Analyze this

In my contrarian “Notes on the Cohen plea,” I made these points among others:

• Thanks to the work of Rep. Devin Nunes and his Republican colleagues on the House Intelligence Committee, we know of actual collusion by a presidential campaign with organs of Russian intelligence. I refer to the Clinton campaign’s work with the friends of Vladimir Putin via the Perkins Coie, Glenn Simpson/Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele. It’s on the face of the Steele Dossier.

• If one seeks false statements to Congress that bear on Russian interference and campaign collusion, look no further than Glenn Simpson’s testimony to the congressional intelligence committees. John and I wrote about Simpson’s testimony in several posts that can be accessed here.

• Republican counsel questioning Simpson focused mostly on Simpson’s simultaneous work with the BakerHostetler law firm on behalf of the Russian company Prevezon in support of its defense of the money laundering/asset forfeiture case brought by the Untied States (in the case underlying the Magnitsky Act). Recall that Simpson’s work with BakerHostetler brought him into contact with Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya immediately before and after she held the infamous meeting with Donald Trump, Jr. et al. at Trump Tower. In part Simpson’s job was to provide research undermining the credibility of Bill Browder, the proponent of the Magnitsky Act in the United States and similar laws elsewhere.

• Incidentally, Trump’s Jr.’s meeting all by itself belies the collusion hysteria in the case of the Trump campaign.

• It is almost unbelievable that at the time Simpson was working on behalf of the Clinton campaign he was also working with the BakerHostetler law firm on behalf of the Russian oligarch Denis Katsyv and Prevezon Holdings in support of their defense in the asset forfeiture/money laundering case brought by the United States. Simpson’s work required him to dog Bill Browder, the well-known proponent of the Magnitsky Act.

• Indeed, as I understand it, Magnitsky originally uncovered the facts underlying the government’s case against Prevezon. In the interview counsel asked Simpson the obvious question whether he understood his work on the Prevezon case principally to have benefited the Russian government. Suffice it to say that Simpson’s labored answer did not enhance his credibility as a witness. Simpson also claimed not to know anything about Veselnitskaya’s meeting with Trump Jr. A serious prosecutor investigating Russian interference might make something of it all.

• A serious prosecutor might also make something of the incredible governmental wrongdoing at the heart of the investigation that gave rise to the Mueller probe. It is the biggest political scandal in our history and Trump is a victim of it, not a perpetrator…

Now comes Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley to make the following points in a December 3 letter to the slimy Senator Blumenthal on the ostensible subject of Donald Trump, Jr. (embedded below), as summarized by Chuck Ross in the Daily Caller (and do read the whole thing):

• Senator Grassley is accusing Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson of giving “extremely misleading if not outright false testimony” to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017.

• Grassley said in a letter Monday that he hopes the Justice Department is treating Simpson’s testimony in the same manner as that of Michael Cohen, the former Trump lawyer who pleaded guilty on Nov. 29 to lying to Congress.

• Grassley claims that Simpson may have lied when he denied that he was working for a client to investigate President Donald Trump after the election.

Now what? Probably nothing. I do not pretend to know. The truth of the matter nevertheless has its own continuing claim on our attention.

2018-12-03 CEG to Blumentha… by on Scribd