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What kind of self respecting and established journalist in the employ of a reputed media outlet sends draft of unpublished work -for edit / suggestions / feedback- to people completely unrelated to his employer? The Franklin Foer kind. What kind of a well established media allows a professional journalist to get marching orders from spin doctors retained by the worse Russian and Venezuelan criminality? The Reuters kind. By the time all was said and done, Fusion GPS had already been in Derwick Associate's payroll. Universally recognised as one of the top research / due diligence shops in America, Fusion GPS never disclosed -to any of the journalists / media it was pressing to publish disinformation- that their Venezuelan clients (Derwick) and Russian intelligence / diplomats were business partners. In the context of the "golden shower dossier" allegedly involving Donald Trump, Fusion GPS also failed to disclose to Democrats that it was concurrently employed by Denis Katsyv and Natalia Veselnitskaya.
In The Dropout series about Elizabeth Holmes and multi million dollar fraud perpetrated through Theranos, visit of David Boies to the Wall Street Journal offices -to kill John Carreyrou's ground breaking exposé- is depicted. There was a character missing in the scenes: that of Fusion GPS' Peter Fritsch. Fritsch flew to Caracas in late July 2014 with sidekick and also Derwick employee Adam Kaufmann. The purpose of the visit was identical to what Boies and Fritsch tried on Carreyrou: character assassination in a developing WSJ story, this time into Derwick's multi billion dollar corruption racket. The sad difference is that in Derwick's case Fusion GPS succeeded.
It would be years until American press finally caught up with Derwick's inescapable stench. Washington Post's reporter Tom Hamburger, another journalist that kept consulting Fusion GPS, finally redeemed himself exposing Alejandro Betancourt (Derwick's CEO) and his lobbyist Rudy Giuliani. The fact that Giuliani is / was Donald Trump's personal lawyer may have pushed Hamburger over Derwick's "squeaky clean" image crafted and distributed -for a fat fee- by Fusion GPS.
Reuters, employer of Mark Hosenball, yet another professional journalist who loved Fusion GPS "research", eventually published a profile on Betancourt. In that instance Reuters' faux pas is to have plagiarised nearly all the content of its "special report" on Betancourt.
Journalism informed on consultations with the likes of Fusion GPS is the norm these days. Christopher Steele, the man at the center of the "golden shower dossier" scandal and source of Fusion GPS, not only continues to be a darling of some of the most reputed liberal media, but is still officially consulted on Russia matters despite his shattered credibility. Obvious conflicts of interest are never disclosed, unless criminal investigations expose turpitude.
Unfortunately, email exchanges between reputed journalists / media and Fusion GPS are only the lesser part of the story. The crux of the matter, of course, is the illicitly obtained funds from Russia, Venezuela and other such tyrannical places that 1) keep the disinformation machine running in the heart of America, and 2) prevent law enforcement and justice through lobbying.
