Fmr. Clinton Spox on Dossier Funding: ‘Opposition Research Happens All the Time’

[Auburn85 432]

https://www.mediaite.com/online/fmr-clinton-spox-on-trump-dossier-funding-opposition-research-happens-all-the-time/

 

Quote

 

Brian Fallon appeared on CNN today to defend Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for reportedly working with the DNC to fund that infamous dossier on President Trump’s Russian links.

On Tuesday, Fallon reacted to the report by insisting he was unaware of the Clinton campaign picking up the bill for Christopher Steele’sresearch last year. Fallon defended the move by saying it “would have been campaign malpractice” not to buy opposition research on Trump, and that the dossier will be worth it if it reveals anything for the special counsel investigation on Russia.

When asked about all of this on CNN, Fallon supposed that Steele’s hiring was kept secret due to the sensitive nature of his work as a former MI6 agent. As the former spokesman spoke about how the dossier’s unverified findings came up from a period of dormancy, he was pressed on why Clinton and her campaign staff didn’t know about their connection to Fusion GPS.

Fallon said he couldn’t speak for how much Clinton knew about her campaign’s dealings with Steele, but he noted that “opposition research happens all the time” during elections, and the dossier was already commissioned ahead of time. CNN’s John Berman questioned the pursuit of opposition research rationale by noting how that was supposedly the same reason why Donald Trump Jr. met with various Russian officials last year.

Fallon argued that the difference was the Clinton campaign hired services from an independent research organization, whereas Trump Jr.’s meeting invites questions about how connected his father’s campaign was to Russian interference efforts during the election.

 

 

[HVAU 673]

12 minutes ago, Auburn85 said:

commissioned ahead of time. CNN’s John Berman questioned the pursuit of opposition research rationale by noting how that was supposedly the same reason why Donald Trump Jr. met with various Russian officials last year.

Hiring a firm to conduct oppo research is a bit different than having your son meet with foreign operatives to collect oppo research in exchange for promises of policy flexibility sympathetic to the foreign interests.  I'm speaking of course of the Magnitzsky Act, which is aimed at diminishing the ability of Putin and the Russian oligarchs to raid political opponents financial portfolios thereby enriching themselves and crippling dissent.

 

[DKW 86 7,419]

13 minutes ago, HVAU said:

Hiring a firm to conduct oppo research is a bit different than having your son meet with foreign operatives to collect oppo research in exchange for promises of policy flexibility sympathetic to the foreign interests.  I'm speaking of course of the Magnitzsky Act, which is aimed at diminishing the ability of Putin and the Russian oligarchs to raid political opponents financial portfolios thereby enriching themselves and crippling dissent.

 

So what exactly has been changed or was even promised to be changed in the Magnitzky Act? From everything I have rad, notes etc, the meeting was a nothingburger. Now, the oppo research has been said to have cost the HRC Campaign dearly. Some estimates could run as high as $9M out of $12.4M

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/us/politics/clinton-dnc-russia-dossier.html

[HVAU 673]

2 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

So what exactly has been changed or was even promised to be changed in the Magnitzky Act? From everything I have rad, notes etc, the meeting was a nothingburger. Now, the oppo research has been said to have cost the HRC Campaign dearly. Some estimates could run as high as $9M out of $12.4M

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/us/politics/clinton-dnc-russia-dossier.html

I disagree with the perception that the meeting was nothing.  There are several policy positions that indicate an unhealthy adherence to Russia First policies:

"U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s reported resistance to taking $80 million allocated by the U.S. Congress to fight Russian and ISIS propaganda has been described as “highly unusual.” But it fits into a larger pattern of what’s shaping up to be a very odd Russia policy." - The Atlantic

"Top Senate Republicans are pledging to find out if the White House is intentionally delaying new sanctions on Moscow as the Trump administration is several weeks past a congressionally-imposed deadline to identify top Russian officials involved in political cybermeddling" -CNN

"The Washington Post reported yesterday that Donald Trump is scrapping "the CIA's covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the government of Bashar al-Assad." As luck would have it, that's precisely what Vladimir Putin's Russian government wanted the American president to do." - MSNBC

"Trump has also tried to weaken sanctions, isolated the United States diplomatically, fractured Western alliances, diminished the influence of the State Department (which is now led by Putin’s closest American ally), and largely ignored Russia’s attack on the U.S. elections – all of which serve Moscow’s strategic goals" -MSNBC

"President Donald Trump’s persistent overtures toward Russia are placing him increasingly at odds with his national security and foreign policy advisers, who have long urged a more cautious approach to dealing with the foreign adversary." -AP News

"McMaster expressed his disapproval of Trump’s course to foreign officials during the lead-up to his trip to Germany. The general specifically said he’d disagreed with Trump’s decision to hold an Oval Office meeting in May with top Russian diplomats and with the president’s general reluctance to speak out against Russian aggression in Europe, according to the three foreign officials." -AP News

 

"From everything I have rad, notes etc, the meeting was a nothingburger"

I'm confident that the notes you've read about the meeting are insignificant given the following:

"Trump Jr.'s reported statement contrasted with his initial comments that he made when the meeting was first revealed, in which he said the focus was restricted to a discussion about a frozen Russia-US adoption program. That explanation soon yielded to a succession of reworded statements about why he met the lawyer that cemented impressions that Trump Jr. was not disclosing everything about the encounter." -CNN

"Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Thursday there are “gaps” in Donald Trump Jr.’s closed-door testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee" -Politico

"A newly disclosed email sent by the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in June 2016 may offer evidence to support her claims that she met with Trump Jr. solely to discuss the Magnitsky Act, per the Washington Post." -Axios

     *This last one would be favorable the Trump Jr. if he hadn't already made remarks confirming his desire to obtain oppo-research for the Russian operatives.

     **This also demonstrates the ever changing facts concerning anything Trump related.  If you are curious about this, beyond the standard fake news mantra, take a look at Surkov and his information control tactics. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/hidden-author-putinism-russia-vladislav-surkov/382489/

    ***Just to be clear, ,in case I'm coming off more offensive than I intend, I respect the perspective you provide in these threads.  There are some that have no substance to their argument, other than another Fox article.  You bring much more and that's appreciated.

[DKW 86 7,419]

Yes, but oppo research doesnt mean that you betray your country or sign away your soul in a meeting where everyone's notes basically say it was about nothing and lasted very few minutes and was essentially over in the first few minutes. From the meeting, Trump jr got nothing because there was nothing to get according to everyone there. 

What research did they get and use from the Russians? 

Has anything changed in regards to the Magnitzky Act?

Show the quid pro quo in all this? 

 

Look, I hate Dick Trump as much as the rest do. I cant stand the blowhard bastich since he was going on Donahue in the 1980s. He was born on third and thinks he made the Hall of Fame. He was singularly the worst candidate in both fields. But he won because the American Middle Class is fed up with the Elites in DC. He was the "Giving DC the Bird" Candidate. Thats why his base is sticking to him. They still hate DC. They may not like him, BUT THEY HATE DC. If Trump does go, I am not convinced that Pence isnt the Roy Moore of Indiana. 

All this aside. Trump has rubbed elbows with these bastards all his life. He IS them. He is OF them. He has donated more money to HRC than he has to the Republican Party. He was a self-identified Democrat for 3 decades. I just dont think they have the stomach to take him out at the end of the day. I'll make a statement here now. I think the Reps do much better than expected in the 2018 Midterms. The Dem leadership just do not see it the right way yet. The more Perez acts, the more I am convinced HRC is running again.

[HVAU 673]

2 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

The more Perez acts, the more I am convinced HRC is running again.

I really hope you're wrong on that count.

I'll follow up on the other stuff tomorrow if I can.

[TexasTiger 12,831]

15 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

Yes, but oppo research doesnt mean that you betray your country or sign away your soul in a meeting where everyone's notes basically say it was about nothing and lasted very few minutes and was essentially over in the first few minutes. From the meeting, Trump jr got nothing because there was nothing to get according to everyone there. 

What research did they get and use from the Russians? 

Has anything changed in regards to the Magnitzky Act?

Show the quid pro quo in all this? 

 

Look, I hate Dick Trump as much as the rest do. I cant stand the blowhard bastich since he was going on Donahue in the 1980s. He was born on third and thinks he made the Hall of Fame. He was singularly the worst candidate in both fields. But he won because the American Middle Class is fed up with the Elites in DC. He was the "Giving DC the Bird" Candidate. Thats why his base is sticking to him. They still hate DC. They may not like him, BUT THEY HATE DC. If Trump does go, I am not convinced that Pence isnt the Roy Moore of Indiana. 

All this aside. Trump has rubbed elbows with these bastards all his life. He IS them. He is OF them. He has donated more money to HRC than he has to the Republican Party. He was a self-identified Democrat for 3 decades. I just dont think they have the stomach to take him out at the end of the day. I'll make a statement here now. I think the Reps do much better than expected in the 2018 Midterms. The Dem leadership just do not see it the right way yet. The more Perez acts, the more I am convinced HRC is running again.

Perez is just incompetent. HRC ain't running.

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

"Opposition research" when Hillary does it

"Collusion" when Trump doesn't do it

[HVAU 673]

3 hours ago, CarterLee said:

"Opposition research" when Hillary does it

"Collusion" when Trump doesn't do it

Excellent plan by the Clintons eh?

Hire form to provide oppo, receive damaging oppo, wait until after the election is over to release oppo.  

You guys are getting hot and bothered over this, but it's not going anywhere.

[TexasTiger 12,831]

10 minutes ago, HVAU said:

Excellent plan by the Clintons eh?

Hire form to provide oppo, receive damaging oppo, wait until after the election is over to release oppo.  

You guys are getting hot and bothered over this, but it's not going anywhere.

They are well trained puppets. Scary, ain't it?

[DKW 86 7,419]

7 hours ago, HVAU said:

Excellent plan by the Clintons eh?

Hire form to provide oppo, receive damaging oppo, wait until after the election is over to release oppo.  

You guys are getting hot and bothered over this, but it's not going anywhere.

They shopped this crap to every news agency in North America. Hell, only BuzzFeed would ever publish it. It wasnt deemed necessary to defeat the Big Cheeto.

[HVAU 673]

40 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

They shopped this crap to every news agency in North America. Hell, only BuzzFeed would ever publish it. It wasnt deemed necessary to defeat the Big Cheeto.

I just don't buy the narrative that no news sources were interested in the product.  Also, doesn't your second statement here countermand your first?  If they were shopping it around, then they obviously thought it was necessary.  It's one or the other.

[DKW 86 7,419]

1 hour ago, HVAU said:

I just don't buy the narrative that no news sources were interested in the product.  Also, doesn't your second statement here countermand your first?  If they were shopping it around, then they obviously thought it was necessary.  It's one or the other.

They tried, couldnt get it published and stopped trying until after the election because in the end it wasnt deemed necessary to defeat Trump. HRC was supposed to win 320 or so Electoral College Votes. 

1) There was plenty of $$$ behind it.
2) Personally, I find that anyone would believe this TMZ type journalism is just plain crazy.
3) The Dems want to sully Trump for ties to Russia, but then want to quote the Russians in this crazy dossier? How does that make sense? The Russians are bad for the US unless they benefit the Democrats? 
4) BuzzFeed had this story before the election, but still wouldnt publish it because they didnt think they would have to. 

As bad as the Big Cheeto is, the fact that this was just more crap to throw against the wall should have been obvious to anyone. Really? A golden shower episode??? Really? Everything I have read on it points out as a known fact that Trump was in the US at several media events the days sited in the dossier. It was easily proven to be BS by simple google search..

[HVAU 673]

19 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

They tried, couldnt get it published and stopped trying until after the election because in the end it wasnt deemed necessary to defeat Trump. HRC was supposed to win 320 or so Electoral College Votes. 

1) There was plenty of $$$ behind it.
2) Personally, I find that anyone would believe this TMZ type journalism is just plain crazy.
3) The Dems want to sully Trump for ties to Russia, but then want to quote the Russians in this crazy dossier? How does that make sense? The Russians are bad for the US unless they benefit the Democrats? 
4) BuzzFeed had this story before the election, but still wouldnt publish it because they didnt think they would have to. 

As bad as the Big Cheeto is, the fact that this was just more crap to throw against the wall should have been obvious to anyone. Really? A golden shower episode??? Really? Everything I have read on it points out as a known fact that Trump was in the US at several media events the days sited in the dossier. It was easily proven to be BS by simple google search..

As far as golden showers, and prostitutes, I don't really care.  If that stuff is true it points to a despicable character, but Trump's already confirmed his despicable nature numerous times.

What concerns me with the dossier, and with previously reported information regarding Trump has to do with real estate, money laundering and Russian oligarchs.  The dossier, although some information in it may be false, Trump Jr's meetings, Trump's business transactions going back to the late 80's, the soft on Russia stance of this administration, Trump's refusal to acquiesce to the norm of releasing his income taxes, etc.  all point to shady dealings, shady dealings with Russia.  So the fact that the Dems decided to continue funding the oppo research with Fusion GPS that was initially commissioned by the Republicans concerns me much less than the possibility that the current president is more beholden to cronies of Putin than he is to the responsibilities of his office. 

On top of that, drawing parallels to a campaign hiring an oppo research firm, which has become a matter of course in politics, through their lawyers to top campaign officials and children of a candidate meeting with representatives from adversary governments to gain oppo in an, allegedly, quid pro quo capacity is delusional.  What Clinton and the Dems did is normal, politically speaking.  What the Trump's were doing is not.

 

[DKW 86 7,419]

7 minutes ago, HVAU said:

As far as golden showers, and prostitutes, I don't really care.  If that stuff is true it points to a despicable character, but Trump's already confirmed his despicable nature numerous times.

The Big Cheeto is and has always been a despicable character.

What concerns me with the dossier, and with previously reported information regarding Trump has to do with real estate, money laundering and Russian oligarchs.  +1 The dossier, although some almost all information in it may be false, Trump Jr's meetings, Trump's business transactions going back to the late 80's, the soft on Russia stance of this administration, Trump's refusal to acquiesce to the norm of releasing his income taxes, etc.  all point to shady dealings, shady dealings with Russia.  +1 So the fact that the Dems decided to continue funding the oppo research with Fusion GPS that was initially commissioned by the Republicans (It was not originally funded by Republicans according the detailed report attached. See Point #2) concerns me much less than the possibility that the current president is more beholden to cronies of Putin than he is to the responsibilities of his office. 

On top of that, drawing parallels to a campaign hiring an oppo research firm, which has become a matter of course in politics, through their lawyers to top campaign officials and children of a candidate meeting with representatives from adversary governments to gain oppo in an, allegedly, quid pro quo capacity is delusional.  What Clinton and the Dems did is normal, politically speaking.  What the Trump's were doing is not. (The Dems were paying, possibly upto $9M, to that very same adversarial govt for the same oppo research.)

 

http://thefederalist.com/2017/10/25/top-10-things-to-know-about-dossier/#.WfDB9CBejWI.twitter

This report also makes it very very plain that this story was shopped to everyone in the media, by GPS Fusion, on behalf of the DNC/HRC. I am splitting hairs here because we are trying to, or are flat out making the case, that accusations equal guilt. They do not. The problems with the Dossier are many and easily proved false. 

[HVAU 673]

10 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

http://thefederalist.com/2017/10/25/top-10-things-to-know-about-dossier/#.WfDB9CBejWI.twitter

This report also makes it very very plain that this story was shopped to everyone in the media, by GPS Fusion, on behalf of the DNC/HRC. I am splitting hairs here because we are trying to, or are flat out making the case, that accusations equal guilt. They do not. The problems with the Dossier are many and easily proved false. 

Fusion GPS was initially retained the president oppo research by the Republicans.  I understand the dossier didn't exist at that point, and Steele may not have been retained, but assuming there is no connection between Fusion GPS's oppo for the Republicans and their research for the Dems doesn't make sense to me. 

As an analogy, let's say I'm a New York real estate mogul and I want to build a beautiful skyscraper so everyone knows how great I am.  I run into some trouble, though, just as the fifteenth floor is being built.  I have to file chapter 11 and in the asset liquidation process my beautiful skyscraper project is sold.  The new owner completes the project, but now it's a fifteen floor parking garage with ten floor Kmart on top.  I did have a hand in the project, but somebody else came in and used what I built, then threw some trash on top....

I wonder if they'll still let me put my name on it.

All kidding aside, the Dems were definitely responsible for the phase of research that produced the dossier.  Saying Clinton and the DNC shopped the dossier around is a bit gray, Fusion GPS and the Clinton campaign are not interchangeable.  That's a semantic point, but in political dealing semantics is huge.

As far as Russian involvement is concerned, no surprises there.  Go back to the Surkov/Putin strategies of undermining the political processes of other countries.  The Dems real folly here is relying on Fusion GPS, but they weren't the only ones guilty of that folly.

One glaring issue with the Federalist reporting is that it assumes that the Russia-Trump issue began with the dossier.  It did not.  These issues were raised much earlier in the campaign and even before that.

This is a very salient timeline presented by Moyer's.

http://billmoyers.com/story/trump-russia-timeline/

So the dossier may contain fictionalized material, but Trump has a Russia problem.  Trump has had a Russia problem for a long time.  Flack over Fusion GPS and the dossier isn't invalid, but it is a deflection from the big orange elephant in the room.

 

 

[homersapien 11,366]

59 minutes ago, HVAU said:

http://billmoyers.com/story/trump-russia-timeline/

Geez.  And people wisecrack about how the Mueller investigation is taking so long. 

 

[DKW 86 7,419]

"$12.4M paid to lawyers and to Fusion GPS...Where you can get anyone to tell you exactly what you to hear..."

[TexasTiger 12,831]

https://amp.businessinsider.com/carter-page-congressional-testimony-transcript-steele-dossier-2017-11

[AUDub 11,147]

11 hours ago, TexasTiger said:

https://amp.businessinsider.com/carter-page-congressional-testimony-transcript-steele-dossier-2017-11

The man needs to get an attorney and shut up if he knows what is good for him. 

[TexasTiger 12,831]

1 hour ago, Bigbens42 said:

The man needs to get an attorney and shut up if he knows what is good for him. 

He'd need a time machine at this point.

[AUDub 11,147]

11 minutes ago, TexasTiger said:

He'd need a time machine at this point.

Very true. I cringed reading his testimony. 

[Proud Tiger 4,261]

On 10/26/2017 at 6:55 PM, NolaAuTiger said:

"Opposition research" when Hillary does it

"Collusion" when Trump doesn't do it

You nailed it. It isn't any more complicated than that.

 

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

1 hour ago, Proud Tiger said:

You nailed it. It isn't any more complicated than that.

 

If Trump team funded Fusion $12M, I wonder what MSM headlines would read... any guess?

[HVAU 673]

5 minutes ago, NolaAuTiger said:

If Trump team funded Fusion $12M, I wonder what MSM headlines would read... any guess?

Maybe something like...

Amazingly, Trump Team Follows Normal Political Protocol: Concerns of  Illegalities and Nepotism Abated