As if Americans weren’t thoroughly confused already about the so-called “Trump dossier” and the opposition research firm that commissioned it, Fusion GPS, someone else has now peeled another layer from this deepening, once-in-a-century political scandal.

An op-ed in The Daily Caller by Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska claims the narrative of Moscow meddling in the 2016 election is a “false public manipulation,” and that Daniel Jones — a former FBI investigator and staffer for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. and presently a Fusion GPS operative — told him in March 2017 the D.C. firm was funded by “a group of Silicon Valley billionaires and George Soros.”

What’s particularly noteworthy is that Deripaska’s lawyer, Adam Waldman — a Washington lawyer — recommended that Jones investigate and verify claims made in the dossier, which was assembled by former British spy Christopher Steel.

In addition, Waldman served as an intermediary between Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Steele in an attempt to arrange a meeting, which “suggests that Waldman, Jones, Steele, and Fusion GPS are all connected,” Zero Hedge noted.

In his Daily Caller piece, Deripaska describes the never-ending “Russia narrative” as little more than a manufactured scandal offered up by the Deep State, or “Wagging the money,” he writes.

“So, who is the ‘funding mechanism’ of this ‘shadowy government?’” None other than another billionaire (and seasoned Left-wing political meddler) George Soros, according to Jones — as told to congressional investigators by Deripaska attorney Waldman:

[O]n March 16, 2017, Daniel Jones — himself a team member of Fusion GPS, self-described former FBI agent and, as we now know from the media, an ex-Feinstein staffer — met with my lawyer, Adam Waldman, and described Fusion as a “shadow media organization helping the government,” funded by a “group of Silicon Valley billionaires and George Soros.” My lawyer testified these facts to the Senate Intelligence Committee on Nov. 3. Mr. Soros is, not coincidentally, also the funder of two “ethics watchdog” NGOs (Democracy 21 and CREW) attacking Rep. Nunes’ committee memo.

Jones currently operates Penn Quarter Group, which is a “research and investigatory advisory” firm whose website was first registered in April 2016 — just days before Steele delivered the first in a series of Trump-Russia memos (none of which have been substantiated). In 2017 Jones began tweeting out a series of articles suggestion “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia. (Related: Grassley, Graham DEMAND info from Hillary, DNC, Donna Brazile, Podesta, RE: Fusion GPS)

Last month, The Federalist’s Sean Davis reported that congressional documents and leaked texts between Warner and Waldman reveal Jones is “intimately involved with ongoing efforts to retroactively validate” the Trump dossier.

Davis wrote:

Congressional documents and recently leaked texts between Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and a registered foreign agent for a Russian aluminum oligarch indicate that Daniel J. Jones is intimately involved with ongoing efforts to retroactively validate a series of salacious and unverified memos produced by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent, and Fusion GPS.

And of course, the Soros angle wouldn’t be complete without a connection to Hillary Clinton and the American Communist Party, otherwise known as the Democrats: The DNC and the Clinton campaign paid Fusion to create the dossier.

Jones comes up in leaked text messages between Warner and Waldman as a point of contact for Steele. The messages, which were leaked to Fox News, discuss efforts by Warner to secure Steele’s testimony.

For his part, Deripaska, who was Russia’s wealthiest man before the 2008 financial crisis, has been scrutinized in recent weeks for his association with short-lived Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort.

But he goes on to confirm what working journalists have long known existed: There is a “deep state.”

“What has been inelegantly termed the ‘Deep State’ is really this: shadow power exercised by a small number of individuals from media, business, government and the intelligence community, foisting provocative and cynically false manipulations on the public. Out of these manipulations, an agenda of these architects’ own design is born,” he writes.

And it is still trying to do a number on President Donald J. Trump.

J.D. Heyes is also editor-in-chief of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

DailyCaller.com

ZeroHedge.com

TheNationalSentinel.com