Fusion GPS scandal

MORE EXPLOSIONS FROM THAT CIGAR?

Kimberly Strassel of the Wall Street Journal tells us to expect more “Russia bombshells” if a judge orders Fusion GPS to turn over bank records to House investigators. Says Strassel:

We now know where Fusion got some of its cash, but the next question is how the firm used it. With whom did it work beyond former British spy Christopher Steele? Whom did it pay? Who else was paying it?

Bank records would likely answer these questions.

More “bombshells” may fall when the FBI turns over its dossier file to the House next week, as it has promised to do. Strassel predicts:

[E]xpect to learn that the dossier was indeed a major basis of investigating the Trump team—despite reading like “the National Enquirer,” as Rep. Trey Gowdy aptly put it. We may learn the FBI knew the dossier was a bought-and-paid-for product of Candidate Clinton, but used it anyway. Or that it didn’t know, which would be equally disturbing.

It might show the bureau was simply had. . . .

[Director] Comey was so convinced by the dossier that he pushed to have it included in the intelligence community’s January report on Russian meddling. Imagine if it turns out the FBI was duped by a politically contracted document that might have been filled up by the Kremlin.

Another set of records, those of Perkins Coie, might well put an end to the DNC’s attempt to disclaim knowledge of the dossier deal and pin the blame on the firm. Strassel explains:

[W]hile it is not unusual for law firms to hire opposition-research outfits for political clients, it is highly unusual for a law firm to pay bills without a client’s approval. Somewhere, Perkins Coie has documents showing who signed off on those bills, and they aren’t protected by attorney-client privilege.

Those names will matter, since someone at the DNC and at the Clinton campaign will need to explain how they somehow both forgot to list Fusion as a vendor in their campaign-finance filings. Some Justice Department lawyer is presumably already looking into whether this was a willful evasion, which can carry criminal penalties.

These aren’t the only bombshells Strassel anticipates. Read the whole thing.