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Senate Panel To Hear Testimony From Businessman Targeted By Trump Dossier Firm
The Daily Caller ^ | 07/10/2017 | Chuck Ross

Posted on 07/12/2017 10:41:58 PM PDT by Fedora

A London-based businessman who was investigated last year by the opposition research firm behind the so-called Trump dossier will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week, The Daily Caller has learned.

Bill Browder says that he will “definitely” be testifying about a complaint he filed with the Justice Department last year in which he accused Fusion GPS, the firm behind the dossier, and a former Soviet intelligence officer named Rinat Akhmetshin of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a law requiring agents of foreign governments to disclose their lobbying and consulting work.

Founded by former Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson, Fusion GPS investigated Browder last year as part of an influence campaign aimed at neutering the Magnitsky Act, a 2012 law which allows for sanctions against Russians accused of human rights abuses.

At around the same time, Fusion GPS hired former British spy Christopher Steele to research Trump’s activities in Russia. Fusion was working for an unidentified political ally of Hillary Clinton’s.

Browder is not linked to or identified in the dossier, but he has said that Fusion GPS’s involvement on the anti-Magnitsky effort raises questions about the veracity of the anti-Trump research.

Glenn Simpson in C-SPAN interview, 1996.

“Glenn Simpson knowingly spread false information on behalf of people connected to the Russian government to try to protect Russian torturers and murderers from consequences,” Browder told TheDC in January, just after BuzzFeed news published Steele’s dossier. (RELATED: Opposition Research Firm Behind Trump Dossier Worked On Pro-Kremlin Lobbying Effort)

Browder was the leading force behind the campaign to pass the Magnitsky Act, a move which angered Russian president Vladimir Putin. Putin retaliated by barring U.S. citizens from adopting Russian children.

Fusion’s work on the two projects — one favorable to the Kremlin (Magnitsky) and the other unfavorable (the dossier) — has drawn attention from Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Grassley has inquired with the firm and with the FBI about the salacious dossier, which Steele began compiling last June.

The Republican has questioned why the FBI reportedly used an uncorroborated document financed by a Clinton ally as part of the basis for its investigation into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. (RELATED: Trump Dossier Firm Refuses To Identify Its Political Clients)

Grassley has also asked the FBI about reports that the bureau informally agreed to pay Steele $50,000 to continue his research on Trump. That payment was reportedly never made, though it is unclear why. Both the FBI and Fusion GPS have avoided answering Grassley’s questions about the dossier.

In his letters to the FBI, Grassley has cited a complaint that Browder filed with the Justice Department last July. In that document, Browder said that Fusion GPS was waging an opposition research campaign against him on behalf of a Russian businessman who was under investigation in the U.S. for money laundering.

Fusion GPS had been hired by the international law firm, BakerHostetler. The law firm was in turn was working for Denis Katsyv, the head of a Cyprus-based company called Prevezon Holdings.

Sergei Magnitsky, the namesake for the Magnitsky Act, was Browder’s lawyer during the 2000s, when the financier did business in Russia. Magnitsky died under mysterious circumstances in a Russian jail in 2009. He was imprisoned after uncovering a $230 million money laundering scheme that targeted Browder’s businesses.

Prevezon, Denis Katsyv’s company, was implicated in the money laundering scheme. Prevezon reached a $6 million settlement with the U.S. government in the case in May.

Browder tells TheDC that he will testify about Fusion GPS, Simpson, BakerHostetler lawyer Mark Cymrot, and Akhmetshin, the former Soviet agent who is now a Washington, D.C.-based lobbyist and consultant.

Akhmetshin was the lobbyist of record for a group formed last year called the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation (HRAGIF).

The organization’s official mission was to end the Russian adoption ban implemented by Putin. But in reality, HRAGIF used adoption as a dangle to compel U.S. lawmakers to revise the Magnitsky Act. (RELATED: Russian Lawyer Secured Trump Tower Meeting By Promising Dirt On Hillary Clinton)

News outlets like Politico and The Daily Beast reported last year that Akhmetshin was seen on Capitol Hill lobbying members of Congress specifically against the Magnitsky Act.

The anti-Magnitsky campaign took a new twist over the weekend after it was revealed that a Russian lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya met on June 9, 2016 with Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.

Bill Browder (Getty Images/ AFP/ Bertrand Guay)

Veselnitskaya is a lawyer for Katsyv, the Russian businessman, and co-founder of HRAGIF.

It emerged over the weekend that Veselnitskaya secured the Trump Tower meeting by claiming that she had derogatory information about Hillary Clinton. But Trump Jr. said in a statement that Veselnitskaya offered little information about Clinton. Instead, she turned the 20-minute meeting into a discussion of the Magnitsky Act.

After The New York Times reported the existence of the meeting on Saturday, Trump’s legal team pointed to Veselnitskaya’s work on Magnitsky and that lobbying campaign’s links to Fusion GPS. A spokesman for Trump’s legal team suggested that the Russian lawyer could have sought to compromise the campaign.

It has since emerged that Trump Jr. was approached for the meeting by Rob Goldstone, a music publicist who works for Emin Agalarov, a Kazakh musician whose billionaire father is close to the Russian government.

The Trumps and Agalarovs have done business together, most notably on the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.

As for Akhmetshin, he has worked for years as a political operative in Washington, D.C.

In 2014, he was accused of hacking the computer systems of a company called International Mineral Resources on behalf of EuroChem Volga-Kaliy, a Swiss fertilizer company controlled by a Russian oligarch.

In a deposition the next year, Akhmetshin denied hacking the company, saying that he obtained documents about the firm through something called the London information bazaar, a secretive exchange network used by journalists and investigators.

Patrick Salisbury, a lawyer for EuroChem, said in a sworn statement that Akhmetshin had “deep contacts” to reporters at prestigious news outlets like the Wall Street Journal and The Guardian. He also obtains research from Global Witness, a non-profit group that is heavily funded by progressive billionaire George Soros, Salisbury said.


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2009; 2012; 2013; 2014; 201606; 20160609; 2016election; 201705; adoptions; agalarov; akhmetshin; awan; awanbrothers; bakerhostetler; barbaralee; beautypageant; billbrowder; britishspy; browder; christophersteele; collusion; cymrot; cyprus; dellums; dellumsrussia; deniskatsyv; donjr; durham; eminagalarov; eurochem; fertilizer; fusion; fusiongps; georgesoros; glennsimpson; globalwitness; goldenshowersdossier; goldstone; grenada; hacking; hragif; imr; informationbazaar; itgate; its; lee; london; magnitsky; magnitskyact; manafort; markcymrot; melnichenko; mi6; minerals; mining; missuniverse; moneylaundering; natalia; pageant; patricksalisbury; pointclairfarm; ppdossier; prevezon; prevezonholdings; redscare; repositoryrussia; rinatakhmetshin; robgoldstone; rondellums; russia; russians; russianspy; salisbury; sergeimagnitsky; settlement; simpson; soros; spies; spooks; steele; sussman; theguardian; torture; trumpdossier; trumprussia; ussr; veselnitskaya; volgakaliy; wallstreetjournal; williambrowder; yellowdossier
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Browder and Veselnitskaya have a history:

"“There’s zero doubt that she and her U.S. colleagues were lobbying to repeal Magnitsky or at least ensure his name was removed from the global law Congress was considering,” said U.S. businessman William Browder, who was the main proponent for the Magnitsky Act and who filed a FARA complaint against Veselnitskaya, Dellums and other U.S. officials claiming they should have registered as foreign agent lobbyists because of the work. . .Browder's complaint, which alleges that Washington lobbyists working with Veselnitskaya failed to register as foreign agents, is still pending at the Justice Department. It identified several events in Washington that Veselnitskaya and her allies attended or staged in June 2016." Exclusive: DOJ let Russian lawyer into US before she met with Trump team

Veselnitskaya's Facebook page is also full of posts about Browder and the Magnitsky Act.

1 posted on 07/12/2017 10:41:58 PM PDT by Fedora
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To: Fedora
"Bill Browder says that he will “definitely” be testifying about a complaint he filed with the Justice Department last year in which he accused Fusion GPS, the firm behind the dossier, and a former Soviet intelligence officer named Rinat Akhmetshin of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a law requiring agents of foreign governments to disclose their lobbying and consulting work. . .Browder tells TheDC that he will testify about Fusion GPS, Simpson, BakerHostetler lawyer Mark Cymrot, and Akhmetshin, the former Soviet agent who is now a Washington, D.C.-based lobbyist and consultant. . .Akhmetshin was the lobbyist of record for a group formed last year called the Human Rights Accountability Global Initiative Foundation (HRAGIF). . .News outlets like Politico and The Daily Beast reported last year that Akhmetshin was seen on Capitol Hill lobbying members of Congress specifically against the Magnitsky Act. . .In 2014, he was accused of hacking the computer systems of a company called International Mineral Resources on behalf of EuroChem Volga-Kaliy, a Swiss fertilizer company controlled by a Russian oligarch. In a deposition the next year, Akhmetshin denied hacking the company, saying that he obtained documents about the firm through something called the London information bazaar, a secretive exchange network used by journalists and investigators. Patrick Salisbury, a lawyer for EuroChem, said in a sworn statement that Akhmetshin had “deep contacts” to reporters at prestigious news outlets like the Wall Street Journal and The Guardian. He also obtains research from Global Witness, a non-profit group that is heavily funded by progressive billionaire George Soros, Salisbury said."
2 posted on 07/12/2017 10:50:48 PM PDT by Fedora
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To: Fedora

The more that comes out....simply makes you view this as a Russian billionaire scheme (mostly out of Cyprus) with hands on the Obama-camp and the Clinton-camp. It would appear that Fusion was simply looking for ways to get into the Trump-camp as well, and if they couldn’t...they’d destroy it via fake news.

I’d like to hear more on the visa episode with this Russian lawyer and how this occurred.


3 posted on 07/12/2017 11:18:28 PM PDT by pepsionice
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To: Fedora
In 2014, he was accused of hacking the computer systems of a company called International Mineral Resources on behalf of EuroChem Volga-Kaliy, a Swiss fertilizer company controlled by a Russian oligarch.

The unnamed oligarch is identified as Andrey Melnichenko in court records on the hacking lawsuit against Akhmetshin.

4 posted on 07/12/2017 11:33:57 PM PDT by Fedora
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To: Fedora

Curioser and curiouser.


5 posted on 07/12/2017 11:40:44 PM PDT by Eagles6 (My weapons are lubricated by liberal tears.)
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To: Fedora

FARA? Law? Who cares? If it is Putin and liberals, they do not follow the stinking American laws


6 posted on 07/12/2017 11:46:26 PM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security Whorocracy & hate:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucifiedc)
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To: Fedora

Grassley is one GOP senator doing his job.


7 posted on 07/13/2017 12:38:28 AM PDT by EliRoom8
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To: Fedora

Thx for posting


8 posted on 07/13/2017 12:49:40 AM PDT by thinden
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To: Fedora

I thought it was very kind of the FBI to help pay for Hillary’s opposition dirty tricks.


9 posted on 07/13/2017 12:52:47 AM PDT by heights
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To: Fedora

JOINT STIPULATION OF DISMISSAL WITH PREJUDICE: IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED, by and between the parties, that (i) International Mineral Resources B.V. (”IMR”) withdraws all allegations in its 28 U.S.C. § 1782 Application (the “Application”), including allegations therein that ECVK, Mr. Salisbury or Salisbury & Ryan LLP engaged in any unlawful or improper acts against IMR, including but not limited to hacking any information from IMR’s computer systems, disseminating any information as part of a smear campaign against IMR, (ii) Mr. Salisbury, Salisbury & Ryan LLP, and EYCK withdraw all allegations in their briefing in this action, including allegations therein that IMR or its representatives engaged in any unlawful or improper acts against Mr. Salisbury, Salisbury & Ryan LLP, ECVK, or any other person, and (iii) this action shall be dismissed with prejudice pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1) (A)(ii), with each party to bear its own costs and fees. The Clerk of the Court Shall mark this action closed and all pending motions denied as moot. SO ORDERED. (Signed by Judge Loretta A. Preska on 1/22/2016) (kl)


10 posted on 07/13/2017 5:08:36 AM PDT by Bookshelf
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To: Fedora
...the main proponent for the Magnitsky Act and who filed a FARA complaint against Veselnitskaya, Dellums and other U.S. officials claiming they should have registered as foreign agent lobbyists ...

Isn't Dellums the Democrat who was caught red-handed in the 1980s Grenada invasion colluding with officials of Russia's client state, Cuba? They were actually instructing him on how to vote? Our troops found his letters to communists in Grenada's government who were trying to provide the USSR with a military airfield in the region.

11 posted on 07/13/2017 6:12:01 AM PDT by piasa
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To: piasa

...
Something that author Powell may not have known was that Rep. Ronald Dellums (D-Cal), an avowed socialist, which is just a coverup word for communist/marxist, was the subcommittee chairman of the House Armed Services Committee for military construction, thru which he would normally have been given highly classified documents telling the location of nuclear-weapons storage and basing facilities, or the need for more of them, or even of weaknesses in their security which had to be fixed.
Given Dellums’ long record of aiding communist, marxist, socialist and far-left groups, movements and governments (Grenada, Vietnam, Cuba), giving him any kind of classified information would probably have ensured it getting into Cuban or Soviet hands. Fortunately, unbeknownst to him, wiser Democratic congressmen on the HASC kept certain materials away from him so that he never saw them or even knew that they existed. That was because he was one of the three top communist/marxist security risks in Congress, the others being Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich), now the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and the late Rep. George Crockett Jr., (D-Mich), who was deliberately made the Democratic Party’s chairman on the House Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, despite his record of supporting communism.
However, it would be interesting to see if Dellums was the leaker to Arkin about U.S. nuclear-weapons depots and caches that Arkin later gave to Gelb at The New York Times. ...


Who is William Arkin, and why does it matter?
The New Dominion ^ | Feb. 26, 2007 | Max Friedman
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791685/posts


12 posted on 07/13/2017 6:36:42 AM PDT by piasa
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To: Fedora; LucyT; GregNH; LS; 2ndDivisionVet; appalachian_dweller; aragorn; Arthur Wildfire! March; ...

PING!!! PING!!!

Soros connection

Article and all comments

“Bill Browder says that he will “definitely” be testifying about a complaint he filed with the Justice Department last year in which he accused Fusion GPS, the firm behind the dossier, and a former Soviet intelligence officer named Rinat Akhmetshin of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a law requiring agents of foreign governments to disclose their lobbying and consulting work. . .Browder tells TheDC that he will testify about Fusion GPS,....

....Akhmetshin denied hacking the company, saying that he obtained documents about the firm through something called the London information bazaar, a secretive exchange network used by journalists and investigators. Patrick Salisbury, a lawyer for EuroChem, said in a sworn statement that Akhmetshin had “deep contacts” to reporters at prestigious news outlets like the Wall Street Journal and The Guardian. He also obtains research from Global Witness, a non-profit group that is heavily funded by progressive billionaire George Soros, Salisbury said.”

Thanks, Fedora


13 posted on 07/13/2017 6:47:37 AM PDT by Whenifhow (when, if and how will Obama be gone?)
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To: piasa; Fedora

EXCLUSIVE: Radical Dem Worked For Russian Lawyer Who Met With Trump, Jr.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3568869/posts

Dellums, who represented liberal San Francisco and Oakland, Calif., is a long-time darling of left-wing political activists. He served 13 terms in Congress as an African-American firebrand and proudly called himself a socialist. He retired in 1996.

The former congressman is one of several high-profile Democratic partisans who was on Veselnitskaya’s payroll, working to defeat a law that is the hated object of a personal vendetta waged by Russian President Vladimir Putin.


14 posted on 07/13/2017 6:52:22 AM PDT by Whenifhow (when, if and how will Obama be gone?)
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To: Whenifhow; All
Link to cached page with Dellums identity highlighted throughout
15 posted on 07/13/2017 7:34:41 AM PDT by wtd
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To: wtd; LucyT; GregNH; LS; 2ndDivisionVet; appalachian_dweller; aragorn; Arthur Wildfire! March; ...

PING!!! PING!!!

Back to the thread - Awan Brothers itgate scandal connection

See #11,

Isn’t Dellums the Democrat who was caught red-handed in the 1980s Grenada invasion colluding with officials of Russia’s client state, Cuba?

and #15 - see link there

After Grenada, the intelligence showed that Democrats were colluding with the communist gov’t there.

Documents seized showed that Dellums had coordinated his domestic opposition to Reagan’s Grenada policy with the communist junta in Grenada, going so far as to provide draft reports for the regime to edit before being published by the House of Representatives.

snip

Rep. Dellums went on to serve as Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, complete with the requisite security clearances.

And Barbara Lee?

She succeeded Dellums as Representative for California’s 13th Congressional District and now sits on the State and Foreign Operations and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee and employed Awan Abid as an IT professional.

Thanks wtd


16 posted on 07/13/2017 7:47:43 AM PDT by Whenifhow (when, if and how will Obama be gone?)
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To: Whenifhow
Whenifhow : " ....Akhmetshin denied hacking the company, saying that he obtained documents about the firm through something called the London information bazaar,
a secretive exchange network used by journalists and investigators."

It sounds as though the 'London information bazaar' is an 'information-lausndering' and unmasking organization
much the same as any commonly known 'money-laundering' organizations and foundations are known .
Therefore, any Soros connection is not surprising.

17 posted on 07/13/2017 8:12:05 AM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt (The Fourth Estate has become Fifth column !)
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To: Whenifhow; Fedora

It appears that someone will light the fuse of the bomb next week.

If JR. Had not had the meeting with the Russian honey none of this would have come out ! It Dims had not pushed the JR. issue it would still be hidden
Stupid is as ....


18 posted on 07/13/2017 3:45:52 PM PDT by hoosiermama (When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.DJT)
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To: hoosiermama; Fedora

Why not also focus on Jared and Manafort? Maybe they disclosed this meeting on the paper work though.

Praying for the best.


19 posted on 07/13/2017 4:26:06 PM PDT by Whenifhow (when, if and how will Obama be gone?)
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To: piasa; MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

Dellums was a Russian asset for a long time when Russia was part of the Soviet Union and in control of CPUSA. The pattern I’m seeing is that some old CPUSA allies continue to work with Russia, while others have aligned with Putin’s opposition in Russia and the Ukraine. Browder seems to fall into the latter category, if I’m reading this right.


20 posted on 07/13/2017 4:30:38 PM PDT by Fedora
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