Diane Feinstein releases Fusion GPS Testimony (regarding Steele's Dossier)

[Vekseid]

The full document can be found here.

One interesting snippet:

Page 174-175

Q. You said that he told you of the meeting with the FBI in Rome in mid or late September, that he "gave them a full briefing"?
A. A debrief I think is what he probably said, they had debriefed him.  I don't remember him articulating the specifics of that.  You know, my understanding was that they would have gotten into 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 had other intelligence about this matter from an internal Trump campaign source and that -- that they -- my understanding was that they believed Chris at this point -- that they believed Chris's information might be credible because they had other intelligence that indicated the same thing and one of those pieces of intelligence was a human source from inside the Trump organization.

Page 279-280

      MR. FOSTER: ... Did you take any steps to try to assess the credibility of his sources, his unnamed sources in the material that he was providing to you?
       MR. SIMPSON:  Yes, but I'm not going to get  into sourcing information. 
       MR. FOSTER:  So without getting into naming  the sources or anything like that, what steps did you take to try to verify their credibility?
       MR. SIMPSON:  I'm going to decline to answer that. 
       MR. FOSTER:  Why? 
       MR. LEVY:  It's a voluntary interview, and in addition to that he wants to be very careful to protect his sources.  Somebody's already been killed as a result of the publication of this dossier and no harm should come to anybody related to this honest work.

Page 299-300

        Q. And in general can you share what findings and conclusions you reached? 
    MR. LEVY:  With regard to? 
    MS. SAWYER:  To the work on the golf properties.
    BY THE WITNESS:
         A. A number of them don't make any money.  His valuations of the properties are questionable.  I guess those would be the main findings. 

312 pages, so there's a rather lot in here.

[Regina Minx]

OK. I've read the entire Fusion GPS (FGPS) transcript. All 300+ pages of it. And I'm going to summarize for you. This is going to very loose, very stream-of-consciousness.



The Transcript is the full transcribed testimony given by Glenn Simpson, founder of Fusion GPS, to select members of the Senate committee investigating Trump-Russia. Testimony was taken in August of 2017, and the questioning parties were delegates of Senators Chuck Grassley and Dianne Feinstein. The way it worked is that the Republicans' representatives got to ask Simpson questions for an hour, then the Democrats got him for an hour, then alternating until they ran out of questions.

The alternating hours was a battle of two conflicting narratives between Grassley's representative's and Feinstein's representatives.

Spoiler: Grassley does not look good.

Grassley had one goal on his mind: discredit Simpson, Cristopher Steele, and their work. They started off by suggesting that FGPS might have been paid to spark a criminal investigation of Donald Trump:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Most of Grassley’s agents questioning can be summed up like “Who’s paying you? Are you doing this just to stir shit up? Are you the leaker? Who’s paying you? Why are you doing this?” This all goes nowhere, and the conversation only advances when Feinstein’s agents start questioning.

FGPS is not political. They are not paid to turn up dirt. They are journalistic and investigative researchers. They are paid to find the truth. This frustrated Grassley’s people:

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Simpson testified that he started to get a whiff of something wrong way before he ever hired Christopher Steele:

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FGPS was doing standard oppo research on Trump and they found a lot of shady money trails starting in or running through Russia.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

FGPS started to notice other stuff, like light numbers on Trump’s business tax filings. For a guy who claimed that he was worth billions, it didn’t look that way when it came time to pay taxes:

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So by early 2016, FGPS saw that Trump had some shady connections which he lied about and seemed to say he was worth more than he seemed to be worth on paper. This is not a big revelation.

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They brought in Christopher Steele. FGPS hired him in May of 2016 and gave him a job: find out what you can about Trump’s dealings in Russia. Not “dig up dirt.” “See what you can learn about him.”

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One of the questions Steele drew up for himself to answer was this. Trump went to Russia a lot. But he never got any business deals done there. So what was he doing in Russia?

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FGPS weren’t expecting to find ties to the Russian government. They wanted to see what they could find on the guy who knows shady people connected with the Russian mob who goes to Moscow:

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I have to stress that reading this is frustrating, because every time someone from Grassley’s side came on, they would start trying to impugn FGPS, only to get stuff like this:

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And then it flips back to Feinstein, and we get to the meat of things. Like this ribeye steak:

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“The information was just sitting out there.” Steele didn’t have to dig. He made calls. People knew. They talked to him. Russian election interference was not a secret in Russia. And how about this: Steele wrote two memos. The first memo laid out how it was widely known that Russia was working to interfere in the election on Trump’s behalf, and Steele took this to the FBI before he wrote the second memo, the one published by Buzzfeed:

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Why did Steele go to the FBI? You’re going to love this.


He was worried that Trump was being blackmailed. He wasn’t trying to hurt Trump: he thought Trump was a victim.

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In July of 2016, Steele had begun giving the FBI the findable intel on the Russian efforts to help elect Donald Trump. And why?

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Obligation. Citizenship. Moral duty.

Anyway, after going to to FBI, Steele kept digging. Sometime around October, the FBI called and was like “you got anything else?” And Steele turned over the second memo, and the GBI believed Steele because Steele’s research confirmed what they had already heard.

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

“…a human source from inside the Trump organization.” What does that mean? Not even Simpson knows. Someone in the Trump organization…and that could mean his company, or it could mean his campaign…picked up the phone and called the FBI. Someone else from inside the Trump organization, whatever that means, gave the same information to the FBI that Steele put in his second dossier.

Then Comey announces the new Clinton investigation:

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And Simpson and Steele are now wondering if they were right to take this to the FBI at all. Then the NY Times runs a story in which the FBI states that there is no link between Trump and Russia, which FGPS knows to be false, and it suddenly looks like someone in the FBI is carrying water for Trump:

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Steele became concerned that the FBI was not acting in good faith, and he cut ties and refused to provide them any more information. Grassley tried to pain him as a dirty operative trying to seed disinformation for doing so. But in between these suggestions from Grassley is a lot of boring shit in which Grassley’s people ask Simpson about who he eats dinner with and whether his wife is there and I’m going to spare you the torture of even having to skim this.

Back to the search for truth. FGPS and Steele began briefing media outlets in September, including the NY Times. The same Times that ran a story on 10/31 clearing Trump:

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Let that one sink in. The New York Times had begun to receive off-the-record briefings on Trump’s shady dealings and the influence Russia was expending to elect Trump, and how the FBI knew this and was pursuing it…and they wrote a piece exonerating Trump anyway.

OK now we’re up to November, and Steele and Simpson saw Trump win after they had blown the whistle. Needless to say, they had lost faith in both the FBI and the NY Times at this point:

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When FGPS is contacted by John McCain. McCain had heard about FGPS and their work and wanted to know what they knew so he could inquire with the FBI:

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Simpson and Steele debated whether or not they could trust McCain, but they ultimately decided they would.

Throughout this entire testimony, Grassley’s team only asked about FGPS, their connections and their motivations. And no matter how many times those questions were asked and answered, they just never accepted that the simple answer they got was the truth:

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So that’s the summary of the transcript. I’ve glossed over a lot of repetition, and there is other minor shit, but here’s where I stand.

I’m more depressed about this than anything I’ve ever read. This is the descent of the Republican Party into something that’s beyond partisan. It’s sick. Steele and Simpson learned crucial information and had no obligation to act…and had reasons not to, in fact…but motivated only by their own values and concerns, they placed themselves in harm’s way to ring the alarm bells. Yet Glenn Simpson sat before representatives of the Senate, speaking candidly about a systemic attack on our election, and Republicans didn’t ask him a question about that. Not one. NEVER in the entire 300 pages.

Instead, they tried to discredit him, his motivations, at every turn.

I feel like I witnessed a murder. The victim was the very notion that Republicans care about country over party.

After reading this, I can’t even say that I believe that Republicans care about this country at all

[Mithlomwen]

I feel like I witnessed a murder. The victim was the very notion that Republicans care about country over party.

After reading this, I can’t even say that I believe that Republicans care about this country at all

I'm right there with you.  The entire thing makes me literally sick to my stomach.  The amount of apparent coverup and attempted mis-direction by the entire GOP....is just staggering. 

[Trieste]

The lawyer, Levy, appears to be on the ball. I have, like, a lawyer-crush.

Q. Has Fusion GPS ever had arrangements with clients in which the amount of Fusion's compensation was dependent on government agencies initiating an investigation?

Really? I mean, really?

Also lol at "What kind of general case did you meet your Russian expert on?" "It was something involving Russia." (Pg 34)

[Regina Minx]

Another release of testimony by Simpson of Fusion GPS. This time from his testimony before the House. Clicky on image-y



Fair warning: this took like 5 minutes to load for me, so just be patient.

[Trieste]

I got a 404 not found on that link. Doesn't appear to come up on doc search. Was it pulled?

[Oniya]

I'm not getting anything more recent than June that looks like it has anything to do with the Russia Investigative Task Force.  Anyone know what date Simpson testified before the House?

[Vekseid]

Here it is on Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/document/369471843/Simpson-House-Intel-Trans

[Regina Minx]

I'm not getting anything more recent than June that looks like it has anything to do with the Russia Investigative Task Force.  Anyone know what date Simpson testified before the House?

Part 1

Part 2

[TheGlyphstone]

I recently saw a diatribe/rant from someone who insisted the existence of the Steele Dossier was proof the FBI had attempted a coup to throw the election in favor of Clinton. My brain promptly 404'd and rebooted an hour later.

[Regina Minx]

I recently saw a diatribe/rant from someone who insisted the existence of the Steele Dossier was proof the FBI had attempted a coup to throw the election in favor of Clinton. My brain promptly 404'd and rebooted an hour later.

Wait. A research firm is hired by a Republican newspaper to perform opo research on Trump. They subcontract to a British spy who has contacts with and expertise on the Russian government. And this means the FBI is attempting to coup Trump?

[TheGlyphstone]

Wait. A research firm is hired by a Republican newspaper to perform opo research on Trump. They subcontract to a British spy who has contacts with and expertise on the Russian government. And this means the FBI is attempting to coup Trump?

I did say it broke my brain when I saw it.

[Oniya]

Wait. A research firm is hired by a Republican newspaper to perform opo research on Trump. They subcontract to a British spy who has contacts with and expertise on the Russian government. And this means the FBI is attempting to coup Trump?

Yeah, someone needs to break out Occam's poop knife - erm - Occam's razor to that load of crap.