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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Which means?

What I got out of it is that some Russian firms or individuals hired American firms to represent them in American courts, or to lobby for them in American politics. Or just doing business here.

I'll bet you'd find a lot more Israeli influence on US government, if you looked. Even Saudi. Since we are the nation with the biggest military and the highest GDP, and we also tend to throw our weight around financially in the form of sanctions, I would expect that a LOT of nations around the world approach the USA political or legal system as supplicants.

It's like you get triggered whenever someone even mentions the word "Russia". Seems to me that you really should be looking at whether America's interests are being crossed. But then, you'd need to have an idea what those might be in the first place ...

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SIG you keep suggesting here it's "me, my concerns," when I post about Russia. Concerns you vehemently post are baseless. I'm just posting the findings of investigations brought upon by the concerns of others. Yes, concerns I share. I'm not so caught up in myself to believe I have a say in any of this. I am only one vote.

It's the countries concerns SIG. It's our judicial system, our intelligence agencies, our media, all which who came under attack, who are investigating Russia not me. Yes SIG, I do post in defiance of our local trolls who troll on Russia's behalf. Trolls who along with Putin attack "my, all" democratic institutions here and around the world.

That would be you comrade.

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Earlier this summer we were all led to believe that the now-infamous meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was undeniable evidence that the Trump campaign had colluded with the Russian government to effectively stage a coup by preemptively blocking Hillary from her rightful throne. But, what if it was all just a setup?

According to a report from Fox News, just hours before Natalia Veselnitskaya sat down with Trump Jr., Paul Manfort and Jared Kushner at Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, she was with Fusion GPS co-founder and former Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson in a Federal Manhattan courtroom. Adding to the mystery, Fox reports that the pair were together shortly after the Trump Jr. meeting as well.

Of course, this is an intriguing new development because just a couple of months prior to these events, Fusion GPS was paid at least $1 million by Hillary's campaign and the DNC to 'prove' that Trump was working with the Russians. All of which begs the obvious question, was the whole Trump Jr. fiasco nothing more than a failed attempt at political sabotage by the Hillary campaign?

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I just took apart one of ZeroHedge's conspiracy theories. UNLIKE YOU, I don't read my sources uncritically. Please, try to keep up.

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Unlike you, I don't source Blogs as news or blogs that restructure entire articles to misrepresent what they tried to convey. And, I certainly don't post shit from blogs that push conspiracy theories; period. Only those who troll do that, and concerning that, I am definitely up to speed.

Comrade

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And, I certainly don't post shit from blogs that push conspiracy theories; period.- THUGR

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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And, I certainly don't post shit from blogs that push conspiracy theories; period.- THUGR

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Well, YOU blog shit here and YOU certainly push conspiracy theories. And, where do you get YOUR conspiracy theories from? Clearly, from OTHERS who push conspiracy theories.

Hell, this whole thread here is one giant woo-woo conspiracy theory, insinuating that the Russians are here, the Russians are everywhere.
Yep, so much so that they appear to be working against each other.



Relax, Junior. EVERYONE is here.

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You ignore the truth in what we are discussing. Just as you do with all the other lies you post, in all the other threads. Your number one source is a blog that cuts up the news and reconstructs it to suit there purposes. A blog where the staff hides their identities.

That's it, that's your main source of information. So, nothing else to discuss here. You're a troll because that's what trolls do. Your source SIG, like you is trolling. Suggesting that is what I do is just another untruth and smear. Something else trolls do comrade.

Are you sure you're educated. Nothing SIG about you, and I mean nothing, suggests to me that's true.

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And, I certainly don't post shit from blogs that push conspiracy theories; period.- THUGR

Well, YOU blog shit here and YOU certainly push conspiracy theories. And, where do you get YOUR conspiracy theories from? Clearly, from OTHERS who push conspiracy theories. Hell, this whole thread here is one giant woo-woo conspiracy theory, insinuating that the Russians are here, the Russians are everywhere.
Yep, so much so that they appear to be working against each other.

Relax, Junior. EVERYONE is here. - SIGNY

You ignore the truth in what we are discussing. Just as you do with all the other lies you post, in all the other threads. Your number one source is a blog that cuts up the news and reconstructs it to suit there purposes. A blog where the staff hides their identities. That's it, that's your main source of information. - THUGR

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So, nothing else to discuss here. - THUGR

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Originally posted by THGRRI:
no link and important parts edited out

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According to Zero Hedge, Lokey “approached us over a year ago begging for a job after he was fired with cause from Seeking Alpha following a fight with a coworker.”

“Unfortunately, Colin was also revealed to be an emotionally unstable, psychologically troubled alcoholic with a drug dealer past, as per his own disclosures,” Zero Hedge adds.

The article goes on to claim these issues were the true cause of Lokey’s departure and were not mentioned in the Bloomberg piece at all.

Zero Hedge included a number of message captures allegedly from Lokey that detail his issues with alcohol impacting his work, including the one below.

Credit: Zero Hedge

Finally, Zero Hedge addressed the accusations of systematic bias in its content.

“We are certainly ok with being the object of other’s conspiracy theories, in this case completely false ones since we have never been in contact with anyone in Russia, or the US, or any government for that matter,” Zero Hedge says.

The site claims it has never accepted a dime of funding outside of advertising revenue and that Lokey was never pressured about how to frame his articles or editorialized.

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Originally posted by 1kiki:

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Originally posted by THGRRI:
no link and important parts edited out

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see below

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According to Zero Hedge, Lokey “approached us over a year ago begging for a job after he was fired with cause from Seeking Alpha following a fight with a coworker.”

“Unfortunately, Colin was also revealed to be an emotionally unstable, psychologically troubled alcoholic with a drug dealer past, as per his own disclosures,” Zero Hedge adds.

The article goes on to claim these issues were the true cause of Lokey’s departure and were not mentioned in the Bloomberg piece at all.

Zero Hedge included a number of message captures allegedly from Lokey that detail his issues with alcohol impacting his work, including the one below.

Credit: Zero Hedge

Finally, Zero Hedge addressed the accusations of systematic bias in its content.

“We are certainly ok with being the object of other’s conspiracy theories, in this case completely false ones since we have never been in contact with anyone in Russia, or the US, or any government for that matter,” Zero Hedge says.

The site claims it has never accepted a dime of funding outside of advertising revenue and that Lokey was never pressured about how to frame his articles or editorialized.

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Eh comrade troll ?

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Again, that's to funny. All you did was post what zero hedge was spinning while doing damage control. I chose to leave that out. You can't win with this kiki. The facta are in and you lose.

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I chose to leave that out. You can't win with this kiki. The facta [sic] are in ...

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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I chose to leave that out. You can't win with this kiki. The facta [sic] are in ...

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Except of course the ones you chose to leave out.

I read this a long time ago, THUGR. There were accusations and counter-accusations, and I looked into both sides independently, and it looked to me like ZH was a high-pressure job ... a lot of work output ... and the guy that quit was just too drunk and unstable, constantly missing deadlines. But, whatever. It's not important.

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Common sig please develop a brain. kiki should try and up her game as well. I posted a quote from an article and left a link. That's how it's done. I realize at times sig you'll post pages of shit but that's not my style.

As for zero hedge's denials of what one of their creators was claiming, I found it lacking. I believed him when he said that zero hedge was a bunch of Russian sympathizers. And I understand why you and kiki, a couple of Russian trolls would wish to dispute that.

Dispute away sig. It doesn't change the fact that a creator of zero hedge admitted it.

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Originally posted by THGRRI:
Below are the names of those behind zero hedge. Don't miss what I've highlighted in blue below. This folks is why comrade troll SIG loves to quote zero hedge.

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In addition, Lokey said he faced constant pressure to frame stories in-line with a particular world-view, which he described as “Russia=good. Obama=idiot. Bashar al-Assad=benevolent leader. John Kerry=dunce. Vladmir Putin=greatest leader in the history of statecraft.”

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All of this matches SIG's playbook here and Putin's globally; exactly.

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The men behind zero hedge

Colin Lokey, a 32-year-old former Seeking Alpha director

Daniel Ivandjiiski, a 37-year-old Bulgarian-born former hedge fund employee who was barred for insider trading in 2008

Tim Backshall, a 45-year-old credit derivatives strategist
Despite its populist tone, Lokey told Bloomberg he recently left Zero Hedge because he didn’t see eye-to-eye with the others when it came to editorial vision.

“Zero Hedge ceased to serve that public service years ago,” Lokey said. “They care what generates page views. Clicks. Money.”

In addition, Lokey said he faced constant pressure to frame stories in-line with a particular world-view, which he described as “Russia=good. Obama=idiot. Bashar al-Assad=benevolent leader. John Kerry=dunce. Vladmir Putin=greatest leader in the history of statecraft.”

Lokey claims Zero Hedge’s focus on traffic and revenue is hypocritical, but Ivandjiiski sees things differently.

Finally, Zero Hedge addressed the accusations of systematic bias in its content.

“We are certainly ok with being the object of other’s conspiracy theories, in this case completely false ones since we have never been in contact with anyone in Russia, or the US, or any government for that matter,” Zero Hedge says.

The site claims it has never accepted a dime of funding outside of advertising revenue and that Lokey was never pressured about how to frame his articles or editorialized.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/zero-hedge-unmasked-theres-more-1427301
65.html

According to the Bloomberg article, three men have been churning out all of the content at Zero Hedge, using the joint pseudonym “Tyler Durden” from the Brad Pitt film “Fight Club.” The 1999 cult film, according to Rolling Stone, is “about being young, male and powerless against the pacifying drug of consumerism. It’s about solitude, despair and bottled-up rage.” That ethos is frequently on display at Zero Hedge.

The three “Tyler Durdens” outed by Bloomberg reporters are Colin Lokey, who has now left Zero Hedge in a fit of pique and is responsible for handing over the internal chat sessions from Zero Hedge on traffic-building strategies and other matters. Bloomberg says “the other two men are Daniel Ivandjiiski, 37, the Bulgarian-born former analyst long reputed to be behind the site, and Tim Backshall, 45, a well-known credit derivatives strategist.”

The article notes that “Ivandjiiski has a multimillion-dollar mansion in Mahwah, N.J., and Backshall lives in a plush San Francisco suburb,” suggesting these are “not exactly reflections” of the anti-capitalism reflected in the moniker “Tyler Durden.”

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Which means?

What I got out of it is that some Russian firms or individuals hired American firms to represent them in American courts, or to lobby for them in American politics. Or just doing business here.

I'll bet you'd find a lot more Israeli influence on US government, if you looked. Even Saudi. Since we are the nation with the biggest military and the highest GDP, and we also tend to throw our weight around financially in the form of sanctions, I would expect that a LOT of nations around the world approach the USA political or legal system as supplicants.

It's like you get triggered whenever someone even mentions the word "Russia". Seems to me that you really should be looking at whether America's interests are being crossed. But then, you'd need to have an idea what those might be in the first place ...

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Thirteen Russians indicted.


T

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Which means?

What I got out of it is that some Russian firms or individuals hired American firms to represent them in American courts, or to lobby for them in American politics. Or just doing business here.

I'll bet you'd find a lot more Israeli influence on US government, if you looked. Even Saudi. Since we are the nation with the biggest military and the highest GDP, and we also tend to throw our weight around financially in the form of sanctions, I would expect that a LOT of nations around the world approach the USA political or legal system as supplicants.

It's like you get triggered whenever someone even mentions the word "Russia". Seems to me that you really should be looking at whether America's interests are being crossed. But then, you'd need to have an idea what those might be in the first place ...

---

SIG you keep suggesting here it's "me, my concerns," when I post about Russia. Concerns you vehemently post are baseless. I'm just posting the findings of investigations brought upon by the concerns of others. Yes, concerns I share. I'm not so caught up in myself to believe I have a say in any of this. I am only one vote.

It's the countries concerns SIG. It's our judicial system, our intelligence agencies, our media, all which who came under attack, who are investigating Russia not me. Yes SIG, I do post in defiance of our local trolls who troll on Russia's behalf. Trolls who along with Putin attack "my, all" democratic institutions here and around the world.

That would be you comrade.

T

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RussiaGate: "Why Did This Ever Start In The First Place?"

Authored by Peter van Buren via WeMeantWell.com,

Trump and the Russians has created an army of “Mueller Truthers,” demanding additional investigations. But Republicans are also demanding to know more, specifically how the FBI came to look into collusion, and what that tells us about the tension between America’s political and intelligence worlds. In Rudy Giuliani’s words “Why did this ever start in the first place?”

The primordial ooze for all things Russia began in spring 2016 when the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, through a company called Fusion GPS, hired former MI6 intelligence agent Christopher Steele to compile a report (“the dossier”) on whatever ties to Russia he could find for Donald Trump.

Steele’s assignment was not to investigate impartially, but to gather dirt aggressively – opposition research, or oppo. He assembled second and third hand stories, then used anonymous sources and Internet chum to purported reveal Trump people roaming about Europe asking various Russians for help, promising sanctions relief, and trading influence for financial deals. Steele also claimed the existence of a “pee tape,” kompromat Putin used to control Trump.

Creating the dossier was only half of Steele’s assignment. The real work was to insert the dossier into American media and intelligence organizations to prevent Trump from winning the election. While only a so-so fiction writer, Steele proved to be a master at running his information op against America.

In July 2016 Steele met with over a dozen reporters to promote his dossier, with little success. It could not be corroborated. Steele succeeded mightily, however, in pushing his information deep into the FBI via three simultaneous channels, including the State Department, and via Senator John McCain, who was pitched by a former British ambassador retired to work now for Christopher Steele’s own firm.

But the most productive channel into the FBI was Department of Justice official Bruce Ohr. Ohr’s wife Nellie worked for Fusion GPS, the front company for Steele, having previously done contract work for the CIA. Nellie passed the dossier to her husband, along with her own paid oppo research, so that he could use his credibility at DOJ to hand-carry the work into the FBI. Bruce Ohr, despite acknowledging it broke all rules of protocol and evidence handling, did just that on July 30, 2016. He stressed to then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe the material was uncorroborated and had been compiled by Christopher Steele, who wanted it used to stop Trump.

The dossier landed in welcoming hands. The FBI immediately opened an unprecedented investigation called Crossfire Hurricane into the Trump campaign. It sent agents to London to meet Australian ambassador Alexander Downer, who claimed to have evidence George Papadopoulos, one of Trump’s junior-level advisers, was talking to Russians about Hillary’s emails. The FBI’s timing of the new investigation into Trump – only days after they closed their investigation into Clinton’s email server – can be considered a coincidence by those of good heart.

Peter Strzok, the senior FBI agent managing the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, and Lisa Page, a lawyer on his team (the two were also lovers), purposefully kept investigation details from political appointees at DOJ to the extent that only five people actually knew the full measure of what was going on, ostensibly to prevent leaks.

In fact, the point seems to have been to avoid oversight, given how weak the evidence was supporting something as grave as the Republican nominee committing treason. If you are looking behind the headlines for why Trump fired Andrew McCabe, besides his personal sympathies for Hillary, look there. Strzok and Page appear to have had an agenda of their own. In a text they wrote “Page: ‘[Trump’s] not ever going to become president, right? Strzok: ‘No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.’”

With a wave of a hand the dossier the FBI was warned was partisan bunk was transformed into evidence. Steele himself morphed from paid opposition researcher to paid clandestine source for the FBI, with the fact that he had recently retired from a foreign intelligence service, British or not, ignored. It was all just an excuse anyway to unleash the vast intelligence machine against Trump, the imagined Manchurian Candidate.

Papadopoulos, the man in London, as a linchpin was also preposterous. He was a kid on the edges of the campaign, who “bumped into” a shady Russian professor who just happened to dangle the most explosive thing ever, Hillary’s emails. Papadopoulos then met the Aussie ambassador to Britain, Alex Downer. Papadopoulos gets drunk, tells the tale, which then falls whole into the FBI’s lap. Ambassador Downer, by the way, had previously arranged a $25 million donation to the Clinton Foundation. Papadopoulos was introduced to Downer by an Australian intelligence agent who knew him through her boyfriend, stationed at the Israeli embassy as a “political officer.”

Carter Page’s case was more of the same. Page, as a key actor in the Steele dossier, wold serve as an early excuse to get FISA surveillance eyes and ears on the Trump campaign. The FBI had a paid CIA asset, University of Cambridge professor and American citizen Stefan A. Halper, contact Page and dangle questions about access to Clinton emails.

Halper had earlier been trying separately to entrap Papadopoulos (the professor offered the inexperienced campaign aide $3,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to London to write a white paper about energy), and also met with Trump campaign co-chair Sam Clovis in late August, offering his services as an adviser. Clovis declined. Ultimately both Papadopoulos and Page also rebuffed Halper, though both would later encounter a young woman in London claiming to be Halper’s assistant who tried to reinterest the boys.

Though to obtain multiple FISA warrants the FBI characterized him as an “agent of a foreign power,” Carter Page was never charged with anything. Halper dropped off the media’s radar, but is almost certainly a US intelligence asset. He had earlier worked with British intelligence to pay for Michael Flynn to visit the UK. Halper’s main US-based funding source is an internal Pentagon think tank. The Washington Post reported Halper had in the past worked for CIA directly. Halper was implicated in a 1980s spying scandal in which CIA officials gave inside information on the Carter administration to the GOP. Halper also married into a senior CIA official’s family.

It is clear the FBI was desperately trying to infiltrate Halper into the Trump campaign as part of a full-blown intel op, recruiting against Trump’s vulnerable junior staff. Even though the recruitment failed, the bits and pieces learned in the process were good enough for government work. At issue was that Steele’s dossier formed a key argument in favor of a FISA warrant to spy on Trump personnel. The dossier was corroborated in part in the warrant application by citing news reports that later turned out to be themselves based on the Steele dossier. In intelligence work, this is known as cross-contamination, a risky amateur error the FBI seems to have taken a chance on hoping the FISA judge would not know enough to question it. The gamble worked.

The FBI needed something as backup, so their investigation into Trump, now focused on the FISA surveillance, could be said not to have rested entirely on the dubious Steele dossier. Surveillance, intended and incidental, would eventually include Jeff Sessions, Steve Bannon, Carter Page, Paul Manafort, Richard Gates, Michael Cohen, and likely Trump himself.

Had Hillary won the story would have ended there, in fact, likely would never have come to light. But with Trump’s victory, the dossier had one more job to do: prep the public for all to come.

There has been no discussion as to why, in possession of information the FBI seemed to believe showed the Russians were running a global full-court press to themselves recruit inside Trump’s inner circle, Trump was never offered a defensive briefing. Such a warning – hey, you are in danger – is common inside government. But in Trump’s case it never happened. Instead, in echo of the dark Hoover years, the FBI used its information to try and take down Trump, not protect him.

Though the dossier had already been widely shared inside the media, the State Department, and the intelligence community, it was only on January 6, 2017 Comey briefed it to president-elect Trump. No one really knows what was said in that meeting, but we do know after holding the dossier since summer 2016, only four days after the Trump-Comey meeting Buzzfeed published the document and the world learned about the pee tape. Many believe someone in the intel community gave “permission” to the media, signaling Brennan, Clapper, Hayden, et al, would begin making publicstatements the dossier “could be true.”

John Brennan was a regular on television and other media claiming over two years there was evidence of contacts between the Russian government and the Trump campaign, pimping off his time as CIA director to suggest he had inside information. He went as far as testifying before Congress in May 2017 that there was evidence of contacts between Russian officials and Trump campaign figures, though now says he might have been given “bad information.”

After that, no item that could link the words Trump and Russia was too small to add to the pile of pseudo-evidence.

It would be easy to dismiss all this as a wacky conspiracy theory if it wasn’t in fact the counter-explanation to the even wackier, disproved theory Donald Trump was a Russian asset. It is possible to see Russiagate as a political assassination attempt, using law enforcement as the weapon. Someone might do well to double-check if Christopher Steele was in Dealey Plaza during the Kennedy assassination.
Politics

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Which means?

What I got out of it is that some Russian firms or individuals hired American firms to represent them in American courts, or to lobby for them in American politics. Or just doing business here.

I'll bet you'd find a lot more Israeli influence on US government, if you looked. Even Saudi. Since we are the nation with the biggest military and the highest GDP, and we also tend to throw our weight around financially in the form of sanctions, I would expect that a LOT of nations around the world approach the USA political or legal system as supplicants.

It's like you get triggered whenever someone even mentions the word "Russia". Seems to me that you really should be looking at whether America's interests are being crossed. But then, you'd need to have an idea what those might be in the first place ... SIGNY

SIG you keep suggesting here it's "me, my concerns," when I post about Russia. Concerns you vehemently post are baseless. I'm just posting the findings of investigations brought upon by the concerns of others. Yes, concerns I share. I'm not so caught up in myself to believe I have a say in any of this. I am only one vote.

It's the countries concerns SIG. It's our judicial system, our intelligence agencies, our media, all which who came under attack...
-THUGR

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Originally posted by THG:
Yeah right comrade troll, shoo

T

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:


Our judicial system came under "attack"? Where? Where did our judicial system come under "attack"?

Our media came under "attack"? Where? Where did our media come under "attack"?

Our INTELLIGENCE agencies came under attack"? Where? Where did our intelligence agencies come under "attack"?

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Originally posted by WISHIMAY:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:


Our judicial system came under "attack"? Where? Where did our judicial system come under "attack"?

Our media came under "attack"? Where? Where did our media come under "attack"?

Our INTELLIGENCE agencies came under attack"? Where? Where did our intelligence agencies come under "attack"?

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Troll pretends to be oblivious.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Quote:

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Originally posted by WISHIMAY:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:


Our judicial system came under "attack"? Where? Where did our judicial system come under "attack"?

Our media came under "attack"? Where? Where did our media come under "attack"?

Our INTELLIGENCE agencies came under attack"? Where? Where did our intelligence agencies come under "attack"?

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Troll pretends to be oblivious.

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And here's the funny thing about WISHY: She's for a eugenics program. Has she even thought what that would mean for her hubby?

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Originally posted by WISHIMAY:

Quote:

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:


Our judicial system came under "attack"? Where? Where did our judicial system come under "attack"?

Our media came under "attack"? Where? Where did our media come under "attack"?

Our INTELLIGENCE agencies came under attack"? Where? Where did our intelligence agencies come under "attack"?

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Troll pretends to be oblivious.

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I know, sad isn't it?

T

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Originally posted by THGRRI:

First, a quote from the article, then the article.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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And, I certainly don't post shit from blogs that push conspiracy theories; period.- THUGR

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Well, YOU blog shit here and YOU certainly push conspiracy theories. And, where do you get YOUR conspiracy theories from? Clearly, from OTHERS who push conspiracy theories.

Hell, this whole thread here is one giant woo-woo conspiracy theory, insinuating that the Russians are here, the Russians are everywhere.
Yep, so much so that they appear to be working against each other.



Relax, Junior. EVERYONE is here.

-----------
Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake

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Originally posted by THG:

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Originally posted by THGRRI:

First, a quote from the article, then the article.

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"What we are finding out is that there is a lot of Russian influence in Washington, and a lot of money flowing in to influence our political process in Washington."

The co-founder of Fusion GPS, the firm behind the unverified Trump dossier, met with a Russian lawyer before and after a key meeting she had last year with Trump’s son, Fox News has learned. The contacts shed new light on how closely tied the firm was to Russian interests, at a time when it was financing research to discredit then-candidate Donald Trump.

The opposition research firm has faced renewed scrutiny after litigation revealed that the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s campaign paid for that research. Congressional Republicans have since questioned whether that politically financed research contributed to the FBI’s investigation of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign – making Fusion’s 2016 contacts with Russian interests all the more relevant.

The June 2016 Trump Tower meeting involving Donald Trump Jr. and Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya occurred during a critical period. At that time, Fox News has learned that bank records show Fusion GPS was paid by a law firm for work on behalf of a Kremlin-linked oligarch while paying a former British spy Christopher Steele to dig up dirt on Trump through his Russian contacts.

But hours before the Trump Tower meeting on June 9, 2016, Fusion co-founder and ex-Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson was with Veselnitskaya in a Manhattan federal courtroom, a confidential source told Fox News. Court records reviewed by Fox News, email correspondence and published reports corroborate the pair’s presence together. The source told Fox News they also were together after the Trump Tower meeting.

"What we are finding out is that there is a lot of Russian influence in Washington, and a lot of money flowing in to influence our political process in Washington."

Simpson’s presence with Veselnitskaya during this critical week in June -- together with revelations about Fusion’s simultaneous financial ties to the DNC, Clinton campaign and Russian interests -- raise new questions about the company’s role in the 2016 election.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the Trump Tower meeting as part of his probe of Russian interference in last year’s election.

Simpson and Fusion GPS were hired by BakerHostetler, which represented Russian firm Prevezon through Veselnitskaya.

Veselnitskaya has said she sought the Trump Tower meeting in order to lobby the candidate’s team against Russian sanctions, but the initial approach included an offer of compromising information on candidate Clinton.

Lawyers representing Fusion and Veselnitskaya did not respond to requests for comment lodged on Friday.

Senate Judiciary Committee investigators interviewed Simpson for more than 10 hours on Aug. 22. A spokesman for the committee had no comment on whether Simpson confirmed his contact with Veselnitskaya during the closed-door session.

The DNC and Clinton campaign hired Fusion in April 2016 through lawyer Marc Elias, who was general counsel for the Clinton campaign. Fusion, in turn, paid Steele $168,000 for the dossier, memos from which were shared with the FBI in the summer of 2016.

Fusion officials said last week Steele's money came from $1.02 million it received in fees and expenses from Elias' law firm Perkins Coie. Prior to contracting with the DNC, Fusion had been conducting research into Trump and other Republican candidates on behalf of the conservative website The Washington Free Beacon.

NBC News first reported that Veselnitskaya and Simpson were both at a hearing centered around another Fusion client, Russian oligarch Denis Katsyv. His company, Prevezon Holdings, was sanctioned against doing business in the U.S. for its alleged role in laundering more than $230 million. Fox News obtained audio records from that hearing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

The wrongdoing had been uncovered by Russian lawyer and whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky, who was beaten to death in a Russian prison in 2009 after being arrested for probing Prevezon and other companies with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In December 2012, the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act was passed into U.S. law, freezing Russian assets and banning visas for sanctioned individuals. Fusion’s Simpson is believed to have been working with Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin, a former Soviet counter-intelligence officer turned Russian-American lobbyist, to overturn the sanctions.

Akhmetshin also attended the June 9 Trump Tower meeting, along with about a half-dozen others including Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, publicist Rob Goldstone, Natalia's Russian translator Anatoli Samochornov and Ike Kaveladze from a Russian-American real estate agency.

Mueller’s interest in Fusion is unclear, but the House Intelligence Committee, which is conducting one of several related congressional probes, recently struck a deal to gain access to Fusion’s bank records after initially issuing a subpoena. The records show that the DNC funded Fusion’s dossier effort.

Over the weekend, Fusion GPS sought a new restraining order after the House panel requested additional records that could reveal if Fusion was paying media companies or reporters for planting stories.

"What we are finding out is that there is a lot of Russian influence in Washington, and a lot of money flowing in to influence our political process in Washington," Marc Thiessen, a Washington Post columnist and former Bush administration official, said. "It's going into Hlilary Clinton. It's going to Fusion GPS. It's going into a lobbying campaign up on Capitol Hill against Magnitsky."

Meanwhile, a request from Veselnitskaya and Katsyv for a new "temporary immigration parole" to return to the U.S. for a Nov. 9 Prevezon hearing in New York was denied, according to court documents reviewed by Fox News.

A Senate Judiciary Committee spokesman told Fox News they are "encouraged" that Veselnitskaya has "signaled a willingness to cooperate" with the committee.

Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/11/07/fusion-gps-official-met-wit
h-russian-operative-before-and-after-trump-jr-sit-down.html

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Which means?

What I got out of it is that some Russian firms or individuals hired American firms to represent them in American courts, or to lobby for them in American politics. Or just doing business here.

I'll bet you'd find a lot more Israeli influence on US government, if you looked. Even Saudi. Since we are the nation with the biggest military and the highest GDP, and we also tend to throw our weight around financially in the form of sanctions, I would expect that a LOT of nations around the world approach the USA political or legal system as supplicants.

It's like you get triggered whenever someone even mentions the word "Russia". Seems to me that you really should be looking at whether America's interests are being crossed. But then, you'd need to have an idea what those might be in the first place ... SIGNY

SIG you keep suggesting here it's "me, my concerns," when I post about Russia. Concerns you vehemently post are baseless. I'm just posting the findings of investigations brought upon by the concerns of others. Yes, concerns I share. I'm not so caught up in myself to believe I have a say in any of this. I am only one vote.

It's the countries concerns SIG. It's our judicial system, our intelligence agencies, our media, all which who came under attack...
-THUGR

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Our judicial system came under "attack"? Where? Where did our judicial system come under "attack"?

Our media came under "attack"? Where? Where did our media come under "attack"?

Our INTELLIGENCE agencies came under attack"? Where? Where did our intelligence agencies come under "attack"?

IMHO you're just spinning conspiracy theories.

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