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Thursday, July 8, 2021

Remember Alfa Bank?

Anyone might be forgiven for imagining that the Russia Hoax is over and done with. But it's not. And Techno Fog has a very interesting article to remind us of that fact. As you may recall, during the final month or two of the 2016 election campaign, outlandish accusations were leveled against Alfa Bank. The basic idea was that a Russian bank, Alfa Bank, was laundering money on behalf of Donald Trump, money that the Putin regime was paying Trump as their supposed agent. These outlandish accusations came from the Hillary campaign and its oppo research branch--in other words, Fusion GPS (remember?), Glenn Simpson, and shady Clinton campaign lawyers.

The whole story quickly collapsed under the weight of its own absurdity, after a brief flurry of excitement ginned up in the Dem media proxy outlets. Even oppo research stories require some minimal factual content, and this story lacked the bare minimum. Apparently the Clinton campaign thought the whole thing would be water over the dam, but Alfa bank had other ideas. They sued, and Techno Fog brings us up to date:


Why is a Fusion GPS attorney risking sanctions?

Fusion GPS appears desperate to settle a potentially catastrophic case.


First, some minimal background:


In 2017, the owners of Alfa Bank ... sued Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson for their publication of false statements accusing Alfa Bank of “bribery, extortion, and interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.”

As a reminder, it was Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson who, along with others, created and spread bogus Trump/Russia dossiers to government officials and the media. This was then used to justify the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance warrants on Carter Page to spy on Page those associated with President Trump.


Here we are, nearly four years later, and things are getting interesting. During the discovery process--still ongoing--Simpson attempted to deny Alfa's request for certain documents by claiming that they were covered by attorney-client privilege. There are 500 documents at issue. In an article dated May 25 of this year Techno Fog explained why Simpson's legal argument based on privilege was very weak. He also went into detail regarding the nature of the documents that Alfa is seeking:


Fusion GPS is losing the fight to keep its records secret.

What will Fusion's internal e-mails reveal?


Current developments indicate that Techno Fog was right. It appears that Simpson is increasingly desperate to settle the case, to prevent disclosure of the documents in question. The problem is, Alfa has no interest in settling. They want the documents.

The way this came to light is in a filing by Alfa. Alfa is alleging in this latest filing that Simpson's lawyers have been reaching out to third parties, trying to enlist them to intercede and to persuade Alfa to engage in settlement negotiations. That, it turns out, this attempt at a back-channel outreach was a bad move, born of desperation.

It turns out that "it is against the DC Court’s local rules, as well as the DC Rules of Professional Conduct, to establish such back-channel lines of communication." Rather than play footsie with Simpson in this way, Alfa brought the matter to the attention of the court. According to the DC rules--and the judge, of course is well aware of these rules, as are the lawyers--settlement offers are to be made through the attorneys for the parties.

As Techno Fog argues--persuasively, it seems to me--the decision of Simpson's attorneys to embark on this very risky path is almost certainly a measure of how damaging the documents in question are. Since most of the documents involve communications between Simpson and other persons, we can assume that there are greater interests at stake here beyond those of Simpson and Fusion GPS.

Here is Techno Fog's thumbnail sketch of the matters that are discussed in the documents:


May 2016 correspondence among Fusion GPS employees/principals, including Glenn Simpson, regarding their early work on Trump/Russia.

August 2016 between Fusion GPS and DNC lawyers Perkins Coie.

The early work on the Carter Page research from July 2016.


I need scarcely remind readers that when the law firm of Perkins Coie comes up, we're getting very close to the very heart of Dem election lawfare ops. This is potentially a very big deal.


14 comments:

  1. Mark - I agree it's a big deal for understanding on what happened.

    Scenario 1:
    Similar in impact to Hunter Biden's Laptop and Clinesmith Plea. Both are big deals, but had little impact.

    Scenario 2:
    Trump uses it to repeatedly discredit the Democrats, MSM, and Tech Giants. And it leaks out into the general population. The admittance becomes a huge lever that is used in court against the Tech Giants Censorship.

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  2. A very big deal, indeed.

    One gets the feeling that is these documents come to light, it may open up previously unexplored areas of corruption and slime.

    (One of my favorite scenarios is that FusionGPS and/or Dems -- via Perkins Coie -- have all manner of journos secretly on their payrolls. If that came to light, the journos' facade of objectivity, thin and tattered as it currently is, would be entirely blown away.)

    And who knows where else these memos will lead?

    Wonder if FusionGPS has a fallback plan: can they stipulate to summary judgement AGAINST themselves in order to avoid production?

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  3. Considering the Cold War so many of us grew up under, it feels ironic that a Russian bank might be seeking justice rather than a financial benefit. If they do get those documents, do they then become public information, or does only Alfa bank get the documents, which they can then use as they see fit?

    -Chuck

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    Replies
    1. I believe the most likely scenario is that the docs become public.

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    2. First time I ever rooted for a Russian.


      rob S

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  4. If a Fusion GPS attorney is willing to risk being sanctioned, what is to stop him/them from taking on further risk and just destroying the documents in question if they are that damning? Have we so quickly forgotten Hillary having her private server contents permanently erased, her cell phones physically destroyed, etc. without any repercussions? Look at Kevin Clinesmith. He'll be moving on with his law license intact after his subterfuge on behalf of the DOJ/FBI. The list of unaccountable vermin is long while the sanctions are non-existent.

    While we keep hoping for a change in direction, just one small victory, the past four years of perfidy should tell us otherwise...

    DJL

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    Replies
    1. Considering the lack of fallout from Hunter's laptop and the Clinesmith plea deal, i.e. the swamp takes care of its own, it seems sanctions from the DC bar are not a risk. I happy to be surprised.

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    2. Yeah, and even if we see sanctions from the DC bar, the swamp will see to it, that perps be put out to the coziest possible pasture.

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  5. Good morning Mark. Looks like you made it over at AM Thinker this morning.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/07/it_looks_like_fusion_gps_is_panicking_over_being_forced_to_disclose_communications_as_russiagate_was_being_hatched.html

    What is the most delightful part of this story is the potential of exposing so many of those that are the true deplorables, including Perkins, and others (HRC too?), but the fact that it's by a foreign bank (Alpha) exposing the Fake Russian Hoax. See Irony

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  6. I've long suspected that Fusion was one of the three contractors who were improperly exploiting the NSA database back when Mike Rodgers shut down the access in 2015.

    Very few have covered that aspect of their operation but they fit the bill and had the qualified network within their organization at the time.

    The embarrassment of disclosure between Perkins Coie and others would be bad for dozens who are no longer in politics. But if the NSA data for sale scheme holds water, that would be much much worse.

    Fortunately, AB isn't backing down! Time will tell.

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  7. At this point in time, with all that has transpired, does anyone really think the sewer will not control this into a black hole? The beast will continue until it's feed (power) is cut off. Question is has the sewer been successful in neutering enough of the sheeple?

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  8. Mark you received a credit in the American Thinker article of the same!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hope the stipend allows you to buy dinner for the Mrs.

      Delete
  9. Hmm...

    Donald J. Trump: Why I’m Suing Big Tech
    If Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can censor me, they can censor you—and believe me, they are.
    - Wall Street Journal

    ReplyDelete