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

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
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?

How is she a "Fusion crony" again? She was heading up the lobbying team for the client. Fusion GPS was essentially working for her.

Where are you coming up with "Fusion dirt, paid by ClintonCo?" No, the dirt on Browder, the Ziff brothers, etc was funded paid for through BakerHostetler who was the law firm representing Prevezon. Veselnitskaya was actually representing Denis Katsyv, the owner of Prevezon Holdings.

Veselnitskaya was not a "Fusion crony" she was working for Denis Katsyv and Fusion GPS was working for her.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Riiiight, and this is the same outfit that cooked up the dastardly dossier, correct?

And how isnt she a Fusion crony / accomplice?

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

It's literally in chronological order. I also summarized the sequence in two brief paragraphs:

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.

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

Fusion GPS was hired by BakerHostetler in 2013. Fusion GPS was retained by Marc Elias in April of 2016. Steele was contracted for the Russia research in June, sometime after the DNC hack was announced (June 14th). The Trump Tower meeting was what? June 9th?

According to Fox News reporting, Veselnitskaya and Glenn Simpson were together in a Manhattan federal courtroom the day of Trump Tower meeting. Also according to a confidential source, they met some time after (doesn't say if it was the next day, the next week, the next month, etc or give any details).

What Fox News doesn't say is that she went to Trump Tower straight from an appeals hearing.

Daily Beast - This Is Why Natalia Veselnitskaya Was in New York

Just before her now-infamous meeting on June 9 of last year with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower, Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya was in court as a former U.S. attorney general tried to pull off an audacious legal maneuver against the U.S. government.

The meeting, arranged after Trump Jr. was offered information to “incriminate Hillary” as part “of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump,” had originally been scheduled for 3 p.m., but was moved back an hour because “the Russian government attorney” had to be in court that afternoon, according to the email thread arranging it.

That was the same day that Michael Mukasey, who served as attorney general under George W. Bush, appeared before a panel of three judges on the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to argue that Prevezon—the Kremlin-tied company then charged with hiding a fraction of a $230 million Russian tax scheme in Manhattan luxury real estate—should be allowed to keep a lawyer it had effectively poached from the other side.

Veselnitskaya, who represented the company’s owner as it prepared to defend itself at trial, did not register an official appearance with the appeals court, and the SDNY declined to comment on her presence there.

Also, according to Goldstone's emails, she had got into town from Moscow the day before (Jun 8th). FTR, she denies being an attorney for the Russian government and in fact, the evidence is that she was not and that Goldstone was a bit confused — he also apparently referred to Yuri Chaika as the "crown prosecutor" and implied that Chaika was sending Veselnitskaya when it seems that in reality, Veselnitskaya sought out Chaika.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

She was not their "crony" or "accomplice" — she represented their client. That's an important distinction that is being either carelessly glossed over or deliberately disregarded.

originally posted by: IgnoranceIsntBlisss
a reply to: theantediluvian

Riiiight, and this is the same outfit that cooked up the dastardly dossier, correct?

And how isnt she a Fusion crony / accomplice?

You know it was Steele's firm that actually made the dossier, so why are you lying?

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

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:

The fine was almost 10x what they were accused to have laundered in the real estate transactions.

Apparently the case wasn't exactly open and shut either. Also, I'd like to disagree with the National Review reporter's sentiment that Putin played both sides somehow.

I don't believe that there's any evidence that Putin had anything to do with the Trump Tower meeting at all. It looks to me as though Veselnitskaya actually solicited the support of the Russian Prosecutor General with the information from Fusion GPS.

In other words, I don't think Veselnitskaya was necessarily operating with any direct oversight of the Russian government. My impression is that she reported to Denis Katsyv. Though of course, business and politics in Russia are even more hand-in-glove than here. Katsyv's father Pyotr may very well know Putin though.

WaPo -Inside the link between the Russian lawyer who met Donald Trump Jr. and the Trump dossier

Prevezon is owned by Russian businessman Denis Katsyv. His father, Pyotr Katsyv, was vice premier and minister of transport of Moscow region from 2004 to 2012. Katsyv’s deputy minister was Alexander Mitusov, Veselnitskaya’s ex husband.