The House Intelligence Committee report released on Friday contained a new bombshell: after the 2016 election, wealthy donors paid a former Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) staffer $50 million to continue “exposing” Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Dan Jones, a former Democratic Senate Intelligence Committee staffer and former FBI official, then hired author Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS — whose research formed the Trump dossier — to help him do that, and to give whatever they found to “policymakers on Capitol Hill and the press.”
The House report revealed for the first time that Jones told the FBI in late March 2017 that his group, the Penn Quarter Group, was being paid by seven to ten wealthy donors “located primarily in New York and California,” who provided approximately $50 million.
The revelation showed the extent that Democrats have been willing to go behind-the-scenes to validate the dossier — which ironically was also funded secretly by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Jones’ role was noted in a footnote in the report, which is the product of the committee’s investigation into Russian meddling and any collusion.
Former Dem Senate Intel Committee staffer Dan Jones told the FBI in March 2017 that his group, the Penn Quarter Group, was paid $50M after the election by 7-10 wealthy donors primarily in NY and CA to pay Steele and Fusion GPS to "continue exposing Russian interference." pic.twitter.com/tlrA4BzOxe
— Kristina Wong (@kristina_wong) April 27, 2018
The report confirmed what The Federalist’s Sean Davis reported in February, that there is evidence suggesting that Jones was directing post-election efforts of Fusion GPS to validate the infamous Trump dossier.
Davis also reported that Jones appeared intimately involved in helping Sen. Mark Warner (VA), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, with trying to validate the Trump dossier.
According to stories by The Federalist and the Daily Caller, Jones had gotten in touch with Adam Waldman, a registered agent for Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who was in touch with Warner – perhaps in an effort to feed Warner information through Waldman.
According to text messages seen exclusively by the Daily Caller, Jones contacted Waldman on March 15, 2017, saying he was with a non-profit group that had just been formed, called the Democracy Integrity Project and that Steele wanted them to connect.
“Dan Jones here from the Democracy Integrity Project. Chris wanted us to connect,” he wrote Waldman.
Jones and Waldman met the next day, on March 16, 2017. Later that day, Waldman would write to Warner: “Chris Steele asked me to call you,” according to an article by The Federalist.
Jones would send Waldman articles of stories that he and his team helped to plant in the media that were negative about Trump and conservative outlets.
In one text message to Waldman, Jones suggested that his team helped place a report with Reuters about Trump’s real estate activities.
“Our team helped with this,” Jones wrote, with a link to the March 17, 2017, article.
Jones sent Waldman several other news articles, including one from McClatchy alleging that the FBI was investigating whether Russian bots influence conservative media outlets like Breitbart and InfoWars, according to the Daily Caller.
Those same reporters were also behind the report alleging that Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen visited Prague in August 2016, even though it has not been corroborated.
According to testimony Waldman gave to the Senate Intelligence Committee on November 3, Jones told him he was working with Fusion GPS and that a “group of Silicon Valley billionaires and George Soros” were funding his project with Fusion GPS.
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