Donald Trump that suggested he had been “compromised” by Russian intelligence officials on a visit to Moscow in 2013. Mr Trump called the dossier “fake news”.

Bill Browder, the CEO and founder of Hermitage Capital Management, says he will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the company, which was founded by former journalists, previously worked under the direction of Natalia Veselnitskaya as part of a Russian-led lobbying effort in the US.

Radical Dem Worked For Russian Lawyer Who Met With Trump, Jr.
Radical left-wing icon former California Democratic Rep. Ron Dellums was a hired lobbyist for Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. June 9, 2016, the Daily Caller News Foundation Investigative Group has learned.

Dellums, who represented liberal San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., is a long-time darling of left-wing political activists. He served 13 terms in Congress as an African-American firebrand and proudly called himself a socialist. He retired in 1996.

The former congressman is one of several high-profile Democratic partisans who was on Veselnitskaya’s payroll, working to defeat a law that is the hated object of a personal vendetta waged by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Photos: Russian Lawyer Attended Chicago Anti-Trump Rally

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
Hmm...

Wasn't she part of F.GPS?

That Bloomberg matrix is seriously out of date, there were at least eight people at the meeting in Trump tower

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

What does the first excerpt add to anything about the Trump Tower meeting?

As for the second excerpt, yes, it's been reported that former Democratic Representative (for decades) and more recently, Mayor of Oakland, Ron Dellums, was involved in the anti-Magntisky Act (Global Magnitsky Act) act. Specifically, there was at least one report from a congressional staffer that he was accompanying Akhmetshin.

Michael Weiss, Putin’s Dirty Game in the U.S. Congress, Daily Beast, 2016-05-18

According to a U.S. congressional staffer, former California Rep. Ron Dellums and someone named Rinat Akhmetshin showed up Tuesday without an appointment.

“They said they were lobbying on behalf of a Russian company called Prevezon and asked us to delay the Global Magnitsky Act or at least remove Magnitsky from the name,” the staffer said. “Mr. Dellums said it was a shame that this bill has made it so Russian orphans cannot be adopted by Americans.”

Sounds like they didn't bring the memo and given that Dellums is a Democrat, it might be that they were hitting the Democrats and not bringing up the Ziff brothers.

There are a few other players involved and there's no telling how many members of Congress they've lobbied. If that's the gist of Dellum's lobbying efforts (lobbying on behalf of Prevezon and its owner), then I don't think he would have needed to register under FARA as foreign agent.

Here's the thing — the Congressmen who were lobbied by this group know exactly what that lobbying consisted of. I think a fair argument could be made that lobbying for the repeal/lifting of sanctions could be seen as lobbying in the interest of the Russian government.

If that's what any of the involved people were doing and they weren't registered as foreign agents, then indict them all.

The specifics of that are a bit beyond the scope of this particular thread though, unless there's evidence that the memo with the Fusion GPS information was also being shared with other people. Though, I think that's already been established enough to say that what was presented to the Trump campaign at Trump Tower wasn't anything special.

As for the photos of the protest. That's not actually evidence that she "attended" the protest, is it? In fact, if you go to her Facebook page, you'll see that a few of the photos like this one:



are taken from elevated positions. That's across from The Emmigrant Savings Bank. As you can see, it's right in the middle of midtown.



The streets were full of protestors, because she snapped a handful of shots of the protests on two different days, she was participating in them? That's an absurdly weak conclusion.

Half of them appear to be from NYC on the 21st and the other half in Chicago on the 22nd. So she's flying around protesting from inside buildings?

a reply to: theantediluvian

It says that Fusion GPS & Natalia are linked.

And my impression from the Democrat Squelch Box is that LINKS are like iron fists.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Just been doing a bit of poking around and have come across the following:

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. appeals court has disqualified lawyers for a company accused of laundering the proceeds of a massive Russian tax fraud, whose fallout led Washington to sanction numerous Russians and helped poison U.S.-Russian relations.

The ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on October 17 was an incremental but noteworthy development that effectively paralyzes the legal team defending the company, Prevezon, which U.S. prosecutors have linked to a Russian businessman.

The three-judge panel ruled that a lower court "abused its discretion" by refusing to disqualify the legal team, who previously worked with the investment fund Hermitage Capital. A whistleblowing lawyer working for Hermitage, Sergei Magnitsky, helped investigate the $230 million tax fraud before his death in a Russian jail in 2009.

Lawyers for Hermitage, owned by British-American investor William Browder, argued that the involvement of the lawyers from the U.S. firm Baker Hostetler on Prevezon's behalf posed a conflict of interest.

"This is a precedent-setting ruling which shows the legal profession that they cannot change sides from representing victims to representing perpetrators of the same crime without grave professional consequences," Browder, a vocal Kremlin foe, told RFE/RL in an email.

U.S. Appeals Court Boots Defense Lawyers In Magnitsky Money Fraud Case

It would seem as though Baker Hostetler was disqualified from the case due to being embroiled within a conflict of interest due to having represented both sides of the legal dispute.

Why is that relevant?

It was during the research for this case that Fusion GPS developed its material for the Clinton Dossier they tried to get Veselnistakay to pawn off on the Trump campaign.

Fusion GPS, the research firm commissioned by the Clinton campaign to compile the so-called Trump dossier, is also responsible for a second dossier — the information that Kremlin-connected lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya provided to top Trump-campaign officials in June 2016. The second dossier reportedly alleged financial misconduct by major contributors to the Clinton Global Initiative, a project of the Clinton Foundation.

Fusion dug up this information in connection with its work in behalf of Prevezon, a Russian company controlled by Putin cronies. At the time, Prevezon was the defendant in a multi-million-dollar asset-forfeiture suit brought by the Justice Department. The suit stemmed from the Putin regime’s fleecing of an investment fund called Hermitage.

National Review

Strangely enough, it was after this that the settlement was reached in which no fault was admitted and Prevezon paid a $5.9 million fine:

In the end, it all seems like sound and fury signifying nothing. The Baker Hostetler lawyers were disqualified. Prevezon, with new counsel, settled the case in May 2017 for $5.9 million and no admission of responsibility, sparing the Putin regime the embarrassment of a public trial that would examine the fraud and the Magnitsky murder. Fusion’s dossier about Clinton Foundation donors was never used in the campaign. Neither was Fusion’s dossier about Donald Trump — the one compiled for Fusion by former British spy Christopher Steele and later described by then–FBI director James Comey as “salacious and unverified.”

For all the talk about “Trump collusion with Russia,” it seems increasingly clear that the Kremlin, as is its wont, hoped to undermine the United States government regardless of which party won the White House in 2016. Wittingly or not, Fusion GPS helped the Putin regime play both sides.

ETA: "Wittingly or not, Fusion GPS helped the Putin regime play both sides." I think I know why the two other members of Fusion GPS chose to take the fifth when they were brought in to testify. And it really makes me curious as to what Glenn Simpson will say when he goes in and what the terms of the deal he struck were in order to not plead the fifth like his partners did.



Prevezon Settlement

Oh, by the way, they were also held faultless for Magnitski's death and got to keep the properties that had been seized.

Properties located thusly:





This is the attorney who represented Prevezon during for the settlement:

Faith E. Gay is Co-Chair of the Firm's National Trial Practice. She has been repeatedly recognized as one of the leading trial, appellate and white collar lawyers in the United States by Chambers USA, Lawdragon 500, Best Lawyers in America, Corporate Counsel, Benchmark and Super Lawyers, among others. Prior to entering private practice, she was Deputy Chief of the Special Prosecutions Unit and the Civil Rights Division while serving as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York. She was twice awarded the Director's Award for Special Achievement in Trial Litigation by the Attorney General of the United States, and she was recently named one of the Top Trial Lawyers in America by Law360.

Faith E. Gay

Business Positions
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP Largest business litigation firm in the United States
• Partner
Other Positions
NYC DNC 2016 Host Committee
• member ('15→?)
Professional Associates
Denis Katsyv Owner of Prevezon Holdings; settled US charges of money laundering in May 2017
• client
Donation/Grant Recipients
Showing 1-10 of 92 :: see all
Hillary Victory Fund
• 3 contributions · $202,500 (May 12 '16→Aug 9 '16)
Democratic National Committee
• 10 contributions · $151,900 ('04→Jun 29 '16)
Obama Victory Fund
• 3 contributions · $42,800 (Apr 15 '11→May 13 '12)
Ready for Hillary
• 1 contribution · $25,000 (Jun 28 '13)
Hillary Clinton US Secretary of State & NY Senator; 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate
• 16 contributions · $18,450 (Oct 14 '99→Jun 29 '16)
Sean Maloney US Representative from New York
• 6 contributions · $10,600 (Jul 25 '14→Aug 10 '16)
Kerry Victory 2004
• 1 contribution · $10,000 ('04)
Sean Eldridge Victory Fund
• 1 contribution · $10,000 (Sep 14 '14)
New York State Democratic Committee
• 1 contribution · $10,000 (Sep 12 '14)
Hillary Action Fund
• 1 contribution · $10,000 (Jun 29 '16)

Little Sis

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

It says that Fusion GPS & Natalia are linked.

Okay, so in other words, you didn't read the OP? It's in the first excerpt:

Fusion GPS has said that it was working for the law firm BakerHostetler, which was representing Prevezon, a Russian holding company based in Cyprus, in its defense against Justice Department allegations that Prevezon laundered money stolen in the fraud Magnitsky uncovered. Veselnitskaya was Prevezon’s lawyer. Fusion GPS started working on the case in 2013 and the case settled in May with no admission of guilt by Prevezon.

It's in the second excerpt:

The sources told Reuters that the negative information that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya wanted to give to Republican Trump’s campaign at a June 2016 meeting in New York had been dug up by Fusion GPS in an unrelated investigation.

In fact, most of the thread deals with the Fusion GPS research being shopped around by Veselnitskaya.

Fusion GPS attorney:

Professional Associates
Glenn Simpson Along with two other former Wall Street Journal reporters, launched Fusion GPS in 2011
• client
Donation/Grant Recipients
Barack Obama 44th President of the United States
• 5 contributions · $1,550 (Jan 28 '08→Jun 30 '11)
Jeff Smith Former Missouri State Senator; now assistant professor at The New School's Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy in New York City
• 4 contributions · $1,250 (Oct 31 '03→Mar 25 '04)
Hillary Clinton US Secretary of State & NY Senator; 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate
• 1 contribution · $1,000 (Jul 22 '16)
Hillary Victory Fund
• 1 contribution · $1,000 (Jul 22 '16)
John William Conway
• 1 contribution · $1,000 (Sep 29 '10)
John Edwards US Senator from North Carolina
• 1 contribution · $250 (Dec 27 '07)
William Owens US Representative from New York
• 1 contribution · $250 (Oct 29 '10)
Chuck Schumer US Senator and Representative from New York
• 1 contribution · $250 (Mar 24 '10

Little Sis

a reply to: theantediluvian

How is her being a Fusion crony and setting up the meeting with Fusion dirt, paid by ClintonCo., get Fusion off the hook for this?

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

It was during the research for this case that Fusion GPS developed its material for the Clinton Dossier they tried to get Veselnistakay to pawn off on the Trump campaign.

1. I'm getting the feeling that you didn't read the OP either? First detail is about the when and why of the research that went into the memo.

2. Why are you saying that "Fusion GPS tried to get Veselnitskaya to pawn off on the Trump campaign?" Let's go over the sequence of events here:

In 2013 Fusion GPS is hired by BakerHostetler. In 2014 they do the research that ends up in the memo. In October of 2015, Veselnitskaya presents the information to Yurk Chaika (Russian Prosecutor General). In April of 2016, memos with that information are given to Rohrabacher and Rep. French Hill. In the time prior to the meeting, the team was running around Capitol Hill lobbying anyone they could be introduced to.

Then Veselnitskaya is reaches out to the Agalarovs and asks them to reach out to the Trumps for a meeting (according to the Agalarov's attorney). Veselnitskaya is put into contact with Goldstone, to whom she sends the memo. At the meeting, she gives Don Jr the same memo that she has already been floating around Capitol Hill.

It's quite clear that the Trump meeting was just more of the same lobbying that she'd been doing with the same information.

Remember also, that Veselnitskaya was granted an exception to be in the ocutnry at this time:

The U.S. Attorney’s office in New York confirmed Wednesday to The Hill that it let Veselnitskaya into the country on a grant of immigration parole from October 2015 to early January 2016.

Justice Department and State Department officials could not immediately explain how the Russian lawyer was still in the country in June for the meeting with Trump Jr. and the events in Washington.

The Hill

a reply to: theantediluvian

And that was all before Clinton hired Fusion is the point I take it.

Hard to follow the chronology with that layout; made me brain hurt trying to follow along. I heart chronologies.

Er wait, Fusion was already on Clinton's payroll by then?