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In a shocking turn of events, the conservative publication Washington Free Beacon revealed that they were the original organization funding Fusion GPS to put together opposition research on Donald Trump and other GOP candidates.
Washington Free Beacon funded original Fusion GPS anti-Trump opposition effort
Lawyers for the conservative publication Washington Free Beacon informed the House Intelligence Committee Friday that the organization was the original funder for the anti-Trump opposition research project with Fusion GPS.
The Free Beacon funded the project from the fall of 2015 through the spring of 2016, whereupon it withdrew funding and the project was picked up by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign.
In response to the report, Free Beacon editor Matthew Continetti and chairman Michael Goldfarb penned a short letter explaining their actions:
Fusion GPS and the Washington Free Beacon – Washington Free Beacon
Since its launch in February of 2012, the Washington Free Beacon has retained third party firms to conduct research on many individuals and institutions of interest to us and our readers. In that capacity, during the 2016 election cycle we retained Fusion GPS to provide research on multiple candidates in the Republican presidential primary, just as we retained other firms to assist in our research into Hillary Clinton. All of the work that Fusion GPS provided to the Free Beacon was based on public sources, and none of the work product that the Free Beacon received appears in the Steele dossier. The Free Beacon had no knowledge of or connection to the Steele dossier, did not pay for the dossier, and never had contact with, knowledge of, or provided payment for any work performed by Christopher Steele. Nor did we have any knowledge of the relationship between Fusion GPS and the Democratic National Committee, Perkins Coie, and the Clinton campaign.
Representatives of the Free Beacon approached the House Intelligence Committee today and offered to answer what questions we can in their ongoing probe of Fusion GPS and the Steele dossier. But to be clear: We stand by our reporting, and we do not apologize for our methods. We consider it our duty to report verifiable information, not falsehoods or slander, and we believe that commitment has been well demonstrated by the quality of the journalism that we produce. The First Amendment guarantees our right to engage in news-gathering as we see fit, and we intend to continue doing just that as we have since the day we launched this project.
Matthew Continetti Editor in Chief
Michael Goldfarb Chairman
My take
It’s unfortunate that they did not include in their contract with Fusion GPS an exclusivity clause. They opened the door for the project to be picked up by the Democrats. Whether this was intentional or not is unclear. If it was unintentional, it was a careless mistake they shouldn’t have made. If it was intentional, it would have been a move to derail the Trump campaign without being directly associated.
Other than the lack of exclusivity on the reports, there’s really nothing wrong with wanting to get opposition research on candidates the way they did. The thing that made the Steele Dossier so damning for the Democrats was that it involved Russia. Free Beacon did not involve Russia in the research they funded, so there’s no real foul being committed by funding the research in the first place.
Again, this comes down to intention. They were either careless or so opposed to Trump that they’d be willing to help their other enemy, Hillary Clinton. I’m going with the carelessness assumption simply because I can’t fathom a world where a fellow conservative site would be willing to help Hillary. I didn’t support Trump in the primaries, but I opposed Hillary more than him. Yes, it’s the lesser-of-two-evils argument that I personally despise, but it’s the choice we were given. Now, I’m ready to fight for better choices in the future. Hopefully, Free Beacon falls into the same category.
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Much ado about nothing.
The Trump cult is clearly out to take letal retribution against any and all agencies that opposed Trump during the primaries and the general election – despite Russia’s express and literal statements (now well publicized) to Trump Jr. that the Russian state was trying to “help Trump win”.
It is ENTIRELY possible (and probable) that Free Beacon is completely innocent here as all “guilt” accusations are based SOLELY on association and events that occurred AFTER they dropped their project with (and funding to) FPS. We’ll never hear the end of it though due to the tribalistic hatred between the (Russian-backed?) Trump cult and the far-left liberal movement spearheaded by (Russian-backed?) racists and ant-Americans.
No attempt to root out and eliminate Russian interference in US government will be tolerated by either side now that Russian controls the levers of social-media and political power in this country and now that “Americans” have become so polarized and hate-filled they can no longer even hold a conversation (on EITHER side) without name-calling and bomb-throwing (often literally).
It’s the choice we were given? Only if the people willingly accept it. Both major parties were exposed for fixing their own nomination process this past presidential election cycle. Maybe when news organizations start defending the truth, instead of their preferred side’s hypocrisy, we can start to reform the two major parties, or galvanize the people to demand a Convention of States, or convince people to join a third party (Federalist Party) that isn’t entirely corrupted. All three options seem better than waiting around for the Republic to collapse.