Key Messages
An Inside Look At The Trump-Russia Investigation That Emerged From A Lawsuit: What You Need To Know About Crime In Progress
Behind the great scandals of modern politics is a fascinating story waiting to be told.
This is why Donald Trump and his supporters made a fuss to discredit Fusion GPS – and it paid off!
Thanks to the hard work of Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, a lot of previously confidential information made its way into their book Crime in Progress.
This thrilling account covers their investigation into Trump’s ties with the Russian government.
It features British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s infamous dossier, which spread like wildfire across intelligence agencies, media outlets, and eventually around the world.
Join them on a journey that trips through Republican primaries in 2015 to the Mueller report in 2019!
Crime in Progress will have you discovering hidden truths behind this extraordinary event.
Explore why Fusion initially became suspicious of Trump’s background as a developer, follow alongside Christopher Steele as he protects his sources while attempting to disseminate his dossier, and draw your own conclusions from what Simpson & Fritsch interpret from the Mueller report’s findings.
Come inside and get an intimate look at one of politics‘ greatest scandals!
“Opposition Research” Firm Fusion Gps Uncovers Trump-Russia Ties, Sparking Multiple Government Investigations
It’s incredible to think that one of today’s biggest political stories all began with a small-scale opposition research report.
This was conducted by Fusion GPS, an intelligence firm founded by former investigative journalists and specializing in unearthing complex documents – like financial records and court filings – for private clients.
In 2015, they decided to investigate Donald Trump’s curious relationship with Russia.
They were hired a client – the Washington Free Beacon – owned by Republican billionaire Paul Singer who was against Trump as he ran for president.
Fast-forward five years later, and this single opposition research report had snowballed into multiple governmental investigations and focus towards the sitting U.S.
President and his possible ties to a potentially hostile foreign power.
It goes to show the true power of an opposition research campaign, even if it is on a small scale.
Investigating Trump’S Business Dealings Reveals A Troubling Pattern Of Scams And Russian Connections
When Fusion GPS began their investigation into Donald Trump, they weren’t expecting to uncover anything alarming.
But as soon as they began digging into his past, it became clear that there was plenty to look into.
For starters, they were shocked by the number of lawsuits that he had been involved with over the years.
Further investigation revealed a pattern among these records which suggested Trump liked to grandly announce projects and gather investments, only for the project to fail and investors end up suing him, with Trump claiming he was simply a licensor.
Alarming information quickly came to light: could Donald Trump be a scam artist? Plus, there were numerous questions concerning ties to organized crime, money laundering, and links to Russia.
As Fusion examined more cases and continued their research, what emerged was highly troubling material suggesting Donald Trump may not have been acting in an above-board manner within his business dealings.
Unfortunately though, this never really made its way out from beneath the shadow of all the other drama at the debates and ultimately his nomination became inevitable.
It was clear then that Fusion’s work wasn’t done yet – but who would pay for it now that Trump’s rival candidates for the nomination had stayed quiet on his Russian ties?
How A Former Spy, A Law Firm, And A Team Of Journalists Uncovered Russia’s Leverage Over Trump
When Fusion wanted to investigate the claims of Russian interference in the US elections, they needed some help from overseas.
They turned to Christopher Steele, a former British spy who ran his own private consulting firm, Orbis.
After being hired by the Democratic Party’s law firm, Perkins Coie, Steele quickly uncovered shocking intelligence: Russia had allegedly been cultivating its relationship with Donald Trump for five years in order to increase its prominence on the international stage and had compromising material that could be used for blackmail.
After presenting this intel to Fusion partners Peter Fritsch and Glenn Simpson, Steele felt obligated to report it to the FBI given its significance for national security.
On July 5th 2016 he spoke with an FBI contact, Michael Gaeta, and upon receiving thanks for bringing this information forward was met with a mysterious silence.
The Revelations Of The Trump-Putin Connection: How The “Crossfire Hurricane” Investigation Began
In June 2016, the mutual admiration between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin became ever more obvious.
Putin even declared that he would welcome a Trump presidency.
On the other side, Trump seemed to be steering the Republican Party towards having a pro-Russia agenda with his actions in July of scotching an anti-Russia policy in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, FBI agents had also started their investigation into “Crossfire Hurricane”, or as it was later to be called – the “Trump-Russia investigation.” This began following two suspicious leaks of Democratic Party emails in June and July of that year which showed favoritism for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders and eventually led to Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigning from her post as party chairwoman.
By early August, CIA Director John Brennan had spoken to Russia’s intelligence agency (FSB) and given them a stern warning to stop interfering with US politics.
It appeared that this warning had been taken seriously as Steele reported panic within Russian ranks regarding their operation being partially uncovered.
Putin even fired his chief of staff Sergei Ivanov as a result.
The media had finally begun covering the story more intensely too, bringing all these events into full public view for everyone across the world to see.
Fusion’S Determined Fight Against Russian Election Meddling May Have Helped Donald Trump Win The White House
Despite the best efforts of Fusion GPS, the story connecting Trump to the Kremlin was never fully picked up by the media.
However, FBI director James Comey’s letter informing Congress that he was reopening his investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email usage caused a huge stir and significant coverage which led to an even more explosive story published by the New York Times – suggesting that there were no clear links between Trump and Russia.
This further transformed people’s perception of the election, with many suggesting that it was Comey’s intervention that helped push Donald Trump to victory on November 8th, 2016.
Despite Fusion’s attempts to get their story out there, their efforts did not have quite as much impact as Comey’s letter.
The Fusion Team’S Urgent Mission To Expose Donald Trump’s Russia Ties
The Trump-Russia story had been percolating for some time prior to the election, with Fusion GPS working closely with Christopher Steele and his team of researchers to uncover the details.
But with Donald Trump’s election victory, it became clear that more attention and action was needed.
So Christopher Steele told his mentor Sir Andrew Wood about his concerns and Wood discreetly spoke with David Kramer at a security conference in November.
Kramer then set up a meeting with James Comey to discuss the affair.
Meanwhile, Steele also briefed Ken Bensinger from Buzzfeed on the contents of the dossier while Simpson and Fritsch continued their investigation pro bono.
However, none of this made an impact until January 6th 2017 when the US Intelligence Community released their official report documenting Russia’s attempts to influence the election in favor of Trump.
This was followed by Buzzfeed’s decision four days later to release photographs of the dossier, which finally created a media reaction – though not one anyone had hoped or expected.
It shined an unwelcome spotlight onto Christopher Steele’s reports as well as creating concerns over sources security.
Fusion Gps Uncovers Troubling Details About Trump’S Ties To Russia Amidst A Firestorm Of Attention And Fear
When Donald Trump was first inaugurated as President, Steele went into hiding due to worries for his Russian source in the United States.
Along with that, Fusion GPS faced an unwanted attention from various Republicans in Congress, who were trying to uncover some sort of conspiracy related to the troublesome dossier.
Even Trump took to Twitter on numerous occasions to dismiss it all as a “witch hunt”.
In spite of all this, Simpson and Fritsch chose to go ahead in their attempts to find out more about Trump’s ties with Russia and resolved to set up a new company by the name of The Democracy Integrity Project.
Through this entity philanthropic donors could hire Fusion and Orbis indirectly.
They succeeded in obtaining funding from tech entrepreneurs on the west coast that used to be concerned about Trump’s management which enabled them to pursue further research.
This resulted in probes on Paul Manafort – the one-time campaign manager for Trump who had dubious connections with both Russia and Ukraine – as well as Maria Butina – a young Russian student with curious links with the National Rifle Association (NRA).
It appeared like Putin may have used the NRA’s influence channel money towards members of Trump’s circle of people.
The FBI was also commencing its own independent inquiry into the matter at exactly around this time when Trump decided sacked James Comey -the head of FBI- which seemed like an effort of derailing any investigations digging deeper than just his relationship with Russia His decision have been met with shock among many people including those working at Fusion GPS but Robert Mueller was eventually appointed as special counsel responsible for thoroughly investigatingconnection between Russia and 2016 election campaigns though his appointment did not grant immunity against facing troubles brought by ties with specificindividuals.
How The Fusion Gps Team Fought To Have Trump And Russia’S Deception Revealed
As news about the Trump campaign’s links to Russia started making headlines, it was Fusion that faced some of the toughest legal troubles.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes were two of the most vocal opponents to Fusion’s role in research, attempting to cast doubts on their integrity by insinuating that they had been “played” by the Russians.
Adding to this was a seemingly suspicious coincidence: one of the attendees at the infamous Trump Tower meeting was Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya – an individual whom Fusion had previously worked with; although it was simply a coincidence, it sure looked bad for Fusion.
As a result, Simpson had no choice but face several investigative committees, and answer repeated questions on their investigative role.
Furthermore, Fusion also dealt with Michael Cohen’s attempt to sue them (which he eventually dropped) as well as an unexpected FBI raid – all amidst further investigations by Robert Mueller.
But ultimately, many of the reports from Steele and Simpson ended up being widely vindicated.
The Mueller Report Reveals Just How Serious Russian Interference Was In The 2016 Us Presidential Election
The Mueller Report was damning in its conclusion that Russian interference did, indeed, attempt to influence the 2016 US Presidential election.
But despite this, it appears that nothing is being done to prevent a repeat of similar interference in the future.
At the time, William Barr – newly appointed Attorney General and first reader of Mueller’s report – tried unsuccessfully to spin the facts by saying that it didn’t prove Trump committed any collusion or obstruction of justice; however, the report does confirm many findings released by the press leading up to its filing.
Mueller himself testified before Congress and stated that he had been limited to exploring electoral interference only as opposed to delving into evidence of links between Trump and Russia.
Unfortunately, these investigations may continue on with the Federal Bureau of Investigation potentially unearthing more information; unfortunately much of this is likely to remain hidden from public view.
Despite all this evidence, it’s still looking like there won’t be any steps taken anytime soon towards preventing an interference repetition in upcoming elections – which means we should still remain vigilant and concerned about potential manipulation.
This warning must continue to be sounded out as urgent matters for us all if we are going to protect ourselves from similar events within our political process again one day.
Wrap Up
Crime in Progress by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch gives readers a comprehensive summary of the Fusion GPS’s investigations into Donald Trump’s ties to Russia.
In this book, we learn about Christopher Steele and his dossier, which contained sensitive information that compelled Simpson and Fritsch to report it to the authorities.
What’s notable is the lasting fallout of their investigation today.
We may never know the complete story of how Trump is connected to Russia, but through Crime in Progress, readers can at least understand what has transpired so far.
This thought-provoking book gives readers closure by providing an overall summary of the events that have unfolded since Fusion GPS became involved.
