A Russian-Born Washington Lobbyist And the Fusion GPS
E-mail transcripts and other information disclosed in testimony released by the Senate Judiciary Committee reveals a significant relationship between Russian-born Washington lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin and the Fusion GPS firm that produced the anti-Trump dossier.
Akhmetshin was one of the participants at the June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. and other campaign officials.
The meeting has been the subject of much news media coverage related to claims of collusion with Russia. All meeting participants generally agree the confab focused largely on the Magnitsky Act, which sanctions Russian officials accused of involvement in the death of a Russian tax accountant, as well as talk about a Russian tax evasion scheme and alleged connections to the Democratic National Committee.
Trump Jr. previously explained that he took the meeting thinking it was about “opposition research” on Hillary Clinton and was disappointed that it wasn’t.
The Russia collusion conspiracy was sparked by the dossier produced by Fusion GPS, which was paid for its anti-Trump work by Trump’s primary political opponents, namely Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) via the Perkins Coie law firm.
Akhmetshin’s November 14, 2017 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, released last week and reviewed in full by this reporter, contained numerous sections that detail his past relationship with Fusion GPS and the company’s co-founder, Glenn Simpson. Some of that relationship spanned the period just prior to the meeting with Trump Jr.
Separately, Akhmetshin said that he “knows” Hillary Clinton and has a personal relationship with her that dates back to the late-1990s.
Besides describing a direct connection to Clinton, Akhmetshin also testified that he “knew some people who worked on” Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Akhmetshin related a personal connection to Clinton via attorney Ed Lieberman, whose late wife Evelyn previously served as Clinton’s chief of staff when she was First Lady. Evelyn Lieberman also served as Bill Clinton’s deputy chief of staff, and famously transferred Monica Lewinsky out of the White House to the Defense Department.
Akhmetshin said that he first met Ed Lieberman in the fall of 1998, when Lieberman “was attorney for my first employer here in” Washington, DC.
The New York Times previously reported that Lieberman in 1998 arranged for Akhmitshi’s position at “an organization pushing what he described as a pro-democracy agenda for Kazakhstan.”
In his testimony, Akhmetshin described taking an Acela train to New York the day of the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting, and says that Lieberman “may” have been with him.
Akhmetshin says his dealings with Lieberman in New York that day were “personal” and centered on a scholarship program that he claims Lieberman started.
After the meeting at Trump Tower, Akhmetshin says he went to dinner and a play with Lieberman, and the subject of the meeting that same day did not come up in his conversations with Lieberman at dinner or during the play. Akhmetshin also stated in the testimony that he was not asked to keep the meeting confidential.
In other words, Akhmetshin is claiming that he attended a meeting at the campaign headquarters of Clinton’s presidential challenger with that challenger’s son and other top Trump staffers, and that same night Akhmetshin did not even mention the meeting to his friend Lieberman, a Clinton associate.
He also said he had drinks that same night with another “friend” but could not remember who that friend was.
Chele Farley Digs Into MS-13 – And Into Sen. Gillibrand
Republican Senatorial candidate Chele Farley demanded that more be done to get MS-13 gang members out of the U.S., focusing her comments specifically on Long Island where the gang is believed to be responsible for at least 25 murders the last two years alone.
Speaking in an interview on this reporter’s Sunday night talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio,” Farley said the labeling of MS-13 as “animals” doesn’t go far enough. Instead, she referred to them as “monsters.”
Farley panned her opponent, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who earlier this month introduced a bill to make it more difficult for border agents to stop and question suspects about their immigration status.
“I just don’t understand why our senators and Kirstin Gillibrand are not doing more to stop the rapists and murderers who are destroying families,” Farley said.
She contended that Gillibrand was failing to stand up for women and girls by not effectively responding to the MS-13 scourge, which has resulted in the abuse and murder of women.