Steele Trump Dossier: "Pee-Pee" Tapes DNC & Clinton Funded — Well Not Quite

Free Beacon Editor-in-Chief, Matthew Continetti

(Hired Fusion GPS for Op Research on GOP 

candidates in 2016 race) 

NYC Hedge Fund Multi-Billionaire Paul Singer

(Largely Funded Free Beacon Project on Trump)

NEW YORK (AP) — A conservative website with strong ties to the Republican establishment triggered the investigation into Donald Trump's past that ultimately produced the dossier that alleged a compromised relationship between the president and the Kremlin.

The Washington Free Beacon has confirmed it originally retained the political research firm Fusion GPS to scour then-candidate Trump's background for negative information, a common practice known as “opposition research” in politics.

Leaders from the Free Beacon, which is funded largely by NYC Republican billionaire *Paul Singer*, insisted none of the early material it collected appeared in the dossier released later in the year detailing explosive allegations, many uncorroborated, about Trump compiled by a former British spy, Christopher Steele.

Heart of this: “During the 2016 election cycle we retained Fusion GPS to provide research on multiple candidates in the Republican presidential primary, just as we retained other firms to assist in our research into Hillary Clinton. The Free Beacon had no knowledge of or connection to the Steele dossier, did not pay for the dossier, and never had contact with, knowledge of, or provided payment for any work performed by Christopher Steele.” (Re: Wrote the site's Editor-in-Chief Matthew Continetti, and Chairman Michael Goldfarb).

*Singer* is hedge fund manager, activist investor, and philanthropist. His fund, Elliott Management Corporation — specializes in distressed debt acquisitions.

My Rep. in Congress: NY 21^st District is Rep. Elise Stefanik (R) and she has plenty of big money, e.g., Elliott Fund (she is #3 on GOP top recipient’s money list from him).

Earlier in the week, reports revealed that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee continued funding Fusion's work after the original GOP source lost interest (Note: And, GOP righties went nuts while evading the facts).

Trump called the DNC/Hillary dossier research a “disgrace” that Democrats had helped pay for research that produced the document. But the original source of the research remained a secret. Trump had hinted that he knew the Republican source earlier in the week, but he refused to share it. The W/H had no immediate comment about the Free Beacon's involvement and this report.

The Free Beacon was initially founded as a project of the conservative nonprofit group Center for American Freedom, as an alternative to liberal news sites run by progressive nonprofits. The Center for American Freedom was organized as a 501(c)4 and does not reveal its donors, but Singer was the sole funder of the site as recently as 2014 (Re: A Republican political veteran familiar with the site said, but who also spoke on condition of anonymity to detail the newspaper's financial background).

(Note: Dem counter to CAF is the Center for American Progress (CAP), which BTW is 501(c)3 and does reveal it’s donors unlike CAF above – noteworthy).

The Free Beacon first retained Fusion to investigate Trump in the fall of 2015 and ended its relationship after Trump secured the Republican presidential nomination in late spring of 2016 (Re: A person close to Goldfarb, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private discussions).

The website and its leaders have strong ties throughout the Republican establishment. Goldfarb was deputy communications director on John McCain's presidential campaign. 

Singer was backing Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential bid at the time of the Free Beacon's involvement. And one of Singer's closest associates, Republican operative Dan Senor, served as Speaker Ryan's chief adviser during the 2012 president campaign. However, a representative to Singer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rubio denied any knowledge of the Fusion research or the dossier this week saying to CNN: “As far as whether it was my campaign, it wasn't and I'll tell you why. I was running for president. I was trying to win. If I had anything against Donald Trump that was relevant and credible and politically damaging, I would've used it. I didn't have it.”

Note: It is very interesting that Rubio would have dished dirt on Trump if he'd had any… however, as I've said that is what all campaigns do; try and figure out and get dirt on their opponents…that's politics.

Note: Op Research IS NOT illegal unless of course it is later proven to libelous or slander for example.

The main story: The document, compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, emerged this year as a political flash point in the broader debate over Trump's ties to Russia. 

A person close to Singer said the billionaire was not aware of Steele's involvement or the dossier until earlier this year when it was published. The person was not authorized to share internal discussions.

Law enforcement officials have worked to corroborate the dossier's claims. James Comey, FBI director at the time, advised Trump about the existence of the allegations, and Steele has been questioned as part of an ongoing probe into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump camp. The U.S. has determined that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating the Russian interference and whether it was tied to Trump's campaign and indictments are forthcoming with people to be taken into custody. The House Intelligence Committee will help verify whether the Free Beacon had any involvement with Steele or his dossier, according to Jack Langer, a spokesman for Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, adding: “The Beacon has agreed to cooperate to help the Committee verify this assertion.”

My take on this: This is very serious stuff – not the Op Research per se, since it goes on all the time by all sides, but the serious aspect is the one-sided GOP spin about the DNC/Hillary Clinton being silent on their funding for their Op Research.

All that was by careful design for the maximum ugly reaction and that’s politics – ala GOP and mostly 24/7. I call it the blame game and the title consists of three key elements just like an old 3-D movie: Duck, Dodge, and Deny.

Now that this story comes out – that same side’s silence is deafening, isn’t it?

When caught flatfoot, the GOP lashes out at everyone around them, but never themselves … kinds like Trump does while calling factual stories “Fake News.”

Thanks for stopping by.