Washington-based Fusion GPS, which was engaged in compiling a compromising dossier on Donald Trump, allegedly received money from Russia simultaneously for a lobbying campaign against the so-called Magnitsky Act. As Fox News reported on Wednesday, British financier William Browder made such a statement in a letter to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley (a Republican from Iowa). This committee, along with others, is investigating the alleged interference of Moscow in the election campaign in the US in 2016.
According to Fox News, Browder responded in the affirmative to the question of whether Fusion GPS received funds from Russia during the period when it was working on drawing up the Trump file. “Given the time when Fusion GPS was working on a campaign against the act of Magnitsky, it was the same period when it was working on a Trump file in the interests of an unknown customer,” the television company quotes Browder as saying.
The British financier in 2012 actively advocated the adoption by the US Congress of the Magnitsky Act, which provides for the use of sanctions against a number of Russian officials.
Preparation of the Trump file was conducted from 2015 on the order of the supporters of the Republican Party of the USA, who spoke sharply against the billionaire. The request to collect data on the scandals around Trump, as well as his weaknesses, was given to Fusion GPS, headed by Glenn Simpson, a former journalist for The Wall Street Journal. Later the work on the dossier was connected with the ex-agent of the special services of Great Britain Christopher Steel. According to the newspaper The New York Times, when it became clear that Trump is the most likely candidate for nomination as a presidential candidate, the Republicans stopped funding Fusion GPS, but their initiative was immediately taken over by the Democrats.