Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson used his six-hour interview with the House Intelligence Committee in November to defend the crafting of the now-infamous opposition research dossier on Trump and Russia and detail the suspicious connections his firm found between the Trump world and Russia.
Simpson’s interview was released by the committee on Thursday following a unanimous vote to make it public. The transcript sheds new light explaining the work Fusion GPS and ex-British intelligence agent Christopher Steele did investigating real estate deals from the Trump Organization and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, connections between the Trump world and Russian oligarchs and the possibility that the Russians had blackmailed Trump, which is what prompted Steele to go to the FBI with the dossier.
At the same time, Simpson acknowledged that he wasn’t convinced at the time a “specific crime had occurred,” though he told lawmakers he thought it was possible there was a “crime in progress.”
“I’m an ex-journalist, so I’m not really in a position to prove that anyone’s engaged in a crime. I mean, you know, sometimes you do find proof of criminal activity in an investigation, but more often than not you find things that are suggestive or raise questions.”
Simpson said that in retrospect, the “wide-ranging conspiracy” described in the memos by Steele resembles the “well-established patterns of surreptitious contacts that occurred last year” that have since surfaced.
The release of the 165-page transcript of Steele’s interview, one week after California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein unilaterally published her committee’s interview, is unlikely to change minds over the partisan fight that’s broken out about the dossier and how it was used by the FBI in its investigation of Trump and Russia.
But there’s plenty of fodder for both sides to point to, as the dossier continues to be a focal point in the congressional investigations into Russia.
California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, said the transcript reveals “serious allegations that the Trump Organization may have engaged in money laundering with Russian nationals.”
Simpson “testified that if the Trump Organization did engage in money laundering with the Russians, it would be with the knowledge or approval of the Kremlin and constitute powerful leverage over the President of the United States,” Schiff said. “Thus far, Committee Republicans have refused to look into this key area and we hope the release of this transcript will reinforce the importance of these critical questions to our investigation.”
But during the testimony, Republicans questioned whether the allegations Simpson was making actually had evidence to back them up.
“With all those things that we talked — that you talked to Adam (Schiff) about — we never really got to the fact part. Is that true?” GOP Rep. Tom Rooney of Florida asked Simpson. “Or do you feel like with your investigation that you made the conclusion that you think that those things are true — or not that you think that they are, but they are true?”
“It’s a great question,” Simpson responded, explaining that he felt the research showed a crime could have been occurring.