Fusion GPS, the group that hired former British spy Christopher Steele to investigate whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election, received hundreds of dollars of coronavirus relief funds through the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program.
Records obtained by ProPublica show that Bean LLC, the parent company for Fusion GPS, applied for and received anywhere between $350,000 and $1 million.
Fusion GPS reportedly claimed that it needed the money to retain 15 employees.
The firm, which effectively acted as the middle-man between the Hillary Clinton campaign and the FBI, using backdoor channels to deliver opposition research to the Justice Department, was paid handsomely for its 2016 efforts to smear Trump.
Steele’s research, full of salacious innuendo from questionable sources within the Kremlin, was commissioned by the Perkins Coie law firm, which represented the Democratic National Committee.
The Steele dossier became the centerpiece in the Democrats’ Russia-Gate hoax—but it was thoroughly flawed, according to an investigation by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
Dr. Fiona Hill, the former expert on Russia for the National Security Council, even admitted during President Trump’s impeachment proceedings that the Steele dossier was a “rabbit hole” full of Russia disinformation.
But every time Republicans have tried to investigate the dossier or its connections to Fusion GPS, its founder, Glenn Simpson, and others have refused to answer questions.
This is just the latest example of PPP abuse throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Multiple firms that are technically “ineligible” from receiving funds cashed in on the pandemic loan program, according to the New York Times.
That included the George Soros-backed leftist propaganda outfit Media Matters for America, which received between $1 to 2 million dollars. Planned Parenthood clinics in more than two dozen states also received funds. So did sneaker brand Yeezy, which is owned by billionaire rapper and declared presidential candidate Kanye West.
Businesses owned by politicians on both sides of the political spectrum also borrowed from the program. Among them were a minor league baseball team owned by the family of Ohio’s GOP Gov. Mike DeWine; a communications company with ties to New Jersey Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy; and a group that manages resorts and wineries owned by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Ironically, while the PPP loans were put in place to offset the economic losses from mandatory closures, Newsom also drew criticism over the fact that he had allowed his own Napa Valley-based PlumpJack Winery to remain open while forcing others to shutter during the pandemic.
