"I ran for president and all I got was this lousy T shirt."

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Fusion GPS Fusion GPS logo.png
Founded 2009
Headquarters Washington D.C.
fusiongps.com

Fusion GPS is a commercial research and strategic intelligence firm based in Washington D.C. The company conducts open-source investigations, provides research and strategic advice for businesses, law firms and investors, as well as for political inquiries, such as opposition research.[1] Fusion GPS uses "source networks to find information that is not readily accessible or in the public domain".[2]

History

The company was co-founded in 2009 by Glenn R. Simpson and Peter Fritsch, both former journalists for The Wall Street Journal.
Work
Opposition research on Mitt Romney

Fusion GPS was hired by Democrats in 2012 to do opposition research on Mitt Romney. Some of the work that received the most media attention was focused on investigating the marriage records of a large donor to the Romney presidential campaign, Frank VanderSloot.[2][3]
Planned Parenthood

In August 2015, Planned Parenthood retained Fusion GPS to defensively investigate the veracity of a series of undercover videos released by pro-life activists that they claim showed Planned Parenthood officials agreeing to sell fetal tissues obtained through abortions to medical researchers.[2] Fusion GPS hired video and transcription experts to analyze the videos and summarized the findings in a forensic report.[4] The report concluded that the "unedited" videos posted by activists had been edited. The activists attributed the gaps to "bathroom breaks and waiting periods."[5]

The report was provided to U.S. congressional leadership as evidence as they were considering funding and other issues related to Planned Parenthood operations. After a grand jury cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing, the activists behind the undercover videos were later arrested and charged with 15 felonies, including unlawfully recording people without their permission and conspiracy to invade privacy.[6]These charges were dropped 6 months later, but on March 28, 2017, Daleiden and Merritt were charged with 15 felonies in the State of California - one for each of the people whom they had filmed without consent, and one for criminal conspiracy to invade privacy. On 21 June 2017, fourteen of these charges were dismissed, with leave to amend, on the grounds that they were legally insufficient.[Egelko, Bob (21 June 2017). "SF judge deals setback to prosecutors in abortion sting videos". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 22 June 2017.]

Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr linked to investigation group behind salacious Steele Dossier

Mr Trump's eldest son said he felt obliged to attend the meeting

Lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya has denied working for the Russian government AP

The Russian lawyer who met Donald Trump Jr and allegedly offered to supply damaging information about Hillary Clinton, is apparently linked to a firm that helped compile the notorious dossier of wild and unproven allegations about the US President.

The President’s eldest son said he met lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, after being told she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms Clinton. He said it soon become clear she had no such information and rather wanted to press him about her effort to overturn the Magnitsky Act, a US law that blacklists several Russians linked to the 2009 murder of another Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky.

A spokesman for the President’s legal team told The Independent they now believed Ms Veselnitskaya and her colleagues had misrepresented who they were and who they worked for.

Obviously I'm the first person on a campaign to ever take a meeting to hear info about an opponent... went nowhere but had to listen. https://t.co/ccUjL1KDEa
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 10, 2017

In a statement, Mark Corallo added: “Specifically, we have learned that the person who sought the meeting is associated with Fusion GPS, a firm which according to public reports, was retained by Democratic operatives to develop opposition research on the President and which commissioned the phony Steele dossier.”

Fusion GPS, which is based in Washington DC and was established by former Wall Street Journal reporters Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, found itself in the spotlight earlier this year after it emerged it was behind an “oppo research” dossier containing unproven and often salacious allegations about Mr Trump.

The company had originally been hired by Republican rivals of Mr Trump during the primary campaign. After he secured the party's nomination, the company was instead paid by Democratic financial supporters of Ms Clinton. In the summer of 2016, GPS hired former British intelligence agent, Christopher Steele, to help their work.

Mr Steele once headed MI6’s Russia desk and left in 2009 to form his own London-based consulting firm, Orbis.

Ex-MI6 agent behind Trump Russia dossier breaks silence

Among the unverified information that Mr Steele provided for Fusion and which which was later shared with US intelligence and senior politicians, among them then President Barack Obama, was that Mr Trump had been compromised by Russia’s FSB spy agency during a trip to Moscow in 2013.

The dossier, which was published by BuzzFeed and denounced by Mr Trump as fake news, claimed Mr Trump was secretly filed with Russian prostitutes in a sting operation in Moscow’s Ritz-Carlton hotel.

The developments come as special prosecutor Robert Mueller is heading a federal probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign team and Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 election.

The Associated Press said Ms Veselnitskaya, who was once married to a deputy transportation minister of the Moscow region, was “a largely unknown figure until” she began to represent the son of a Russian official in a major money-laundering trial.

It said her company, Kamerton Consulting, defended Denis Katsyv, the son of a vice-president of state-owned Russian Railways who was charged with money-laundering in the United States over a case tied to a massive Russian tax-fraud scheme. The case against Mr Katsyv’s company, Prevezon, was settled in New York in May for some $6m, three days before it was to go to trial, the AP said.

The news agency said US investigators suspect the Cyprus-registered company, bought upscale New York City property with some of the proceeds from a $230m Russian tax-fraud scheme brought to light by a Sergei Magnitsky, the lawyer with investment advisory Hermitage Capital, who later died in prison. The US passed the Magnitsky Act in 2012 to target those Russians allegedly behind Mr Magnitsky’s death.

The act has reportedly been a source of deep anguish to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who responded by ending American adoptions of Russian children.

Mr Veselnitskaya has for several years been leading a campaign to have the act overturned. As part of her effort she allegedly hired GPS Fusion. A complaint filed last year claimed that GPS Fusion headed the pro-Russia campaign to kill the Magnitsky Act.

Earlier this year, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley asked the US Department of Justice to launch an investigation into Fusion GPS.

Maine Democratic Rep Makes Physical Threat Against ‘Pu**y’ Trump
Chuck Ross
Reporter
1:05 PM 07/12/2017
A Democratic state lawmaker in Maine appears to have made a death threat against President Trump.

“Trump is a half term president, at most, especially if I ever get within 10 feet of that p*ssy,” Rep. Scott Hamann wrote in a lengthy Facebook tirade on Tuesday.

Hamann, who represents a district in South Portland and also works as project manager for a food bank, appears to have been responding to another Facebook user who expressed support for Trump.

Hamann accused Trump of being “anti-American,” and an “admitted rapist” who was “installed by the Russians.”

Hammon, who is in his third term in the state House and serves on the Health and Human Services Committee and a marijuana legalization committee, went on to berate Trump supporters, who he said receive their news only from outlets like Breitbart News.

“Don’t like the truth?” he asked. “Well then f**k you, snowflake. You’re a f**king p*ssy. And you people are destroying America.”

He continued: “100% of intelligence Americans agree that Trump is a complete loser. But go back to clinging to your guns because you’re afraid. P*ssy.”

The chair of the Maine Republican Party responded to the post by calling on Maine’s House speaker to “do something” about Hammon’s remarks.

“Words cannot even begin to describe the level of revulsion I feel after reading Representative Scott Hamann’s recent tirade that has come to light,” Demi Kouzounas said in a statement.

“Perhaps the most alarming aspect of this tirade is an implied death threat against our President when Rep. Hamann states, ‘As long as that’s what’s coming out of that side, then I’ll match you dumb f**ks word for word. Trump is a half term President, at most, especially if I ever get within 10 feet of that p**sy,” she said.

She called on Maine House speaker Sara Gideon to “do something” about Hannon’s remarks, which she called “unhinged and dangerous.”

Hammon did not respond to phone and email requests for comment.

A phone call placed to the food bank where he works, Good Shepherd Food Bank, was not answered. But the group commented on the matter on Facebook.

“The views and opinions expressed by this employee are his own, and in no way reflect the views of Good Shepherd Food Bank. Our only goal is helping to end hunger in Maine, and we have addressed this with the employee,” reads a post on the organization’s Facebook page.