On Tuesday, a federal court unsealed Fusion GPS’s bank records, shining new light on Russia-related payments made by the firm behind the infamous ‘Trump dossier.’
Judge Richard Leon, a Bush-appointee, unsealed the records, showing 112 transactions involving Fusion GSP.
“Perkins Coie, the law firm that represented the Clinton campaign and DNC, paid Fusion a total of $1,024,408 between May 24, 2016 and Dec. 28, 2016, the records show,” reports Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller.
Ross adds, “The largest payment was made just before the election. Perkins Coie made a $365,275 payment to Fusion GPS on Oct. 28, 2016, according to the records.”
Daily Caller reports:
The unsealed documents also reveal details of the House committee’s requests for records related to Fusion’s payments to journalists.
The document shows that the committee sought records related to “five Fusion payments to research and Russia expert [name redacted], and production of three additional payments.”
The committee also seeks records “related to Fusion’s payments to journalists who have reported on Russia issues relevant to its investigation.”
It is not clear from the requests whether Fusion GPS paid active journalists for their work. The firm is known to employ a stable of former reporters. Simpson and his two founding partners, Peter Fritsch and Thomas Catan, worked together at The Wall Street Journal.
The unsealed filings show that Fusion argued against releasing records related to payments to journalists.
In a Nov. 3 declaration, Fritsch argued that “transactions between Fusion GPS and certain journalists…are not pertinent to work related to Russia or Donald Trump.”
The records raise new questions as to who is the mysterious ‘Russia expert,’ that Fusion GPS made various payments to. At the very least, the involvement of the expert, with the firm demonstrates more cooperation between the Clinton-linked group and Russia.
The curious detail comes to light at a time when Trump-Russia hysteria continues to roll on without concrete evidence the Trump campaign officials colluded with the Kremlin during the election.
The unsealing of the bank records comes amid reports that Fusion GPS Co-founder Glenn Simpson personally gave Senator John McCain (R-AZ) a copy of the now discredited dossier. Earlier reports suggested that McCain was made aware of the dossier from British associates, but was never in possession of the document’s final draft.
As The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft reported, Simpson spoke with House investigators in a closed-door meeting last Tuesday. Fox News’ Catherine Herridge reports Simpson never even verified the Dossier claims before peddling the document to reporters.
Herridge also said that her source told her that Glenn Simpson was “upset” when Comey re-opened Hillary’s email investigation at the end of October and wanted to push back.
