Book: Obama Had Longstanding Relationship with FusionGPS, Employing Them in 2012 to Dig Opposition Dirt on Mitt Romney

Oh, Washington Consensus, tell me more about the straight-shooting hard-nosed investigative reporter Glenn Simpson and how you can totally trust everything his clients want you to print.

A new book claims former President Barack Obama hired Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Romney

Obama used law firm Perkins Coie to hide payment to Fusion GPS

The Clinton campaign would later do the same thing to investigate Trump

The Barack Obama presidential campaign hired Fusion GPS in 2012 to dig up dirt on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, according to a book released on Tuesday.

The Obama campaign hid its payments to Fusion GPS through its law firm, Perkins Coie. The arrangement is similar to the one that the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee used to pay Fusion for its investigation of then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016.

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"As had become standard practice in the shadowy world of 'oppo' research, the Obama campaign’s payments to Fusion GPS were never publicly disclosed; the money paid to the investigative firm was reported on campaign disclosure reports as legal bills to the campaign’s law firm, Perkins Coie," the book reads.