As Bonchie covered yesterday, Glenn Simpson and Christopher Steele — they of the now almost-totally discredited Steele dossier — have been working for some time to continue pushing Russia collusion stories to the press and Capitol Hill staffers through the Orwellian-named Democracy Integrity Project (TDIP).

The original investigation of the group, bolstered by investigative work from The Daily Caller, comes from a fantastic piece at Real Clear Investigations, that presents and analyzes everything from the reporters who receive “research” from TDIP, to the background of mastermind Daniel J. Jones (“a former FBI investigator, Clinton administration volunteer and top staffer to California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein”), as well as the agents involved in compiling the research (Simpson and Steele) and — most notably — the financial backers.

One of those backers is legitimately a household name (or, at least, was a household name): Rob Reiner, Meathead himself. From the RCI piece:

In addition to Soros, who has donated at least $1 million, liberal Hollywood activist Reiner also backs the project, according to the former Simpson colleague with direct knowledge of discussions with Reiner. In 2017, Reiner started the Committee to Investigate Russia with James Clapper and several other former Obama officials. Reiner has called for Trump’s impeachment, arguing repeatedly that the president has committed “treason against the United States.”

Reiner’s office declined a request to discuss the extent of his financial contributions to the project. “Sorry, Rob is not available,” his executive assistant, Tricia Owen, told RCI.

Reiner is no stranger to progressive politics, as his Influence Watch page shows. But one little nugget from the page stands out.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY INSIDER

In 2004, Rob Reiner was described by The Atlantic as the only Hollywood financier who has, through his political activism, earned status as a Democratic Party “Player” with whom Presidents and Democratic leaders in Congress would meet or take a call from on short notice.^[49]

Reiner is reportedly a founding member of the Democracy Alliance,^[50] a secretive club of wealthy liberals^[51] that requires members to contribute at least $200,000 a year to recommended left-wing groups.^[52] Other Democracy Alliance donors include George Soros, Tom Steyer, the late Peter Lewis, and Herb and Marion Sandler.^[53]

Reiner also reportedly said, after news of the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke, that Trump’s behavior was worse than Weinstein’s. So that’s the kind of ethical analysis Reiner uses when considering where to put his money.

It’s not particularly surprising that a Hollywood Actor/Director/Producer is involved in progressive politics, but given the number of libel suits that have resulted from the Steele-Simpson allegations, it’s rather galling being lectured by a man who recently made a film called “Shock And Awe” that purported to tell the truth of dangers facing the free press.

If the Russia collusion hoax has taught us anything it’s that it’s almost always the most vocally morally correct, the most rabid watchdogs, that need monitoring. And unfortunately, many of them have very deep pockets and very large platforms from which to speak.