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Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump

Glenn Simpson,

Peter Fritsch

4.58 · Rating details · 172 ratings · 23 reviews

The never-before-told inside story of the high-stakes, four-year-long investigation into Donald Trump's Russia ties--culminating in the Steele dossier, and sparking the Mueller report--from the founders of political opposition research company Fusion GPS.

Fusion GPS was founded in 2010 by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, two former reporters at The Wall Street Journal who The never-before-told inside story of the high-stakes, four-year-long investigation into Donald Trump's Russia ties--culminating in the Steele dossier, and sparking the Mueller report--from the founders of political opposition research company Fusion GPS.

Fusion GPS was founded in 2010 by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, two former reporters at The Wall Street Journal who decided to abandon the struggling news business and use their reporting skills to conduct open-source investigations for businesses and law firms--and opposition research for political candidates. In the fall of 2015, they were hired to look into the finances of Donald Trump.

What began as a march through a mind-boggling trove of lawsuits, bankruptcies, and sketchy overseas projects soon took a darker turn: The deeper Fusion dug, the more it began to notice names that Simpson and Fritsch had come across during their days covering Russian corruption--and the clearer it became that the focus of Fusion's research going forward would be Trump's entanglements with Russia.

To help them make sense of what they were seeing, Simpson and Fritsch engaged the services of a former British intelligence agent and Russia expert named Christopher Steele. He would produce a series of memos--which collectively became known as the Steele dossier--that raised deeply alarming questions about the nature of Trump's ties to a hostile foreign power. Those memos made their way to U.S. intelligence agencies, and then to President Barack Obama and President-elect Trump. On January 10, 2017, the Steele dossier broke into public view, and the Trump-Russia story reached escape velocity. At the time, Fusion GPS was just a ten-person consulting firm tucked away above a Starbucks near Dupont Circle, but it would soon be thrust into the center of the biggest news story on the planet--a story that would lead to accusations of witch hunts, a relentless campaign of persecution by congressional Republicans, bizarre conspiracy theories, lawsuits by Russian oligarchs, and the Mueller report.

In Crime in Progress, Simpson and Fritsch tell their story for the first time--a tale of the high-stakes pursuit of one of the biggest, most important stories of our time--no matter the costs. ...more

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Hardcover, 368 pages

Published November 26th 2019 by Random House

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Nov 28, 2019 Paul rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is the best book of the 100 or so I've read this year. It's a well-articulated history of the Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Reading this is like being given a summary of Rachel Maddow shows for the last three years.

My critical takeaway: Trump is so mobbed up that it's frightening and a national security risk. He and Putin want to remake the world order so that they are the two major geopolitical powers, Putin has restored the territory of the old Soviet Union, and This is the best book of the 100 or so I've read this year. It's a well-articulated history of the Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Reading this is like being given a summary of Rachel Maddow shows for the last three years.

My critical takeaway: Trump is so mobbed up that it's frightening and a national security risk. He and Putin want to remake the world order so that they are the two major geopolitical powers, Putin has restored the territory of the old Soviet Union, and Trump wants to become the dictator of the states for life, presumably.

The House is just now getting into the substantial degree that Republicans have been handmaidens to the Russian mob, which consists largely of oligarchs that have taken over various companies/regions of the old Soviet empire. The chief architects of this in the United States are, besides the president, Mitch McConnell (known thug Oleg Deripaska funded Kentucky's giant new aluminum plant); Devin Nunes, who was elected from a heavily agricultural district in California as a farmer but has since sold all his family's farms and bought two vineyards for which he now pushes favorable legislation; Michael Cohen, now in prison, who created his entire business through mob connections and has since turned on Trump; former Secretary of Defense Michael Flynn, who was the most heavily mobbed up U.S. official and is now awaiting a long prison sentence; Paul Manafort, greatly intrusive in Ukraine and tight with Russia (now in prison); and lesser characters including Roger Stone, Maria Butina, Carter Page, and a cast of dozens.

The authors of this book are the cofounders of Fusion, a political research agency with no predispositions for either major party. They commissioned Christopher Steele of Orbis, a roughly equivalent UK organization, to do a major investigation into the 2016 election. The consequent "Steele Dossier" was maligned and ridiculed by Republicans as propaganda, especially over such sensational trivialities as the "Pee Tape," which showed Trump in a Moscow hotel encouraging two prostitutes to give a "golden shower" onto the bed in which the Obamas had once slept. It turns out that, although this book doesn't give significant explication of the incident, Steele claimed that he had seven eyewitnesses to the alleged incident.

The vehemence with which the Republicans maligned the "Steele Dossier" was possibly proportionate to the degree of truth it conveyed. This book carefully examines the entire dossier to see what upset the Republicans so. The answers are riveting and premonitory.

The best quote in the book is the last paragraph of the book before the Epilogue: "That Trump had not, in fact, been exonerated. That Trump had lied repeatedly. That he had sought the aid of Wikileaks to damage the Clinton campaign. That it was not a 'witch hunt.'" That the Russians had very blatantly interfered in the election."

The best summary quote from the Epilogue: "As the Republican Party's base of white voters has shriveled, there has been an increased willingness on the part of its leaders to pursue win-at-all-costs electoral strategies, such as the deliberate disenfranchisement of minorities and covert alliances with foreign regimes similarly fearful of demographic demise."

This book is a critical and frightening warning to Americans that if Trump is not impeached and removed before the 2020 presidential election, the entire American experiment may be over and the U.S. Constitution will become a historical artifact.

Besides being mandatory reading, this book reads like a spy novel and is hard to put down. I couldn't recommend it more highly to anyone who cares about the future of the United States. ...more

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Nov 26, 2019 Bettie marked it as wish-list

Mueller investigation did not follow the money on Trump: Peter Fritsch and Glenn Simpson, co-founders of Fusion GPS, talk with Rachel Maddow about their new book, Crime in Progress, and investigating Donald Trump's relationship with Russia and the 2016 election.

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Dec 08, 2019 Lis Carey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, non-fiction, politics, public-policy

In 2010, Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, two former Wall Street Journal reporters, left the news business and founded Fusion GPS, to do research mostly for businesses and law firms, and occasionally opposition research for political campaigns.

In 2015, they were hired to do opposition research on Donald Trump.

What started as an investigation of Trump's tangled business dealings became ever more intertwined in previous investigations into Russian corruption, as they realized that investigating ...more

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Nov 28, 2019 Fay rated it it was amazing

Terrifyingly revealing.

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Dec 11, 2019 George rated it it was amazing

In a word, terrifying.

Whilst the history of Russian involvement in the Trump campaign and administration is still being written, its become abundantly clear, through his actions and the sheer number of touch points he's had with Russians of dubious background, that there's something unusual here.

Simpson does a good job of laying out the chronology in more linear fashion than we have seen in the past, which is important because most of the conspiracy theories involving Fusion GPS have gotten it ...more

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Dec 04, 2019 Harry Allagree rated it it was amazing

First, note that there are co-authors, Glenn Simpson & Peter Fritsch

This is, unquestionably, the best explanation I've read on why the United States is in its current situation vis à vis Donald J. Trump & the Russian Federation (Russia). It gives a panoramic view in detailed (though not exhaustive) narrative of the intersection of the two countries & Trump & his cronies, including the GOP Republican Party, from roughtly 2015 (& a little before) down to 2019. This narrative is First, note that there are co-authors, Glenn Simpson & Peter Fritsch

This is, unquestionably, the best explanation I've read on why the United States is in its current situation vis à vis Donald J. Trump & the Russian Federation (Russia). It gives a panoramic view in detailed (though not exhaustive) narrative of the intersection of the two countries & Trump & his cronies, including the GOP Republican Party, from roughtly 2015 (& a little before) down to 2019. This narrative is based mainly on the work of their company, Fusion GPS, of which the authors are co-founders; and through one of their collaborators in the UK, Christopher Steele, chronicler of what is now known as the "Steele Dossier".

The book sets the record straight, as best as the authors are humanly able, so it is authoritative. There is admirable care taken not to cross boundaries of confidentiality of clients of Fusion GPS, but the authors stretch as far as they legally can to present true facts. The sum total of their work, along with that of others, belies & negates the untruthful, fanciful, twisted & sometimes ridiculous version of Trump's supporters. Although Simpson & Fritsch were experienced journalists before they founded Fusion GPS, the authors' purpose was to contract with carefully vetted clients to produce research reports on information, primarily public records, needed by clients. They were not opposition or intelligence reporters. They favored no one party over another. When news started breaking about Trump's transgressions with the Russians, most people, including the media, misunderstood this. Had the news media gotten it right from the start, their investigations would've led them to expose Trump & his dealing with Russia much earliert.

In the end, most of what the authors had learned in their early research came to be verified, sometimes much later, as true & factual. Shamefully, in the meantime, they went through of time of ridicule & harassment from Republican members of Congress & right-wing conservatives, many of whom ended up in the "hot seat" themselves later on!

The book emphasizes the extreme ongoing danger of Russia's meddling in our democracy up to the present day. The authors end the book this way:

"The Trump campaign's conspiring with Russia may not be a crime provable in federal court, but it amounts to one of the most significant betrayals in American history.
That, at its core, was the warning sounded by Fusion and Steele in 2016, a warning that remains as urgent today as it was then." ...more

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Dec 02, 2019 Jay rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites, trump-pump-pam

If you are going to read ONE book about Trump and how he came to power (and I have read a lot of them!) this is the one to read.

At the heart of this account is disinformation. How the Republicans conspired, right in front of our very eyes, to change the narrative about how Trump got elected, his shady parters and friends and how lies continue to support his presidency.

The only reason that the book does not earn 5 stars from me, is that the authors are clearly angry (justifiably) and this anger ...more

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Dec 01, 2019 Deb rated it really liked it

Frightening. I am baffled by so many people who deny the truth of Russian interference and the criminal behavior of Trump and his cronies. Very revealing - shows that Republicans care less about our Country than I suspected. They have been covering for Trump long before he was elected.

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Dec 02, 2019 Andy Norris rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Painful to read this recounting. Painful to live this reality.

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Dec 07, 2019 Mary rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

The authors Simpson and Fritsch are two former Wall Street Journal reporters who own the Washington-based research firm Fusion GPS. In May of 2016 they hired Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence office, to answer questions about the nature of Trump's relationship with Russia and Putin. The contents of Steele's memoranda, and the fact that Obama and Trump were briefed about them, was leaked to the press in early January 2017 which was shortly before the inauguration. Simpson and ...more

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Nov 29, 2019 LINDA DIANNE rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Fascinating peek behind the headlines

Confirms my early instincts that Steele and Fusion GPS were the dedicated protectors of democratic ideals in the face of foreign and domestic efforts to undermine them - as opposed to the bizarre and fantastical antics those such as Devin Nunes propagated against them. Thank goodness there are people such as they working in the background to bolster democracy against Putin's efforts to wreck it for his own ends! But it also helps understand how close it came ...more

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Dec 09, 2019 Mark Jones rated it really liked it · review of another edition

If you don't follow politics and world events, you're probably a little behind the curve on what's going on. This book will bring you up to speed. The implications of where the world is headed can leave you a little shaken if you prefer to feel safe and happy but I prefer facing the world head on so I considered it a good read.

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Dec 10, 2019 Diana rated it really liked it

Must read for anyone who wants to know the Fusion GPS story.

It was amazing

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Dec 08, 2019 Lesley Hooser rated it it was amazing

Shelves: politics

I believe all the people talking about the Steele dossier and fusion gps MUST read this. It puts a lot of things in perspective. It's not a partisan book, its object and informative

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Nov 30, 2019 Patricia L. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

You don't know anything about political corruption until you read this.

Keep an open mind. Be prepared to be totally disgusted at politics, Russian election interference, Trump's use of throwaway stooges, and the terrible threat to our constitutional way of life. I pray you'll leave your political party while you read this book and open your eyes to Political Reality 101. Our patriotic citizens need to know how corruption from within and outside is undermining progress and integrity in the United ...more

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Dec 03, 2019 Graham Catt rated it it was amazing

If you care about the future of Democracy, the state of politics in the USA, or the notion of "truth" as it stands in the Trump Era, this is essential reading.

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Dec 03, 2019 Katherine rated it it was amazing

A well-written history of Trump’s extensive ties to Russia; a real page-turner.

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Dec 02, 2019 Nick Turner rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, us-politics

By far the best book on Trump/Russia.

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Dec 13, 2019 Deb rated it really liked it

Shelves: current-events, read-in-2019, reporters, non-fiction

The best written political book that I've read this year. It covers the uproar caused by the Steele Dossier, commissioned by Fusion GPS from the perspective of two of Fusion's principal owners who oversaw the research on Donald Trump. While most of the information exists somewhere in the public record, a good deal of the details were new to me as they were only lightly covered by the media at a time when few were paying attention to Trump's Russian connections.

While the book fills in a lot of The best written political book that I've read this year. It covers the uproar caused by the Steele Dossier, commissioned by Fusion GPS from the perspective of two of Fusion's principal owners who oversaw the research on Donald Trump. While most of the information exists somewhere in the public record, a good deal of the details were new to me as they were only lightly covered by the media at a time when few were paying attention to Trump's Russian connections.

While the book fills in a lot of the blanks, it is not by any means the definitive explanation as it comes from the pen of two men, who have a personal stake in how the events are viewed. I was not thrilled by the fact that they spent the entire book referring to themselves in the third person as if some disinterested person was reporting just the facts. At the very least they should have written a prefix in the first person that explained who they are and why they choose to write this book. It isn't until the epilogue that they finely address the reader candidly as themselves.

The elephant (or more accurately donkey) in the room that the authors choose to ignore is the Clinton presidential campaign that picked up the funding for the research after The Washington Free Beacon bowed out upon Trump securing the Republican nomination. We get lots of information on the authors shopping the information around to papers because it was "time" without clarifying what that meant. Did they just do this on their own as a way to further monetize their research or had the Clinton campaign instructed them to help spread certain pieces of information? Clearly the authors would like you to believe that they just did this out of the goodness of their hearts, but since they don't actually say say that, I don't think that was the case. There is one telling section in which the authors tell of their frustration with their client, Mark Elias of Perkins Coie’s Political Law Group (the conduit to the Clinton campaign) unwillingness to help with their mounting legal bills because nobody told them to go to the FBI.

I would love to know what the Clinton campaign did with all of that research and if they ever debated going to the FBI themselves. The authors went out of their way to shield their client by implying it was their decision to focus on Russia rather than Trump's domestic legal troubles and wondering if it might have made a difference in the election outcome. However, considering their specialty is gathering pubic records and analyzing them, I can't help but thinking that this was not their choice. Maybe someday someone from inside the Clinton campaign will tell give us their perspective. ...more

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Dec 11, 2019 Nancy rated it it was amazing

Best political book I’ve read this presidency. And I’ve read many. And they were all excellent in their own ways. This reminds us of all that went on before the election and after. It confirms the importance of proceeding with impeachment. It is scathing in its indictment of nunes (yay!). I didn’t know they did research on him in 2018. It all seems so blatantly obvious that trump obstructed justice. The authors certainly have a bias, after being hunted by nunes and grassley and trashed by trump. ...more

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Dec 13, 2019 Josh Patrick rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: political-science

A book that's important to read and one that's a bit self serving. I recommend this as a read to figure out why those on the right are obsessed with the Steele Dossier and look at the larger risk we have in moving down the road towards an authoritarian government.

It's worth the read, and much can be skimmed if you stay up on current events.

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Dec 12, 2019 Bonny added it

This didn't age well, now that we know that the Steele Dossier was all made up... Save me some time reading garbage again

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Dec 07, 2019 Gwen rated it liked it

I was curious to read the Fusion GPS perspective. If you didn't follow a lot of Muller investigation, you'll pick up some details.

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“The hiring of Nellie Ohr made perfect sense for Project Bangor, but it would later help fuel an elaborate right-wing conspiracy theory. In this version of events, the effort to research and understand Trump’s curious interactions with the Russian underworld was actually a nefarious liberal plot—reaching from the Clinton campaign to career officials and Nellie’s husband at the Justice Department—to undermine the future Trump presidency. A presidency not even Donald Trump himself thought would happen.” — 0 likes

“Devin Nunes of California, who served on Trump’s transition team, would soon use his chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee to try to gut the inquiries into Trump’s Russia ties and to create multiple diversionary smoke screens.” — 0 likes

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