Dirty dossier is not 'normal' opposition research

Ned Ryun:

As if on cue, the work has begun to rehabilitate Fusion GPS’s image and normalize its dossier and its behavior. Axios wrote that this is all really normal, and that Glenn Simpson and others at Fusion GPS, many of whom are former senior Wall Street Journal reporters and editors, are just good old regular gumshoe ink-stained people trying to make a living.

Last week, Hillary Clinton went on "The Daily Show" to “explain” that it really was just opposition research. To be clear, there is neither anything normal about Fusion GPS's dossier nor about the way the firm goes about its business.

The left’s talking points that the dossier was just opposition research and everyone does this in politics state the obvious: Yes, opposition research is part of campaigns. It’s just that Fusion GPS’s dossier was not opposition research.

Opposition research is based on fact, from voting records, court records and public statements, to tax returns and business relationships. Fusion GPS’s dossier, on the other hand, was misinformation. It was not opposition research because it was not based on fact.

According to multiple media reports, beyond an alphabet soup of unnamed Russian intelligence sources and spreading hearsay, the material is largely drawn from news clips and Google internet search materials and left-wing conspiracy sites. Given Fusion GPS’s dependence on Russian gossip spread by Vladimir Putin’s spies, there is a good case to be made that Fusion GPS more deeply colluded with the Russians than anyone else.

This isn't the first time Fusion GPS or its partners have been accused of using fictional misinformation. A decade ago, Simpson and company compiled a dossier for a sheik in the U.A.E. who toppled his uncle for the throne.

Also, Fusion GPS reportedly spread propaganda in support of the Maduroregime in Venezuela for clients such as Derwick and Associates, a group of Venezuelan businessmen who have deeply questionable business practices. And let’s not forget Fusion’s work for Planned Parenthood to discredit David Daleiden and his Center for Medical Progress (CMP). In every case, little of what Fusion GPS proffered was accurate or based on fact, but all of it was used by pliant media, more often than not friends from Simpson & Co.’s days in legitimate journalism.

What else is not normal? Marc Elias, the lawyer for the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, lying about any involvement with the dossier for more than a year with great sanctimony, as The New York Times pointed out.
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There is much more.

The attempt by Clinton and her cohorts in teh media to excuse the very conduct they are alleging Trump operatives engaged in is beyond belief, but I suspect those who hate the president will clutch it to their bosom and hold on tight despite the ridiculousness of Clinton and her team's defense.

This is typical of the kind of stuff that flows out of Democrats when they are caught doing something untoward.