General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSen. Feinstein releases Fusion GPS testimony
Link to tweet
Link to testimony (all 312 pages of it): https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/3/9/3974a291-ddbe-4525-9ed1-22bab43c05ae/934A3562824CACA7BB4D915E97709D2F.simpson-transcript-redacted.pdf
MelissaB
(16,420 posts)brush
(53,925 posts)tinrobot
(10,927 posts)Today, I'm happy she's my Senator.
TarponSnook
(36 posts)Thank you Sen. Feinstein. More and more leaders need to employ the same GOP tactics of dirty politics! Democratic leaders should not allow the GOP to stifle our freedoms with lies, cover ups, and pressuring the Democratic leaders to be acquiescent / blackmail / bow to their nasty agenda! I have stated over and over the Democrats need a strong leader unafraid of these assholes!
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)not lying as the Republicans constantly do, not cheating and betraying her voters as the Republicans constantly do, not only not bellying up to the trough the Republicans filled with our tax dollars, but of course voting against it along with every other Democrat, including our conservative Democrats.
Republicans on the committee Friday unilaterally made a criminal referral against the messenger of wrongdoing, Christopher Steele, instead of the wrongdoers. She unilaterally released the transcript on behalf of the Democratic senators on the committee.
This is fighting wrong with right.
Me.
(35,454 posts)is not helpful nor true.
George II
(67,782 posts)ehrnst
(32,640 posts)since you started it with "thank you" before damning the rest of the leadership.
Eliot Rosewater
(31,131 posts)NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)You don't get to bash Democrats. Oh, right--you managed to do it anyway. Good job.
Skittles
(153,236 posts)TarponSnook
(36 posts)The Repugs would continue with their agenda and rail road the country into chaos. Today asshole Sen Rand Paul continued the attacks on Hillary Clinton and Kellyanne Conway both did the same on CNN, Sen. Mitch Mcconnell blocked president Obama from appointing a supreme court justice and threaten Obama with partisan politics thereby facilitating the attack our elections by Putin. The Democrats need to take off the gloves. These republicans have no interest in our country. The republicans are all laughing to the bank. They are committed to their major donors.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)I'm guessing you have no clue as to what she did yesterday.
I don't, Tin, so I'll be waiting for your answer. I'll settle for whatever she did wrong the day before if you can't get info for yesterday, though.
tinrobot
(10,927 posts)I think we can both agree on that.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)You know, though, there's nothing stupid about saying something good about Democrats without covering that slip with a slap on the backswing.
That's what the media did with Hillary, btw. The "rules" for those who wanted to belong to the in group who get on daytime and much evening cable required everyone to badmouth her. If for some reason someone wanted to mention something that seemed favorable, that person needed to deliver it with a redeeming negative comment, preferably 2 or more, but one had to be the closing remark.
BigmanPigman
(51,644 posts)about releasing the testimony from Simpson. I called Grassely, Hatch, Lee, Graham, Coryn, Lee, Cruz then Sasse. I got voice mails from all until Sasse. I spoke to the staffer and he told me Feinstein just released it! Now I turned on MSNBC and it is all over the news. YEAH! I called every GOP member on the committee on Aug 29th after watching this story on Rachel on Aug 28. Back then they all said they would release it. The Sasse staffer said there are 300 pages!
Eliot Rosewater
(31,131 posts)MontanaMama
(23,364 posts)More excited to read this than F&F.
blogslut
(38,021 posts)louis c
(8,652 posts)I don't always agree with Senator Feinstein. But I have to admire her courage in this one.
C_U_L8R
(45,027 posts)Excellent move, Senator Feinstein
spanone
(135,907 posts)50 Shades Of Blue
(10,075 posts)trueblue2007
(17,243 posts)can't we remove Grassley some way? Recall him or impeach him?
MineralMan
(146,339 posts)I don't have time to read it, but others will, and will give us information. Information is what we need to make decisions.
shraby
(21,946 posts)I did.
MineralMan
(146,339 posts)That's a lot easier than cutting and pasting. I can look at the file at any time with the Adobe Reader, and use it's tools to search for and find things, print pages, etc.
I recommend working with the .pdf file as it exists, rather than converting it into some other format. You'll find that a better way to examine it.
In any windows browser, just right click on the document and select Save As...
shraby
(21,946 posts)Been reading it.
Eliot Rosewater
(31,131 posts)Iliyah
(25,111 posts)put her jail? Awaiting on t-rump's tweet suggesting same.
shraby
(21,946 posts)They will cry, swear and gnash their teeth over it, loudly. The milk has been spilt.
shraby
(21,946 posts)OnDoutside
(19,982 posts)PunkinPi
(4,882 posts)Link to tweet
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)I wonder if Rachel will come up with some suggestions as to who that could be.
lindysalsagal
(20,765 posts)Well, apparently, they in fact do. Good options.
Plus, not good for your credibility to announce something will happen in the future: never know who's, going to have to delay something.
OnDoutside
(19,982 posts)uppityperson
(115,681 posts)Mr. Ected
(9,674 posts)Roland99
(53,342 posts)OliverQ
(3,363 posts)and then this release. Is Rachel psychic?
OnDoutside
(19,982 posts)Why do I think we are about to hear nothing but silence from the GOP And Faux News on this topic from now on...
getagrip_already
(14,907 posts)Ok, so what happens to Feinstein?
Do the republicans kick all the dems off committees now? I can only imagine Fox's screams of pain and anger!
Great!!!!!
niyad
(113,662 posts)workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)Bold moves are needed at this time, WTG Sen. Feinstein!
meow2u3
(24,774 posts).99center
(1,237 posts)Page 174
Q. You said that he told you of the meeting
19 with the FBI in Rome in mid or late September, that
20 he "gave them a full briefing"?
21 A. A debrief I think is what he probably
22 said, they had debriefed him. I don't remember him
23 articulating the specifics of that. You know, my
24 understanding was that they would have gotten into
25 who his sources were, how he knew certain things,
and, you know, other details based on their own intelligence.
Essentially what he told me was they
3 had other intelligence about this matter from an
4 internal Trump campaign source and that -- that
5 they -- my understanding was that they believed
6 Chris at this point -- that they believed Chris's
7 information might be credible because they had
8 other intelligence that indicated the same thing
9 and one of those pieces of intelligence was a human
10 source from inside the Trump organization.
SunSeeker
(51,757 posts)lunasun
(21,646 posts)OnDoutside
(19,982 posts)SunSeeker
(51,757 posts)ehrnst
(32,640 posts)Eliot Rosewater
(31,131 posts)AlexSFCA
(6,139 posts)ehrnst
(32,640 posts)leftynyc
(26,060 posts)PunkinPi
(4,882 posts)Eliot Rosewater
(31,131 posts)thbobby
(1,474 posts)Hell Yes Senator Feinstein! GOP leaked selected portions for propaganda value. Now, this can be examined objectively! Senator Feinstein, you have done a great service for American Democracy! Thank you!
get the red out
(13,468 posts)This should make things VERY interesting!
DeminPennswoods
(15,290 posts)She opened her show talking about how former Senator Mike Gravel got 4000 of the 7000 pages of the Pentagon Papers into the record and hinted that Dems might do something similar to get the GPS Fusion testimony into the record. I guess this is what she was talking about.
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)talking about. Democrats were in the majority when Gravel (as head of some minor committee) read the Pentagon Papers into the record. Rachel was wondering how Democrats - now in the minority and unable to head a committee, could make this happen. Looks like Difi just said fuck it and released it.
OnDoutside
(19,982 posts)DeminPennswoods
(15,290 posts)Grassley et al to get the transcript out. Glad Sen Feinstein did it.
lindysalsagal
(20,765 posts)leftynyc
(26,060 posts)I've never disliked DiFi as much as many DUers. As far as I'm concerned, she truly earned her paycheck AND her Democratic Party credentials today. I'm FAR more interested in what somebody does than what they say.
procon
(15,805 posts)released the document without consulting either the chair Grassley or House Intel Committee.
That's WOMAN POWER in action!
PunkinPi
(4,882 posts)Epic trolling by Feinstein.
avebury
(10,953 posts)and made the announcement without consulting their committee, Diane Feinstein just took a page out of their book.
bronxiteforever
(9,287 posts)Its clearly another effort to deflect attention from what should be the committees top priority: determining whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the election and whether there was subsequent obstruction of justice, said Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, who added that she had not been consulted about the referral by Grassely and Graham
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/05/us/politics/christopher-steele-dossier-judiciary-committee.html
MLAA
(17,346 posts)Renew Deal
(81,886 posts)She leaked the entire thing. Good for her.
RockaFowler
(7,429 posts)Link to tweet
Simpson, re: that NYT article published on Oct 31 that said the FBI had found no clear Trump-Russia links: "it was a real Halloween special."
Steele severed his ties to the FBI at that point.
"There was a concern that the FBI was being manipulated...by the Trump people."
SunSeeker
(51,757 posts)Glorfindel
(9,740 posts)malaise
(269,237 posts)Reminds me of the Pentagon Papers and Daniel Ellsberg
Senator Feinstein was not notified that Senators Grassley and Graham were going to forward a criminal referral for Christopher Steele to the DOJ. I also believe that the democrats have had it with Grassley and the gloves are off.
ProudProgressiveNow
(6,129 posts)calimary
(81,546 posts)THANK YOU, Dianne!!! Wow. Gal has guts! THIS is the kind of representation we need! Hey, Dems, you listening? You paying attention?
D: For Dianne. D: For Defiance!
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)Like he does every other week.
I just hope it was worth the tongue lashing she will probably get.
OnDoutside
(19,982 posts)ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)Did you come up with that one?
OnDoutside
(19,982 posts)ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)shenmue
(38,506 posts)Thank you, Senator!
mcar
(42,424 posts)FakeNoose
(32,833 posts)This is how real Senators should behave. It's time for Grassley to retire.
Turbineguy
(37,383 posts)Thanks, Senator!
BillyBobBrilliant
(805 posts)Persevered!
MLAA
(17,346 posts)WheelWalker
(8,956 posts)dawg day
(7,947 posts)Democrats need to do this. Just go ahead and perform the duties of oversight and ignore the GOP obstruction.
I would like to see them hold a committee meeting in the halls of the Capitol, at least with willing witnesses, and be damned to the GOP who just want to cover up for Trump.
calimary
(81,546 posts)Call DiFi's office. Either via the usual Congressional (202) numbers OR the TOLL FREE Capitol Hill switchboard numbers in my sig line.
Or look her up online and call one of her regional offices.
TELL HER "THANK YOU!!!" THANK her! Thank her for her courage and willingness to GO BOLD! Tell whatever staffer picks up that this is great and how much you love it and appreciate it and how grateful you are that she showed TRUE guts.
As a parent, I learned that you don't reward or reinforce bad behavior, BUT, you ENCOURAGE more good behavior by rewarding and reinforcing that. We certainly are able to call and complain when they do things of which we don't approve, right? Therefore, when they do something right, they need to hear the "attagirls" and "attaboys" that they've earned. If they get a lot of those, it will encourage them to do more of the same.
Add calcium supplements to their backbones!!! It MATTERS. And it makes a difference, sometimes a BIG difference.
Please never forget this "Golden Rule" of representative democracy: If they think YOU don't care, they won't, EITHER!
Duppers
(28,127 posts)I will call !
oasis
(49,431 posts)Squinch
(51,059 posts)calimary
(81,546 posts)Thanks!
calimary
(81,546 posts)Squinch
(51,059 posts)PunkinPi
(4,882 posts)found an alternate way to contact her (web form), https://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-me .
Also, she tweeted on the release, and you can send her a note there (for those on Twitter):
Link to tweet
Excellent, idea btw calimary!
Goodheart
(5,349 posts)Can somebody clue me in?
MineralMan
(146,339 posts)They wanted to spoon-feed portions to the public.
Feinstein released the entire transcript publicly. That will not make her popular with others on the committee, but it will air the entire thing out in public.
Analysis of the entire thing can now proceed.
Feinstein did what the committee should have done. Brava!
Goodheart
(5,349 posts)dawg day
(7,947 posts)The GOP committee leader (Grassley) has refused to release this testimony-- which he insisted on doing in private rather than public session. The interviewees from Fusion had called for it to be released-- they have nothing to hide.
But Grassley doesn't want the public to know what they testified.
The Democrats on the committee had been pretty passive about this. Until now. Feinstein went ahead and released the testimony in defiance of Grassley.
This gives a good example to other Democrats-- they don't have to sit around and beg the GOP to do the right thing.
Now we'll have to see what revelations come out of the testimony. Pretty soon DUers will be sharing important tidbits, but no one can read and digest all 400 pages right away! That's what's great about crowdsourcing!
blue-wave
(4,370 posts)chillfactor
(7,585 posts)filled his pants....LOL! He really thought he could keep this testimony away from the American people...Feinstein one upped him!
gademocrat7
(10,678 posts)Bravo, Senator Feinstein. This is explosive.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Grassley was sitting on this testimony trying to cover the administration's foul-ups, and now it's all for naught. Sorry, Chuck. But I will enjoy your impotent (and probably insincere) raging against this terrible, horrible, very bad, no-good breach of the sacred protocols of the world's greatest deliberative body.
certainot
(9,090 posts)dalton99a
(81,649 posts)kentuck
(111,110 posts)"This interview is unclassified. So if any
15 question calls for information that you know to be
16 classified, please state that for the record as
17 well as the reason for the classification. Then
18 once you've clarified that to the extent possible,
19 please respond with as much unclassified
20 information as you can. If we need to have a
21 classified session later, that can be arranged. "
kentuck
(111,110 posts)10 " He also set up shell companies inside of
11 Russia in order to avoid paying taxes in Russia and
12 he set up shell companies in a remote republic
13 called Kalmykia, K-A-L-M-Y-K-I-A, which is next to
14 Mongolia. It's the only Buddhist republic in
15 Russia and there's nothing much there, but if you
16 put your companies there you can lower your taxes.
17 They were putting their companies in Kalmykia that
18 were holding investments from western investors and
19 they were staffing these companies -- they were
20 using Afghan war veterans because there's a tax
21 preference for Afghan war veterans, and what we
22 learned is that they got in trouble for this
23 eventually because one of Putin's primary rules for
24 business was you can do a lot of things, but you've
25 got to pay your taxes."
kentuck
(111,110 posts)Q. And then, by extension, when you're
2 talking about an international businessman, I
3 presume you're talking about then candidate now
4 President Trump?
5 A. Yes.
progressoid
(50,001 posts)I wanna know who the mole is.
kentuck
(111,110 posts)"election and you clarified that that was work
2 related to then Candidate and now President Trump.
3 What can you tell us about that work? Can you just
4 describe it first generally and then I'll ask you
5 some follow-up.
6 A. It was, broadly speaking, a kind of
7 holistic examination of Donald Trump's business
8 record and his associations, his bankruptcies, his
9 suppliers, you know, offshore or third-world
10 suppliers of products that he was selling. You
11 know, it evolved somewhat quickly into issues of
12 his relationships to organized crime figures but,
13 you know, really the gamut of Donald Trump. "
Page 67 - excerpt
In the early -- the very first weekend that I
18 started boning up on Donald Trump, you know, I
19 found various references to him having connections
20 to Italian organized crime and later to a Russian
21 organized crime figure named Felix Sater,
22 S-A-T-E-R. It wasn't hard to find, it wasn't any
23 great achievement, it was in the New York Times,
24 but as someone who has done a lot of Russian
25 organized crime investigations as a journalist
llmart
(15,559 posts)Wow! Just Wow! Just these few blurbs are damning to Trump. Can't imagine what's in the entire dossier. Can't wait to read it all.
kentuck
(111,110 posts)So the purpose of this was to see if we could
12 learn more, generally speaking, about his business
13 dealings in Russia. What came back was something,
14 you know, very different and obviously more
15 alarming, which had to do with -- you know, which
16 outlined a political conspiracy and a much broader
17 set of issues than the ones that we basically went
18 looking for. You know, initially we didn't know
19 what do with this.
20 The main thing we did with it, the use we
21 made of it was as intelligence, which is to
22 understand what's happening. So when this arrived
23 the first indicators were starting to float around
24 that there was something bigger going on, the
25 government of Russia or someone was doing some
hacking. I don't really remember the precise
2 details. I just remember there were rumblings at
3 that time about whether there had been lot of
4 hacking and there was going to be -- political
5 digital espionage was going to be a component of
6 the campaign.
kentuck
(111,110 posts)Sometime thereafter the FBI -- I understand
2 Chris severed his relationship with the FBI out of
3 concern that he didn't know what was happening
4 inside the FBI and there was a concern that the FBI
5 was being manipulated for political ends by the
6 Trump people and that we didn't really understand
7 what was going on. So he stopped dealing with
8 them.
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Duppers
(28,127 posts)I'm excited to read this.
THIS is the way we get the Truth and beat the rethugs' impeding justice.
PunkinPi
(4,882 posts)Yep, hit em with the truth! Hope all is well with you and yours.
Duppers
(28,127 posts)And you too.
We're recovering from the flu...slowly.
.99center
(1,237 posts)Why weren't there any questions relating to the transcript?
Are they giving Sarah and the WH time to frame the narrative?
sheshe2
(83,978 posts)You are a true American Shero.
peggysue2
(10,844 posts)For Senator Feinstein and doing the right thing.
Paladin
(28,280 posts)Eliot Rosewater
(31,131 posts)What is funny about this is, Trump is so dumb and so used to getting his way, he doesnt realize that he is also a major league criminal and traitor.
burrowowl
(17,653 posts)Upthevibe
(8,088 posts)you are brave. I think what really pissed her off was when Graham & Grassley threatened to bring some kind of charges against Steele...
pioche4
(114 posts)1/ First, thanks today for the bravery of @SenFeinstein. You're a heroine of the #Resistance.
2/ As I process the Fusion GPS transcript, I'll post significant points here in individual tweets. For starters: NO, Fusion GPS doesn't do hatchet jobs to try to get government agencies to start investigations against people. (Tr. 25)
3/ As well, Fusion GPS knows WTF it's doing. The descriptions of the investigation in the Prevezon case are deep and powerful and detailed and serious, and they do not mess around. (Tr. 38-49)
4/ Other items of note from the Fusion GPS background: Fusion has a deep background in understanding Russian money laundering. The Prevezon case got the into investigations of Russian organized crime, Cypriot banking, and the tax system in Russia. Serious business. (Tr. 38-49)
5/ On the Fusion GPS retention on Trump: "it evolved somewhat quickly into issues of his relationships to organized crime figures . . ." (Tr. 61-62)
6/ Fusion GPS concluded early in their investigation that Trump has serious ties to Russian organized crime, including money in his companies from "Kazakhstan, among other places, and that some of it you just couldn't account for." (Tr. 67-70)
7/ Fusion GPS hired Steele as a part of "drilling down" on specific areas of concern about Trump's business dealings internationally, and Steele was not the only subcontractor hired. (Tr. 76-78)
8/ Asked about Christopher Steele as an investigator, Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS described him as a "quality" investigator in high profile situations and "a boy scout." (Tr. 81-82)
9/ Fusion sent Steele into Russia with a broad assignment to look into Trump's dealings in Russia. And what they found was that "it wasn't a giant secret" that "Donald Trump had a relationship with the Kremlin." People were talking about it freely. (Tr. 87-88)
10/ Now would be a good time to ask yourself why it is that @ChuckGrassley and others didn't want this transcript released. But keep going.
11/ Christopher Steele was trained as the lead Russianist in MI6 to spot disinformation from Russian intelligence. So what he found was not bullshit. What he found was real. (Tr. 88-89)
12/ What is clear in the questioning of Simpson from the Republican side of the fence is that they they were trying to set up a claim that Rinat Akhmetshin, who was present at the Trump Tower June 2016 meeting was an agent of Fusion and thereby HRC. (Tr. 109-110)
13/ This is plainly an attempt to try to claim that any Trump/Russia interactions were a democratic set-upone that Simpson shot down hard. (Tr. 109-110)
14/ Glenn Simpson had dinner with Vesilnitskaya in New York the night before the Trump Tower meeting. Fusion was doing work on the Prevezon case, and it was a client dinner with the lawyers, of whom Vesiltnitskaya was one. This shit just gets weirder and weirder. (Tr.130-131)
15/ Asked by the Republicans whether he believes the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016 was an effort by the Russian government to make contact with the Trump campaign, Simpson responded "I think that's a reasonable interpretation." (Tr. 134-135)
15/ Fusion sent Steele into Russia to learn more about Trump's business dealings. What they found was "very different and obviously more alarming, which had to do with . . . a political conspiracy . . . the government of Russia or someone was doing some hacking. . ." Tr. 133-134)
16/ "there were rumblings at that time about whether there had been lot of hacking and there was going to be -- political digital espionage was going to be a component of the campaign." (Tr. 133-134)
17/ And so they set out to determine if what they were learning was credible. (I mean, Jesus. If he isn't impeached after this, America is toast.)
18/ Fusion evaluated the credibility of the information they received that the Trump campaign may be involved in digital espionage to throw the election. Steele is credible. The methods described are consistent with Russian intelligence. Nothing appears to be false. (Tr. 148-150)
18/ The very first memo within the dossier discusses that Trump and his inner circle accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin. (Tr. 154-155)
19/ In response to a question about election interference, Simpson stated "If you're getting help from a foreign government and your help is intelligence, then the foreign government's interfering," and that the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting is consistent with that. (Tr. 154-155)
20/ Only two memos in to the memos that make up the dossier, Fusion knew that what they were dealing with was a criminal attempt to influence the election, a conspiracy to violate campaign laws, and potentially the blackmailing of the @GOP candidate for President. (Tr. 158-160)
21/ "it's 26 July. So by this time Debbie Wasserman Schultz has been the subject of a very aggressive hacking campaign, weaponized hack, the likes of which, you know, have never really been seen." (Tr. 158)
22/ "We've seen hacking in politics before, but this kind of, you know, mass theft of e-mail and then to dump it all into, you know, the public sphere was extraordinary and it was criminal." (Tr. 158)
23/ "In [Steele's] mind this is already a criminal matter, there's already a potential national security matter here." (Tr. 159)
24/ "Chris said he was very concerned about whether this represented a national security threat and said he wanted to -- he said he thought we were obligated to tell someone in government, in our government about this information." (Tr. 159)
25/ "He thought from his perspective there was an issue -- a security issue about whether a presidential candidate was being blackmailed. (Tr. 159)
26/ "From my perspective there was a law enforcement issue about whether there was an illegal conspiracy to violate the campaign laws, and then somewhere in this time the whole issue of hacking has also surfaced." (Tr. 159-160)
27/ So why did they go to the FBI? "[L]et's be clear, this was not considered by me to be part of the work that we were doing. This was -- to me this was like, you know, you're driving to work and you see something happen and you call 911, right. (Tr. 164)
28/ 25/ It wasn't part of the -- it wasn't like we were trying to figure out who should do it. He said he was professionally obligated to do it. Like if you're a lawyer and, you know, you find out about a crime, in a lot of countries you must report that." (Tr. 164-165; 167-168)
29: "So it was like that. So I just said if that's your obligation, then you should fulfill your obligation." (Tr. 164-165; 167-168)
26/ What we can take from this is that the reporting of the dossier to the FBI was ETHICAL, HONEST, and NOT A HATCHET JOB. (Tr. 164-165; 167-168)
31/ (sorry for the screwy numbering of thread tweets, folks. this is a lot.)
32/ Simpson flagged how serious it got within the Fusion investigation when, post-reporting to the FBI, the hacking of the Democrats continued, the RNC platform as to Ukraine changed, and Trump continued to say bizarrely favorable things about Russia. (Tr. 169-170)
33/ And then Steele went to Rome, and met with the FBI, and gave them everything he had so far on Trump. Simpson says Steele's work was "really serious and really credible," and when he asked to go meet with the FBI and give them everything he had, Fusion said yes. (Tr. 171-172)
34/ And there is no question in the minds of Simpson or Steele that what they are dealing with is criminal espionage, a "crime in progress" by the Russians against the DNC and others. (Tr. 173)
35/ And then Simpson dropped a bomb: Steele went to Rome, gets debriefed by the FBI, and learns in the debriefing that the FBI, in September 2016, has a "voluntary" source inside the Trump campaign. (Tr. 175-176). READ THAT AGAIN.
36/ NOTE: that means this is not Papadopoulos. He was flipped when he lied to the FBI. This was also someone who was NOT also a source for Steele.
37/ @JamesComey sent the letter to the Hill concerning Hillary's emails after Fusion has reported espionage, election interference and the potential compromise of Trump to the FBI. (Tr. 178-179)
38/ Then the @nytimes reported that the FBI looked into Trump/Russia and found nothing. Simpson calls this cluster "a real Halloween special." (Tr. 178-179)
39/ And as a result, Steele stopped cooperating with the FBI. (Tr. 178-179)
40/ The FBI considered paying Steele to continue his work after the election, but did not. So all of this work by Steele was not on behalf of any US intelligence agency. (Tr. 214)
41/ And again, it's worth noting that this was not a hatchet job. No compensation to Fusion was conditioned on the FBI starting an investigation into Trump/Russia. (Tr. 217)
42/ After the election, Fusion was "obviously . . . as surprised as everyone else and Chris and I were mutually concerned about whether the United States had just elected someone who was compromised by a hostile foreign power . . ." (Tr. 219).
43/ " . . . more in my case whether the election had been tainted by an intervention by the Russian intelligence services, and we were, you know, unsure what to do. (Tr. 219).
44/ They went to John McCain in the hope that McCain would share it with the highest levels of the FBI. (Tr. 219-221)
45/ And then there is this explosive bit: Steele and Simpson weren't sure that @Comey EVEN KNEW ABOUT THE ALLEGATIONS. Which would explain a lot. An awful lot. (Tr. 220-221)
46/ Just so there's no mistake about it, Simpson stated: "I was aware at the time (mid-2016) that the Russian mafia and Russian cyber crime was a subcontractor to the Russian intelligence services." (Tr. 233)
47/ Disinformation was a part of Steele's business training at MI6. He did not believe anything given to him that became a part of the dossier was disinformation. (Tr. 239)
48/ Carter Page lost money with the Russians, was really mad about sanctions, and apparently had been an espionage suspect under investigation by the FBI FOR YEARS preceding the election. Jesus. (Tr. 240-242)
49/ And add to that: Fusion had reason to believe that Page had been offered business deals in exchange for being compromised. (Tr. 240-242)
50/ Simpson was a solid witness generally. Asked about claims by SHS that the dossier was phony and Fusion took money from the Russians, he gave a scathing defense of his work and the work of Steele, concluding with he dossier "is not a fabrication." (Tr. 256-257)
51/ And then the really crazy stuff came out. Simpson was handed Manafort's contemporaneous notes from the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting with the Russians. (Tr. 261-264)
52/ In those notes is a reference to a Cypriot holding company to engage in inward investment into Russia, the note "active sponsors of the RNC," Dick Cheney's press secretary, and finally, adoptions. (Tr. 261-264)
53/ But Cypriot holding companies, and "active sponsors of the RNC?" WTAF. There is something so deep and so corrupt here in the @GOP I'm nearly speechless. (Tr. 261-264)
54/ Fusion's conclusions were not influenced by the person paying them for their Trump research. (But Simpson did conclude on a personal level that Trump was unqualified for the job.) (Tr. 290-293)
55/ Fusion concluded that Trump had a long history of engagement in illegal activity with organized crime. (Tr. 293-294)
56/ More evidence of how good Simpson is as a witness. Asked about Fusion's investigations into the Trump Org in NYC, he denies direct criminal evidence of DJT the person being involved in crimes. The Trump Org of whom, of course, DJT is the head, is in deep. (Tr. 295-298)
57/ 49/ This is careful, careful testimony by this witness to preserve his credibility while still making his point, though Fox News will leap all over this as proof that DJT is not a criminal. The prior 295 pages of this transcript prove otherwise. (Tr. 295-298)
58/ Trump's golf courses are broke. (Tr. 299-300)
59/ And lastly, just in case you thought this wasn't as serious as it gets, one of Fusion GPS's sources has already been murdered by the Russians. (Tr. 279)
60/ Ok, people, thats it. It's a bombshell of a day in America. And if Trump isnt impeached after this, along with complicit members of the @GOP who have known this and tried to discredit Fusion and Steele and this dossier, there is no hope for our democracy. Period.
61/ @ChuckGrassley @TGowdySC @DevinNunes @Jim_Jordan @LindseyGrahamSC there is jail time in your futures, I suspect. #RESIST /end of thread
triron
(22,028 posts)Raster
(20,998 posts)continentalop2
(29 posts)I watched his full congressional testimony and was fascinated by that although I had some questions about some of the details and now reading this transcript brings up even more questions. What a strange scenario all around. It's like a spy novel but I feel like nobody is really unpacking and explaining what's going on with the whole Browder/Magnitsky angle.
Skittles
(153,236 posts)NO amount of SMEAR THE MESSENGER is going to work this time
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)I want to do it the justice it deserves. Gonna get a good night's sleep, read it in the morning, and read this thread for other ideas
flibbitygiblets
(7,220 posts)My shero... you rock, Madame
heaven05
(18,124 posts)For the Democrats to start showing some courage to stand up to REPTHUGLIKKKANS and their turd-in-chief. Yep Dinero started me to really understand what ameriKKKans really are calling a leader.