Just in case you were hoping to get away from the insanity in Virginia for a moment and back into the comfortable confines of Russian collusion stories, BuzzFeed News is here with just the thing: a bombshell report on that infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting:

NEW: A Russian-born lobbyist at the 2016 Trump Tower meeting received half a million dollars in suspicious payments.https://t.co/3Mdn6MkWkj — BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) February 4, 2019

Documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News show that Rinat Akhmetshin, a Soviet military officer turned lobbyist, deposited large sums of cash in the months before and after the meeting, where a Russian lawyer offered senior Trump campaign officials dirt on Hillary Clinton. — BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) February 4, 2019

The lobbyist also received a large payment that bank investigators deemed suspicious from Denis Katsyv, whose company Prevezon Holdings was accused by the US Justice Department of laundering the proceeds of a $230 million Russian tax fraud. — BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) February 4, 2019

This is some hard-hitting stuff — but the really juicy part was saved for much later in the piece.

Buried way deep in the piece you'll find it mentioned (just once) that Akhmetshin worked with Fusion GPS on the project for which he received all of this untraceable cash. https://t.co/RjctsHYEfH — Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) February 4, 2019

24th paragraph down. At the end of the paragraph. The wording downplays how closely Fusion GPS and Akhmetshin were working on the Bill Browder/Magnitsky project. pic.twitter.com/QNTZL2fpzq — Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) February 4, 2019

“Fusion GPS, the Washington research firm that commissioned the famous Trump dossier, was also hired to conduct research.” Boy, that Fusion GPS manages to pop up everywhere.

Lmao, always back to Fusion. — In 2019, we stop corruption (@Sanity__please) February 4, 2019

You forgot the part where he worked for Fusion GPS who setup this while sting operation lol — Texarkana Fed ?? (@TexarkanaFed) February 4, 2019

Nah, it’s in there if you look closely enough.

And the part that Rinat Akhmetshin and Oleg Deripaska are the RUSSIAN Sources in Steele’s “Russian” Dossier and the fact both Akhmetshin and Deripaska are deeply connected to HRC and the DNC. — Sold By Breedlove (@SoldByBreedlove) February 4, 2019

Collusion Twitter is going wild on this story. Though BuzzFeed tries to frame this as a "Trump-Russia" hit, sketchy payments paralleled Clinton-backed Fusion GPS' activity on the same case. This is not mentioned until end of story, but at least it's there.https://t.co/TB4HflRu4t — Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) February 4, 2019

Did he work for Fusion GPS ? — Ugogodent (@Ugogodents) February 4, 2019

Yes — Cody Goolsby (@CodyGoolsby1) February 4, 2019

“Received half a million dollars from Fusion GPS”. Fixed it for you. — ShredderGirl (@ShredderBabe) February 4, 2019

He received the cash from FUSION GPS. So yea, it proves the dems colluded with Russia. — Remus Remington (@RzNBA23) February 4, 2019

By working with Fusion GPS? Seems like an important tidbit to bury in this shitty report. — Jake R. (@jaker1419) February 4, 2019

Check Perkins Coie and Fusion GPS — Sandy Parker (@RHWOOBsandy) February 4, 2019

Suspicious payments? You're saying that HRC campaign money funneled through Perkins Cole to Fusion GPS wound up in a Russian's bank account? Big, if true! — Lymond (@ShivaPundit) February 4, 2019

I was only joking earlier when I said Hillary made the payments, not joking any more. — JC (@jmlucyc) February 4, 2019

This covers the payments he received from Fusion GPS correct? I know it is hard for people to write stories and learn to code at the same time, but making that connection seems pretty straightforward and not something that needs to be mentiond in an elusive manner. — Rachel Ellise (@Randomarticlez) February 4, 2019

But the payments were NOT from @realDonaldTrump or anyone associated with him. Why wasn't that in your headline? Here's hoping you have to close your garbage site down totally and soon. — Judith Lankau (@judith_lankau) February 4, 2019

When the pieces are put together it’s pretty clear the meeting was orchestrated by Fusion, for the purpose of substantiating the claim of Russia collusion, that Hillary was paying them millions to corroborate. — IraNH (@iraNHlfod) February 4, 2019

Guaranteed when Mueller is done he will say something like “while the Trump Tower meeting wasn’t illegal and was never followed up on, it demonstrates an openness to coordinate with a foreign power that merits investigation.” No mention of Fusion GPS involvement at all. — IraNH (@iraNHlfod) February 4, 2019

They are investigating this from one angle only, that Trump and his associates must be guilty of something. There are going to be a million unanswered questions about this and a host of other topics related to anything Perkins Coie was involved in paying for(Crowdstrike). — IraNH (@iraNHlfod) February 4, 2019

LOL. They are revealing their own heinous plot, one story at a time. — K J Gillenwater (@kjgillenwater) February 4, 2019

Are you guys still in business? I thought you died in darkness along with Gawker and WaPo? — BeatleJuice (@sfranzese) February 4, 2019

Wow, BuzzFeed. You're really having a tough year. — CaptainEli (@MaineEli) February 4, 2019

LOL. You guys are finished. Time for you to go away now. pic.twitter.com/b8R8otiDWe — RealSports&MovieGuru (@TheRealSportsG2) February 4, 2019

How are you guys still even in business? You should learn to code. — 1/1024th Native American (@JoeCretz) February 4, 2019

Related: