Fusion GPS Testimony: ‘Somebody’s Already Been Killed,’ FBI had Source in Trump Campaign
“He wants to be very careful to protect his sources.”
Ranking Judiciary Committee Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) released the closed testimony of Glenn Simpson, a founder of Fusion GPS, which produced the dossier in 2016 of then-candidate Donald Trump, along with his attorney Josh Levy. From The New York Times:
“The American people deserve the opportunity to see what he said and judge for themselves,” Ms. Feinstein said. “The innuendo and misinformation circulating about the transcript are part of a deeply troubling effort to undermine the investigation into potential collusion and obstruction of justice. The only way to set the record straight is to make the transcript public.”
Fusion GPS hired former British spy Christopher Steele to compile the dossier. The company received funding from failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign along with the DNC.
It caught fire due to it’s supposed revelations about a Russian effort to work with the Trump campaign to win the election. Republicans have lashed out at the dossier, claiming the contents are unsubstantiated and the FBI used this information to start a Trump-Russia investigation.
The document Feinstein released is about 312 pages, but here are a few interesting tidbits.
First off, it appears someone has already died because of the dossier. From Fox News:
Among the many revelations in the document, though, is the claim from Simpson’s attorney that someone died because the dossier — which was commissioned by Fusion GPS — was publicly released.
“He wants to be very careful to protect his sources,” attorney Josh Levy said during the Aug. 22 Senate Judiciary Committee interview of his client. “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.”
Levy didn’t elaborate on who was killed. The website BuzzFeed first published the dossier online last January, airing its unverified allegations about President Trump’s connections with Russia.
He did not specify on the person, but former KGB general, and one in its successor FSB, Oleg Erovinkin was found dead in his car in December 2016 in Moscow. He helped Steele develop the dossier.
Simpson and Steele also discussed about turning over their findings to the FBI, but Simpson did not know anyone. Steele said he knew someone:
“In any event, he said, ‘Don’t worry about that, I know the perfect person, I have a contact there, they’ll listen to me, they know who I am, I’ll take care of it,’” Simpson recalled.
Steele also told Simpson the FBI had “an internal Trump campaign source,” he said.
“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,” Simpson said of the FBI.
Simpson, a journalist before forming Fusion GPS, also admitted in the interview being opposed during the election to Trump becoming president.
“I think it’s safe to say that, you know, at some point probably early in 2016 I had reached a conclusion about Donald Trump as a businessman and his character and I was opposed to Donald Trump,” Simpson said.
Simpson applauded Feinstein’s decision to release it, but she did so without the aid of Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassleu (R-IA), who initially rejected Simpson’s request to publish his testimony. From Politico:
“It’s totally confounding that Senator Feinstein would unilaterally release a transcript of a witness interview in the middle of an ongoing investigation – a witness that Feinstein herself subpoenaed last year for lack of cooperation,” said Grassley spokesman Taylor Foy. “Feinstein’s unilateral decision was made as the committee is still trying to secure testimony from other witnesses, including Jared Kushner. Her action undermines the integrity of the committee’s oversight work and jeopardizes its ability to secure candid voluntary testimony relating to the independent recollections of future witnesses.”
Grassley and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) asked the DOJ last week to investigate Steele because they believe he made false statements to the FBI concerning his talks with news outlets about the dossier.
Former FBI Director James Comey told a House panel in March that the dossier was filled with “salacious and unverified” allegations against Trump and those who worked with him.
Back in November, Byron York reminded everyone that the FBI has not verified the information in the 35 page dossier. The House Intelligence Committee has become frustrated by testimony from FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe since he did not provide them with more information on the dossier and contradicted testimony of former witnesses.
McCabe told the panel that the FBI worked hard “to verify the contents of the anti-Trump ‘dossier’ and stood by its credibility.” However, he could not tell the lawmakers if “the bureaur has been able to verify the substantive allegations in the dossier, or even identify a substantive allegation that has been corroborated.”
The lawmakers asked him which part of the dossier was true and McCabe only pointed to the part “that the unpaid, low-level Trump foreign policy advisor Carter Page visited Moscow in July 2016.”
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“…The transcript was released over the objections of Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley who is investigating the role of Fusion-GPS and their “Steele Dossier” in the 2016 DOJ/FBI surveillance operation of presidential candidate Donald Trump…”
This makes DiFi a Traitor…Again!
Oops.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/01/09/senator-dianne-feinstein-releases-transcript-of-glenn-simpson-fusion-gps-testimony-full-pdf/
Good reading there above.
“….suspected that Feinstein gave up her Senate Intelligence Vice-Chair position, following the election, because there was an inherent political risk for any oversight Democrat in relation to the FBI’s Trump Operation.
“…Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was sharply critical of Feinstein’s decision to release the transcript without consulting with him first.
“It’s totally confounding,” said a Grassley spokesman, Taylor Foy. “Her (DiFi) action undermines the integrity of the committee’s oversight work and jeopardizes its ability to secure candid voluntary testimony,” such as from Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law.
There is a transparency of political activity at work….
IBIB.
So, another leak—it’s still a leak even if we know who leaked it. A spoiler attack, an innoculation against some shitstorm the Dems know is about to break over them. And, as a bonus, it destroys the concept of a closed testimony.
This may be DiFi’s last leak. She may soon be shame-walked in orange jumpsuit and bracelets post-hast!
Yeah a Russian was killed because Putin was pissed that somebody was manufacturing bullshit that was interfering with him blackmailing Hillary.
Feinstein clearly expects bad news re the Trump/Russian collusion story so is trying to get the story these slander merchants out as if it were true. Juan Williams made it clear today that Dems take the position that the dossier is now proven all true because of this self-serving testimony (that McCabe was unable to verify a single feature other than Carter Page went to Russia. Which is what Russian energy specialist do).
Touche!!!!!!
I’ve seen the meme before …
”Many Bothans died to bring us this information.” — Mon Mothma
… clearly cultural appropriation
This is complete and utter B.S. There is nothing linking Oleg Erovinkin to this dossier except for a couple of shady characters taking advantage of what may be a complete coincidence.
People in the ruling circles of Moscow have plenty of reason to bump each other off for reasons having nothing to do with Trump.
And if Simpson wanted to be careful with his sources the last thing he’d want is to have DiFi release the transcripts of his and his attorney’s closed-door testimony. This stinks to high heaven. Grassley should refer all three, DiFi, Simpson, and his attorney, for criminal investigation.
Agreed.
But what is this about the Google CEO quitting on the day of a key Trump Announcement of RICOing corrupt people…..?
And now its coming out not only did Google contribute to Hillary’s 2016 run – massively, but Google also designed and implemented Hillary’s IT for her websites? (Schmidt told Hillary he wanted to be her biggest advisers….. Hmmmm……)
Also Google’s firm of Crowdstrike investigated Hillary’s “computer hacking” – but refused to turn over her computers? Is that all correct that I’ve heard??????
Hillary’s Silicon Valley friends: Now Google boss Eric Schmidt revealed to have designed Clinton’s website – and Mark Zuckerberg asked for help getting into campaigning
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3852140/Hillary-s-Silicon-Valley-friends-Google-boss-Eric-Schmidt-revealed-designed-Clinton-s-website-Mark-Zuckerberg-asked-help-getting-campaigning.html
Be careful about accepting the testimony of known liars.
It’s like a giant chess game, making your move before your opponent can move into a specific position.
AND, what else is going on outside this little podunk meeting? What if Feinstein has some form of cancer and expects to die or retire permanently sometime in the next 6 months? What if she’s attempting to cover up someone else’s moves. Guess we won’t know without more information….but now everyone can synchronize their lies.
“AND, what else is going on outside this little podunk meeting? What if Feinstein has some form of cancer and expects to die or retire permanently sometime in the next 6 months?”
oh puh-lease, my dreams never come true like that.
IBIB.
Leaked emails reveal Hillary Clinton’s campaign had Google founder Eric Schmidt leading a team to develop what would become the campaign web site
Internal memo reveals Google founder led team to develop ‘back-end’ of the web site, emails obtained from hack of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta show
Effort also included plan to ‘raising lots of money’ and creating ‘excellent’ content
Schmidt also headed effort to store credit card information, accept donations, and get email addresses
‘Working relationships’ with Google, Facebook, and Apple touted following ‘discreet conversations’
Plan to exceed $115 million in incremental online donations due to tech ‘evolutions’
‘Work being done by Eric Schmidt’s group’
Other emails show Facebook big Sheryl Sandberg wrote John Podesta in August 2015
She said Mark Zuckerberg was keen to meet Podesta to discuss issues
Podesta is Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager and one of her top aides
Zuckerberg was ‘hungry to learn’ how he could influence public policy
I don’t see what objective this achieves or moves the ball towards – it makes FBI look even worse.
Perhaps it’s meant to chill future testimony. If you believed that your closed-door testimony would eventually leak out to the press (or just be released by one of the committee members), wouldn’t you be more circumspect during your turn?
Now they are claiming that somebody “in the Trump Network” came to the FBI before Steele ever did.
Bet it turns out to be Bill Kristol. Or Egg McMuffin.
$10 bucks says Simpson claims Seth Rich was his operative. It’s not like Rich is in a position to dispute it, and it’s exactly the kind of shitty thing Simpson would do: turning a victim of his into a martyr.
And not a person asked who, when and why?
Somebody has been killed because of the GPS Clinton Russian document because the GPS Clinton group says so. Just as the Russians hacked the DNC server and the FBI says no we did not have the ability to investigate it but the DNC Clinton IT guy says so.
Call me a skeptic…
Calk it up to another Arkanscide.
https://www.arkancide.com/
We know Hillary is behind it.
The former British spy who compiled a dossier of allegations about Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia brought the document to the FBI in July 2016 because he was worried about “whether a political candidate was being blackmailed,” according to a congressional interview transcript released Tuesday.
After the Billy Bush Access Hollywood video, does anybody think the Russians were blackmailing Trump.
I don’t even believe “Billy Bush!”
This leak seems desperate. You can almost see them sitting around a table and throwing out ideas of what they can do to cram this genie back in the bottle. This info is so damaging that the best they can do is to “get it out there” first and try to spin it as best they can. That’s not a good sign. It starting to be a free fall now.
Feinstein has reset the bar in favor of transparency. As with Harry Reid’s decision on the filibuster, Republicans can now do the same. The fact that federal agencies often take months to comply with congressional orders makes me think congress has little real power anyway; or at least they are afraid to use it.
What are you talking about? Feinstein hasn’t “reset the bar in favor of transparency;” Feinstein has “reset the bar” in favor of undermining the investigation. The whole point of taking testimony behind closed doors is to encourage candor, which can only be done away from the media circus of public testimony.
Here are two ways, off the top of my head, that Feinstein has undermined the integrity of the investigation. Anything a potential witness might have said in a closed door session might not now be said under any circumstance, given the witness knows Feinstein and others can leak with impunity.
Also, other potential witnesses who know how that fake dossier was used can now get their stories straight since they know what Simpson and his attorney said behind closed doors.
Why would the Republicans want to “follow suit” and undermine their own investigation?
Of course she’s going to leak bits and pieces of this thing–the Dems care for nothing but the naked acquisition and abuse of power to achieve their ideological ends.
“Here are two ways, off the top of my head, that Feinstein has undermined the integrity of the investigation. Anything a potential witness might have said in a closed door session might not now be said under any circumstance, given the witness knows Feinstein and others can leak with impunity.
Also, other potential witnesses who know how that fake dossier was used can now get their stories straight since they know what Simpson and his attorney said behind closed doors.”
Arminius the Wise.
More like, “Arminius, reading from the Book of Obvious.”
It’s apparent that DiFi knows this Russian collusion thingy is a dry well. At least as far as the Trump campaign is concerned, since all the collusion with Putin is on the Dem side.
And she has to know that Mueller isn’t coming up with anything either. No doubt the Dems on Capitol Hill are colluding with the Hillary donors that Mueller stocked up on.
Grassley is said to be “confounded” that DiFi would release this testimony in the middle of their investigation. All the transcripts, he said, would be released eventually.
Eventually doesn’t serve DiFi’s, and by extension the rest of the Democratic party’s, interests. The Dems have real crimes to distract attention from and cover up.
These transcripts are sort of the Swiss Army knife of monkey poo; they’re so multi-purpose there’s almost nothing they can’t do, as long as they’re flung at the wall NOW!
A dossier-related death? … obviously, it was Chuck Barris