”Russia collusion” bliver bare vildere og vildere for hver dag. For et år siden blev det kendt, at Donald Trump jr. havde haft et møde med en russisk advokat i Trump Tower, som havde lokket med at hun havde kompromitterende materiale om Hillary Clinton.

Medierne var om sig. Dette var ”the smoking gun”. Men deltagerne – Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort og Trump jr.- kunne fortælle at mødet var en stor skuffelse. Natalja Veselnitskaja ville bare snakke om adoptioner, som er et andet ord for Magnitskij-loven, som Putin hader.

Det kom frem, at Veselnistaja havde mødt Glenn Simpson, leder for konsulentselskabet Fusion GPS, til middag samme dag. Men anti-Trump-medierne gad knapt nok rapportere det, eller sætter det ikke ind i sin rette sammenhæng. En sådan oplysning udløser ingen opfølgende spørgsmål.

Nu kan Lee Smith fortælle at ikke bare mødtes den russiske advokat og Glenn Simpson. Veselnitsaja var hans klient.

Det, som binder det hele sammen er Magnitskij-loven: Putin vil have loven ændret. Den gør at hans rige ”buddies” ikke kan rejse verden rundt og nyde frugterne af korruptionen. De slipper ikke ind i USA og deres penge bliver fastfrosset. Veselnitskaja arbejder for at få loven ophævet og hun har hyret Fusion GPS til at gøre arbejdet.

Dermed sad Simpson både med en smædekampagne mod Trump, som han hyrede Christopher Steele til at lave, og organiserede smædekampagner mod lederen af Hermitage Capital, Bill Browder, noget Browder har forklaret om under ed i en Kongres-høring.

Når vi derudover ved, at selv FBI ikke har formået at verificere noget af væsentlig betydning i den såkaldte Steele-rapport, noget James Comey selv har sagt – han brugte ordene «usikkert og verificeret» – så bliver regnestykket nærmest et 2+2: Fællesnævneren er Hillary og hele det apparat, som blev mobiliseret mod Trump. Hillary og Bill havde ingen problemer med at modtage millioner af dollar fra Putin. De havde alle forbindelserne til at svine Trump til. Det er altid vanskeligt at modbevise en negativ, noget som ikke eksisterer. Særligt, hvis du har store deler af medierne bag dig, kan det blive vanskeligt. Mistanken bliver hængende.

Lee Smith var gæst hos Tucker Carlson:

LEE SMITH, REALCLEARINVESTIGATIONS: Yes. Thanks, Tucker, for having me on. Look, I think one of the most important things to look at is – actually, there is one key to it, and that is the Russian lawyer that is supposed to be the test of the proof of collusion.

This was a client of Glenn Simpson. And Glenn Simpson was the person who was responsible for producing the Clinton funded dossier.

So, how does this happen? How did this combination happen? How are all these people in the same room? I think that’s the essential point that’s been elided or obscured almost all the time in the press. And I think that once the people look at that fact, things start to become clearer.

CARLSON: And you’re speaking of Veselnitskaya? Is that correct?

SMITH: Yes, exactly. Natalya Veselnitskaya.

CARLSON: So, explain, the famous Russian attorney who says she was in there to talk about Russian adoptions and then others say she was there to peddle dirt on Hillary Clinton. How is she a client of Glenn Simpson?

SMITH: Yes. The whole idea about her talking about adoptions, that’s part of her effort to roll back the Magnitsky Act, which was sanctioning Russian officials and other associates of Vladimir Putin.

So, again, Glenn Simpson, who was hired by the Clinton campaign to produce the dossier, allegedly unraveling, unearthing Trump’s ties to Russia is actually working on behalf of pro-Kremlin interest.

That’s what Natalya Veselnitskaya is doing in that meeting. She’s actually pushing a campaign that Glenn Simpson is partnered with, to rollback American legislation on Putin regime officials and other associates.

CARLSON: So, a Glenn Simpson client is the key to the case that the Trump family was involved in colluding with the Russian government.

SMITH: Right.

CARLSON: Glenn Simpson, also the person paid to assemble a dossier proving collusion between the Trump family and the Russian government. So, why is this not a widely known fact?

SMITH: I mean, look, I think that basically what’s happened here is I think that we’ve seen Fusion GPS – and we’ve seen the press basically take a picture, right, and the picture is of Donald Trump and other Trump campaign members in a meeting with a Russian lawyer. And then they wrote the caption underneath. And what does the caption say? Collusion.

The real caption is something else. The facts are different. The fact that Veselnitskaya is there working on a case that Glenn Simpson is also working on, they’re partnered on the same job on behalf of pro-Kremlin interests.

So, yes, it’s an enormous issue that has been misreported or underreported since the story first broke a little more than a year ago now in 2017 reporting the 2016 meeting.

CARLSON: It’s just an amazing fact. It’s really – a year ago, I never would have believed any of this. Lee Smith, thank you for that. It was great reporting