Post by robeiae on Sept 26, 2017 6:23:50 GMT -5
This piece at RealClearPolitics is about the guy behind Fusion GPS, former Wall Street investigative reporter Glenn Simpson: www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2017/09/24/the_dirty_little_secret_of_the_trump-russia_investigation.html
Some snippets:
The piece goes on to detail all of Simpson's former colleagues who apparently want to get as far away from him as possible:
There's also this doozy of a slam:
I think it's both fascinating and kinda understandable how people go from ferreting out sleazy activities to engaging in the same. And probably fairly common.
I also find it odd that Simpson's book hasn't been more of a topic in stories about him and Fusion GPS. FYI, here's the NYT review of the book from 1996: www.nytimes.com/1996/06/16/books/politics-most-foul.html
Some snippets:
Twenty-one years ago, a Wall Street Journal reporter and a popular academic pundit issued a stark warning: The proliferation of opposition research in U.S. political campaigns was debasing American elections.
The alarm came in the form of a 339-page book, “Dirty Little Secrets: The Persistence of Corruption in American Politics.” The journalist was Glenn R. Simpson, a respected investigative reporter; the professor was University of Virginia political scientist Larry J. Sabato.
[snip]
Railing against “sleaze” in campaigns, political consultancies, and Washington journalism, the authors deplored opposition research as a “gateway to acts that are not just offensive but duplicitous and sometimes illegal.”
[snip]
By the next decade, Glenn Simpson would leave journalism to become one of Washington’s most notorious collectors and peddlers of the type of sleaze he once decried.
The alarm came in the form of a 339-page book, “Dirty Little Secrets: The Persistence of Corruption in American Politics.” The journalist was Glenn R. Simpson, a respected investigative reporter; the professor was University of Virginia political scientist Larry J. Sabato.
[snip]
Railing against “sleaze” in campaigns, political consultancies, and Washington journalism, the authors deplored opposition research as a “gateway to acts that are not just offensive but duplicitous and sometimes illegal.”
[snip]
By the next decade, Glenn Simpson would leave journalism to become one of Washington’s most notorious collectors and peddlers of the type of sleaze he once decried.
The piece goes on to detail all of Simpson's former colleagues who apparently want to get as far away from him as possible:
Insight into how the co-author of a good-government tome could become the snoop who shopped the Trump dossier around Washington is not easy to come by. Journalist associates of Simpson contacted by RealClearInvestigations claimed not to have spoken with him in years. Christopher Steele, the ex-British spy who produced the dossier for GPS, downplayed it as “raw” and “unsolicited” intelligence in a United Kingdom court proceeding. A think tank affiliated with Simpson has quietly removed evidence of his fellowship. A former Wall Street Journal colleague who co-founded a consultancy with Simpson won’t discuss him at all. Sabato, not known for his reticence, is reluctant to discuss his writing partner.
There's also this doozy of a slam:
So did Thor Halvorssen, president and CEO of New York-based Human Rights Foundation, who said he came into Simpson’s sights when he pursued a power plant swindle involving a Barbados-based company and the Venezuelan government.
“The bulk of Glenn Simpson’s clients are criminal entities,” Halvorssen told RealClearInvestigations. “Fusion GPS is hired to destroy whistle-blowers and to block law enforcement by tampering with potential witnesses.”
“The bulk of Glenn Simpson’s clients are criminal entities,” Halvorssen told RealClearInvestigations. “Fusion GPS is hired to destroy whistle-blowers and to block law enforcement by tampering with potential witnesses.”
I think it's both fascinating and kinda understandable how people go from ferreting out sleazy activities to engaging in the same. And probably fairly common.
I also find it odd that Simpson's book hasn't been more of a topic in stories about him and Fusion GPS. FYI, here's the NYT review of the book from 1996: www.nytimes.com/1996/06/16/books/politics-most-foul.html