Fusion GPS

Fusion GPS
Founded 2011
Headquarters Washington D.C.
Key people
 Glenn Simpson
Website 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]

History

The company was co-founded in 2011 by Glenn R. Simpson, a former investigative reporter and journalist for Roll Call and The Wall Street Journal; Peter Fritsch, former Wall Street Journal senior editor; and former Wall Street Journal journalist Thomas Catan.[2]

Work

Opposition research on Mitt Romney

Fusion GPS was hired by Democrats in 2012 to do opposition research on Mitt Romney.[2] In February 2012, the magazine Mother Jones published an article on Frank VanderSloot and his company Melaleuca, who combined had given $1 million to a SuperPAC supporting Mitt Romney. After the article was published, an intern at Fusion GPS did a search of Idaho court records on VanderSloot by phone and fax. In January 2013, VanderSloot sued Mother Jones for defamation in the February article. In the course of the litigation, VanderSloot deposed Fusion GPS founder Simpson on the "theory that Mother Jones conspired with Obama’s team to defame VanderSloot".[3][4][5] The seventh Judicial District Court of the State of Idaho dismissed the lawsuit in 2015.[6]

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 David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt that they claim showed Planned Parenthood officials agreeing to sell fetal tissues obtained through abortions to medical researchers. Fusion GPS hired video and transcription experts to analyze the videos and summarized the findings in a forensic report.[7] The report concluded that the "unedited" videos posted by activists had been "heavily edited". The pro-life activists attributed the gaps to "bathroom breaks and waiting periods."[8]

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, 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.[9] On 21 June 2017, fourteen of these charges were dismissed, with leave to amend, on the grounds that they were legally insufficient.[10]

Prevezon Holding

In 2013, the US Department of Justice, represented by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, sued Prevezon Holding, a Republic of Cyprus corporation registered in New York State as a foreign business corporation, under the Magnitsky Act for money-laundering. The lawsuit sought forfeiture of various assets and real estate holdings in the US.[11][12] The sole shareholder of Prevezon, Russian citizen Denis Katsyv, whose father is Petr Katsyv, vice president of Russia's state-run rail monopoly and "reportedly a business associate of Vladimir Yakunin, a confidant of Vladimir Putin", and whose Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya is not licensed to practice in the US, hired the law firm of BakerHostetler to represent the corporation;[12] BakerHostetler hired Fusion GPS in 2013 "in a litigation support role" in defense of the claims against Prevezon,[13][14] although BakerHostetler was removed from the case by U.S. District Judge Thomas Griesa in January 2016.[15][13] In May 2017, two months after President Trump had dismissed Bharara, the US Government settled the lawsuit for $6 million.[11][16]

As part of their litigation support, Fusion GPS investigated Bill Browder, founder of Hermitage Capital Management and a witness central to the case.[17] During the course of the case, Browder claimed that Fusion GPS had previously been hired to undertake a pro-Russia campaign aimed at stopping passage of the Magnitsky Act,[18][13] named after Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer and auditor who was bludgeoned to death by prison guards while being held without charges in a Russian government prison after he documented a corruption scheme that the Kremlin had stolen $230 million from Hermitage Capital Management.[14]

On March 30, 2017, Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa called for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into purported connections between Fusion GPS and Russia, and an inquiry as to whether Fusion GPS was acting as an unregistered foreign agent. The company denied the claims that they were engaged in lobbying or had violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act.[18][13]

Trump dossier and Christopher Steele

In September 2015, Fusion GPS was hired to do opposition research for Republicans who opposed Donald Trump's bid during the Republican primary campaign for the 2016 presidential election. When Trump had emerged as the probable Republican candidate by the spring of 2016, Republican donors stopped funding the investigation, and Democratic supporters of Hillary Clinton became Fusion GPS's new clients.[19] In June 2016, after the Democratic National Committee had been hacked and its emails began to be published online by Wikileaks, Fusion GPS retained Christopher Steele, a private British corporate intelligence investigator and former MI-6 agent, to research any Russian connections to Trump. Steele produced a 35-page series of memos from June to December 2016, which became the document known as the Donald Trump–Russia dossier.[19][20]

Senate Judiciary Committee investigations

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Grassley and ranking Democrat Dianne Feinstein made arrangements in July 2017 for Fusion GPS cofounder Glenn Simpson to testify before their committee. Simpson will not testify in public, but will be interviewed privately under terms of an agreement.[21][22] The committee wanted to question Simpson about the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). A previous witness, banker and human rights activist Bill Browder, had accused Simpson and Fusion GPS of evading registration as foreign agents for campaigning to influence and overturn the Magnitsky Act.[23] Fusion said through their attorney that they were not required to register under FARA.[23] Senators may also use the hearing "to press Justice Department officials on what they know about Veselnitskaya, Prevezon, Fusion GPS and their connections to both the Trump campaign or the Russian government."[24]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Fusion GPS - Investigative reporting approach to investment research • Integrity Research". Integrity Research. 7 April 2011. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  2. 1 2 McBride, Jessica (March 30, 2017). "Fusion GPS: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  3. ↑ Jeffery, Clara; Bauerlein, Monika (October 8, 2015). "We Were Sued by a Billionaire Political Donor. We won. Here's What Happened". Mother Jones. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Motion to Squash Subpoena" (PDF). D.C. Anti-SLAPP Law. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  5. ↑ Strassel, Kim (May 10, 2012). "Strassel: Trolling for Dirt on the President's List". FrankVanderslootResponse. Retrieved July 23, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Case Analysis". Global Freedom of Expression, Columbia University. October 6, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2016.Case Number CV-2013-532
  7. ↑ Hemingway, Mark (27 August 2015). "Politico & NYT Fail to Mention Report Exonerating Planned Parenthood Produced By Democratic Opposition Research Firm". Weekly Standard. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  8. ↑ Haberkorn, Jennifer (27 August 2015). "Report for Planned Parenthood finds sting videos manipulated". POLITICO. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  9. ↑ Hamilton, Matt (March 28, 2017). "Two Antiabortion Activists behind Undercover Planned Parenthood Videos Charged with 15 Felonies". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  10. ↑ Bob Egelko (June 21, 2017). "SF judge deals setback to prosecutors in abortion sting videos". Retrieved July 12, 2017.
  11. 1 2 MacFarquhar, Neil; Kramer, Andrew E. (July 11, 2017). "Natalia Veselnitskaya, Lawyer Who Met Trump Jr., Seen as Fearsome Moscow Insider". The New York Times. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  12. 1 2 Erb, Kelly Phillips (March 24, 2017). "Lawyer With Key Evidence In Russian Corruption Scandals Falls From Building Before Testifying". Forbes. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Eckel, Mike (April 1, 2017). "U.S. Senator Seeks Probe Of Firm Linked To Russia Dossier". RadioFreeEurope. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  14. 1 2 Matt Taibbi (14 July 2017). "Russiagate and the Magnitsky Affair, Linked Again". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 7 August 2017.
  15. ↑ Eckel, Mike (18 January 2016). "In U.S. Money-Laundering Case, Shades Of Russian Corruption". RadioFreeEurope. Retrieved 7 August 2017.
  16. ↑ Feeley, Jef; Van Voris, Bob (May 13, 2017). "Laundering Suit Ends as Russian Firm, U.S. Claim Victory". Bloomberg. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  17. ↑ Matthews, Christopher M. (May 13, 2015). "Hedge-Fund Manager's Credibility Questioned in Russian Laundering Case". The Wall Street Journal.
  18. 1 2 Arnsdorf, Isaac (December 16, 2016). "FARA Complaint Alleges Pro-Russian Lobbying". Politico. Retrieved July 23, 2017.
  19. 1 2 Confessore, Scott Shane, Nicholas; Rosenberg, Matthew (11 January 2017). "How a Sensational, Unverified Dossier Became a Crisis for Donald Trump". The New York Times. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  20. ↑ Blum, Howard (March 30, 2017). "How ex-spy Christopher Steele compiled his explosive dossier". Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 22, 2016.
  21. ↑ "The Latest: Senate Panel Subpoenas Manafort to Testify". U.S. News and World Report. July 25, 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  22. ↑ Greenwood, Max (July 26, 2017). "Co-founder of firm tied to Trump dossier agrees to speak to Senate panel". TheHill. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  23. 1 2 Greenwood, Max; Wilson, Megan (July 27, 2017). "Fusion GPS: White House Trying To Smear Us On Russia". The Hill. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  24. ↑ Logan, Bryan (July 21, 2017). "Senate Intel Committee Subpoenas The Research Firm Tied To The Bombshell Trump-Russia Dossier". Business Insider. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
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