More information surfaces about those behind the Trump smear dossier

Daily Caller:
The head of the opposition research firm that is behind the Trump dossier is linked to a secret campaign aimed at undermining the Magnitsky Act, a law that places sanctions on Russian criminals and is vehemently opposed by the Kremlin, The Daily Caller can report.

The main proponent of that law, a London-based American businessman named Bill Browder, tells TheDC that Glenn Simpson, the head of Fusion GPS, the company behind the Trump dossier, is a “professional smear campaigner.”

According to Browder, Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, is working with a former Russian counterintelligence officer named Rinat Akhmetshin to destroy the Magnitsky Act, which is named after Browder’s late lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, and was signed into law in Dec. 2012.

“Glenn Simpson knowingly spread false information on behalf of people connected to the Russian government to try to protect Russian torturers and murderers from consequences,” Browder alleged in a phone interview with TheDC on Friday.
...
Simpson and Fusion GPS were linked to the anti-Magnitsky effort last month. Politico reported then that Fusion GPS acknowledged that it was hired by the law firm BakerHostetler to dig up dirt on Browder. BakerHostetler was in turn working on behalf of Denis Katsyv, a Russian businessman who has had $14 million in company assets frozen under the Magnitsky Act.

In his book “The Red Notice,” Browder writes that Magnitsky was tortured for months in a Russian prison in order to elicit a false confession that he and Browder were engaged in fraud. The lawyer died on Nov. 16, 2009 after being beaten by Russian guards in his prison cell.

Soon after his friend’s murder, Browder began lobbying American lawmakers — Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin and Arizona Sen. John McCain, in particular — to pass a law that would provide a mechanism to punish Kremlin-linked Russian criminals. The effort paid off in Dec. 2012 when President Obama signed the Magnitsky Act into law.

Simpson’s work to undermine a bill opposed by the Kremlin adds another layer of mystery to the Trump dossier story. The 35-page document, which was published by BuzzFeed on Tuesday, includes unverified information alleging that Russian intelligence officials have blackmail material on Trump.
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There is more.

If this story is true, it adds to the sinister aspects of the smear dossier and appears to tie the effort to the Russian government.  It should be noted that the Russian government has denied the truthfulness of the dossier.  Were the Clinton backers working with the Russians to delegitimize Trump?   Did they have any idea what the people they hired were up to?

The Democrats who want to investigate Russia's alleged interference with election may be popping open their own can of worms.

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