January 9, 2018

"Grassley blasts Feinstein for releasing Fusion GPS transcript."

Axios.

153 comments:

eric said...

Heavily redacted.

Because transparency.

stevew said...

It worked, didn't it.

-sw

Curious George said...

"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," spokesman Taylor Foy wrote in a statement."

That's a feature. Not a bug.

Vance said...

Gosh, Democrats sure love ruining investigations of their criminals. Funny, that. Kind of like sexual harassment is wrong, unless you are Bill Clinton or Bob Menedez. He's still in the Senate, isn't he?

--Vance

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Ooh. So now the Republicans can release Fusions bank statements. I want to know who is getting paid to publish articles.

Matt Sablan said...

Indict her if this is a crime.

Matt Sablan said...

She should be expelled from the committee and not allowed to sit on any hearing where privacy or secrecy are expected.

rehajm said...

So what's the punishment? Sanctions for her at least. Otherwise shut up and take it.

rhhardin said...

Throw her off the committee, revoke her security clearance.

Bay Area Guy said...

What's the standard? Is it acceptable to release a transcript to the press during an investigation or not?

rehajm said...

BTW, Axios is becoming a go to for me...

Sprezzatura said...

Ha.

What to do?

Complain that she gave away secrets (i.e. the Rs on the committee (like the one in the oval) are full of shit)? Or, complain that there were too many redacted lines in the document, such that we deserve to know more info?

Cool.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“So what's the punishment?”


As IF she didn’t get legal advice regarding releasing the transcript first, lol.

tim in vermont said...

Hey, come to find out that Strzok was leaking stuff to the Wall Street Journal just days before the election, and he is a counterintelligence guru! I like this. I am getting sick of the selective leaks of little fragments by both sides.

tim in vermont said...

Heavily redacted.

So another selective leak. 18 1/2 minutes of the testimony were excised, no doubt.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

Indict her if this is a crime.

It sounds like obstruction of Justice. Shes trying to interfere with the investigation even though she has the legal right to do it.

No more weird logic than firing Comey was obstruction.

Marty Keller said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Marty Keller said...

"As IF she didn’t get legal advice regarding releasing the transcript first, lol."

Guess Inka is secretly surveilling Sen. Feinstein. Be very wary, Dianne.

Original Mike said...

"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.”

Uh huh. Sure.

Who?

tim in vermont said...

MS. SAWYER: Thank you. We appreciate it.
And we appreciate you being here as part of the
investigation into the Russian interference into
the 2016 election.


We appreciate you being here as a part of our open-minded investigating whether this here murderer is a murderer.

readering said...

The Republicans have been leaking bits of the transcript to make their points. What't the big deal with releasing the whole thing when the person testifying is more than agreeable?

tim in vermont said...

I have a degree in journalism from George
Washington University...


AKA, “The Little Red Schoolhouse.”

Original Mike said...

"The Republicans have been leaking bits of the transcript to make their points."

Really? Have an examples?

Original Mike said...

an = any

Matt Sablan said...

The legal advice she got is probably "like they'd really do anything to you. Besides. You didn't intend to break the law. Right?"

Original Mike said...

"Fusion GPS head Glenn Simpson told Senate Judiciary Committee staffers in August that the FBI had independently received information from an Trump campaign insider that led them to find some of the allegations in former MI6 agent Christopher Steele's Trump-Russia dossier credible."

Why in the world would Judiciary need Simpson to "inform" them of this? They were talking directly to the FBI.

Original Mike said...

"When asked if he knew who the Trump campaign source was, Simpson declined to answer on the basis of "security, " adding, "There are some things I know that I just don't feel comfortable sharing because obviously it's been in the news a lot lately that people who get in the way of the Russians tend to get hurt.""

Uh huh.

StephenFearby said...

How do you like your perjury served?


Transcript of Glenn Simpson, Fusion GPS Senate Intelligence Committee Interview

August 22, 2017

Page 103, starting on line 19:

Q. Do any Fusion Employees or Associates speak Russian?

A. No. I'll qualify that. Depends on how you define associate. Edward isn't a subcontractor of the company, but he speaks Russian. He's a subcontractor.

Q. Aside from Mr. Baumgartner, do you have any support from Russian speaking individuals in reviewing the Russian documents?

A. Not in my company, at least that I can recall. There were other Russian speakers engaged by Baker Hostetler in various situations, like translators, Russian bilingual lawyers, that sort of thing.

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/politics/read-the-full-transcript-of-glenn-simpsons-senate-testimony/2700/


December 13, 2017

A co-founder of the opposition research firm Fusion GPS acknowledged in a new court document that his company hired the wife of a senior Justice Department official to help investigate then-candidate Donald Trump last year.

The confirmation from Glenn Simpson came in a signed declaration filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. ..."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/12/13/fusion-gps-admits-doj-officials-wife-nellie-ohr-hired-to-probe-trump.html


Fusion GPS statement on Nellie Ohr, reported by CNN on December 12, 2017:

"Fusion GPS frequently works with highly credentialed subject matter experts. Nellie Ohr is a widely-recognized scholar on Russia and the former Soviet Union. She speaks fluent Russian and holds a B.A. in Russian history and literature from Harvard and a PhD in Russian history from Stanford; she has been a Russia scholar at the Wilson Center and taught at Vassar College."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/12/politics/bruce-ohr-special-counsel/index.html


December 15, 2017
Senate Intel to interview Justice Dept. official with Fusion GPS ties

'A Justice Department official with ties to Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm behind the controversial Trump dossier, is expected to be interviewed Monday by the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to a source with knowledge of the interview.

Bruce Ohr had previously served in the deputy attorney general's office, but according to a source familiar with the situation, was demoted amid the discovery of certain meetings with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson and Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer who assembled the dossier.

Earlier this week, Simpson disclosed in an unrelated court filing that Ohr's wife, Nellie, worked for Fusion on "research and analysis of Mr. Trump," and that Simpson met with Bruce Ohr, "at his request, after the November 2016 election to discuss our findings regarding Russia and the election."'

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/15/politics/senate-intel-bruce-ohr/index.html

Just a co-incidence that Simpson couldn't remember Nellie Ohr's fluent Russian language qualifications.

Spaceman said...

Fusion GPS lawyer claims someone was murdered but can't say who. Knowingly withholding knowledge of a capital crime from justice authorities.

And a Brit felt it necessary to save America by going to the FBI, who shared information with the Brit that they also had information. FBI always does that.

And circumstantially he was getting paid by Hillary

Ray said...

Isn't Nellie Ohr the woman who applied for a ham radio license about the time "spying" on Trump and his people started? A ham radio cannot be monitored by the NSA

Pettifogger said...

What goes around comes around, and payback may sometimes be unpleasant.

Drago said...

With scheduled upcoming testimony by the dem Deep Staters it was important for Feinstein to get all that info out there so everyones lies could be properly coordinated.

Unexpectedly.

Original Mike said...

"With scheduled upcoming testimony by the dem Deep Staters it was important for Feinstein to get all that info out there so everyones lies could be properly coordinated."

I don't see any other reason for what she did.

wendybar said...

And they wonder why America doesn't trust them??

Sebastian said...

Dems are trying to get back control of The Narrative.

It won't work: the real collusion was between Hill, Fusion, Steele, the Russian operatives, and US "intelligence."

The collusion gambit was first an attempt to stop Trump, then, when the "insurance policy" didn't pay off, an attempt to stage a slow-motion coup.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Ray said...

Isn't Nellie Ohr the woman who applied for a ham radio license about the time "spying" on Trump and his people started? A ham radio cannot be monitored by the NSA

A ham radio can be monitored by anyone else who has a ham radio.

buwaya said...

"A ham radio cannot be monitored by the NSA"

Hmmm. rharding has a useful hobby, maybe.
Some sort of sonic encoding of encrypted signals.
Or code-blocks sent in Morse, using one-time pads, old school.

tim maguire said...

There's been a lot of disagreement over who benefits from keeping the transcripts confidential. Now well see who was right.

tim in vermont said...

So when this arrived it was also right around
8 the time I think -- Trump had said weird things
9 about the Russians and Putin and things that are
10 very atypical for a Republican and that people
11 found to be odd.


So Trump’s clear joke about Hillary’s destruction of evidence under subpoena is evidence that he was working with the Russians?

tim in vermont said...

I wrote some of the very first stories
17 about the Chinese government's interference in the
18 1996 presidential election which triggered a
19 massive national security investigation, numerous
20 prosecutions, lots of business for Bob Muse, and a
21 lot of congressional hearings, congressional
22 inquiries. And in that episode it was eventually
23 dug out by congressional investigations that the
24 fundraisers, the Asian fundraisers were Chinese
25 intelligence assets.


LOL, spit it out! Bill Clinton! They gave money to Bill Clinton, he put a trillion dollars worth of coal out of reach and gave China missile tech that threatens the US today!

Humperdink said...

Di-Fi is a real dope, or senile at age 84. Maybe a bit mentally unstable. She has now given the R's a blank check on releasing docs. Any docs they want, anytime they want.

If you want to know how stooopid she is, watch the video exchange she and Ted Cruz regarding Amendment #2. She came off as a blithering idiot.

Pettifogger said...

"tim maguire said...There's been a lot of disagreement over who benefits from keeping the transcripts confidential. Now well see who was right."

Given that Dianne Feinstein released the transcripts, Occam's Razor says the Democrats benefit.

M Jordan said...

“Di-Fi is a real dope.”

Can confirm.

tim in vermont said...

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.


LOL! Hey, what’s going on with that guy who tried to flee the country and who owned a money laundering operation, and who also had DWS’s passwords? Why didn’t DWS allow the FBI look at the servers?

So far, this is all a big nothing, he is repeating what he reads from Collusion Theorists and interjects it tangentially into his testimony if there is any possibly plausible interpretation that it backs up what is claimed in the “dossier.”

Crap, now I have to read the dossier! Oh well, I will finish this first.

tim in vermont said...

So the question by now of whether this was
6 Russia and whether this might have something to do
7 with the other information that we'd received was,
8 you know, the immediate question, and I think this
9 is also -- by the time this memo was written Chris
10 had already met with the FBI about the first memo.
11 So he's -- if I can interpret a little bit here.
12 In his mind this is already a criminal matter,
13 there's already a potential national security
14 matter here.


So Steele went to the FBI based on the first memo in the “dossier.” I might have to read that one before continuing.

trumpintroublenow said...

Seems like something the public has a right to see. What's the harm? I'm sure she wouldn't have disclosed it if she thought it impaired the investigation. That would make about as much sense as Trump firing Comey because he treated Hillary unfairly.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Was there a mole in Trump’s circle?

“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,” Simpson said. “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.”

Simpson would not say who the FBI’s source was, but confirmed that it was someone seperate from Steele’s own sources and said that, “It was someone like us who decided to pick up the phone and report something.”

Simpson later clarified that he wasn’t sure if the intelligence that the FBI had received had come from the Trump campaign or the Trump Organization (i.e. Trump’s businesses).

“[W]e did not have the detailed conversations where he would debrief me on his discussions with the FBI,” Simpson said. “He would say very generic things like, ‘I saw them, they asked me a lot of questions, sounds like they have another source or they have another source.’ He wouldn’t put words in their mouth.”


TPM

tim in vermont said...

Q. Of who Mr. Steele would have talked to at
the FBI.
A. I believe it was a [insert name of Clinton fixer here]
, an official named
24 [Clinton Fixer] .


Funny how that got redacted.

tim in vermont said...

Inga gets her cut and paste from a place called “Talking Points Memo”

Ha ha ha ha! No point reading it yourself Inga when there are other people to tell you what to think!

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Tim sweetie, there are several new organizations reporting this. I can go cut and paste a few more if you’d like.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Via The Washington Examiner:

The former British intelligence officer that authored the so-called Trump dossier was told the FBI had someone inside President Trump’s world giving FBI agents information.

“[M]y understanding was that they believed Chris at this point — that they believed Chris 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 in his testimony, referring to Christopher Steele, the dossier’s author.

Original Mike said...

Blogger Steve Uhr said..."I'm sure she wouldn't have disclosed it if she thought it impaired the investigation."

You have claimed to be a former DOJ prosecuter. With this comment, i no longer believe you.

tim in vermont said...

I'll add because I didn't consider this to
be -- you know, there was no objective here
politically because you can't -- in an ordinary
election I know from my decades of dealing with
U.S. elections that you can't expect the government
or the FBI to be of any use in a campaign because
the DOJ has rules against law enforcement getting
involved in investigations in the middle of a
campaign
and this was obviously -- you know, this
obviously became a huge issue.


That would be prior to Obama. Just sayin'

Inga...Allie Oop said...

And Timmy, since I’m not a spy or an investigative reporter and neither are you, we’ll have to get our info from news organizations, or you can go look at your crystal ball...

tim in vermont said...

Sure Inga, and they all have the exact same political biases as TPM. They probably all get their talking points from the same place you do. I will continue to read it myself, thank you.

tim in vermont said...

we’ll have to get our info from news organizations,

Actually, you can read it yourself. Nothing magic about it.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“They probably all get their talking points from the same place you do.”

The Washington Examiner is a conservative leaning news organization, dummy.

Original Mike said...

How does the FBI get off telling either Simpson or Steele that they have a source in the Trump campaign? This is either bullshit, or it's another example of FBI corruption.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

And Timmy, did you post a source for your cut and pastes?

Oso Negro said...

Blogger Inga said...
And Timmy, since I’m not a spy or an investigative reporter and neither are you, we’ll have to get our info from news organizations, or you can go look at your crystal ball...


He might be a double naught spy and you might be a government stooge.

tim in vermont said...

Director Comey sent his letter to Congress
8 reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton's
9 e-mails. That episode, you know, obviously created
10 some concern that the FBI was intervening in a
11 political campaign in contravention of
12 long-standing Justice Department regulation.


LOL, you mean interfering with at Democrat’s campaign, right?

So far, and I include the section Inga referred to, we have nothing but vague suspicions based on interpretations of Trump’s joke, and based on an assessment of the DNC hacking by CrowdStrike that has since fallen apart under examination, and based on claims of Russia hacking servers that the FBI was not allowed to examine, even though they were doing this VERY IMPORTANT investigation into Hillary’s opponent.

Whoever the source is that the FBI had in the Trump campaign seems to have transmitted nothing but vague suspicions too. More magic eight ball stuff, will all of the context stripped, which seems to be this guy’s specialty.

tim in vermont said...

did you post a source for your cut and pastes?

Feinstein’s redacted PDF.

Matt Sablan said...

"When asked if he knew who the Trump campaign source was, Simpson declined to answer on the basis of "security, " adding, "There are some things I know that I just don't feel comfortable sharing because obviously it's been in the news a lot lately that people who get in the way of the Russians tend to get hurt.""

-- Oddly enough, if we could trust people like Feinstein not to leak closed meeting transcripts, he shouldn't have felt any concern revealing that information.

tim in vermont said...

Sometime thereafter the FBI -- I understand
Chris severed his relationship with the FBI out of
concern that he didn't know what was happening
inside the FBI and there was a concern that the FBI
was being manipulated for political ends by the
Trump people and that we didn't really understand
what was going on. So he stopped dealing with
them.


LOL again.

Inga...Allie Oop said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Original Mike said...

"Sometime thereafter the FBI -- I understand
Chris severed his relationship with the FBI out of
concern that he didn't know what was happening
inside the FBI and there was a concern that the FBI
was being manipulated for political ends by the
Trump people and that we didn't really understand
what was going on. So he stopped dealing with
them."


Again, how does Steele know ANYTHING about what's "happening inside the FBI"?

I suspect he doesn't. The only real question is who is spinning this yarn; Steele or Simpson?

Thanks for doing this, Tim

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Inga said...

Was there a mole in Trump’s circle?

No. There was a drunk foreign policy "advisor", George Papadopoulos. According to WaPo he was the other source referenced by Steele, and either Simpson or Steele got the relationship between the source and the FBI wrong, or the FBI fed them inaccurate information.

n.n said...

if we could trust people like Feinstein not to leak closed meeting transcripts, he shouldn't have felt any concern revealing that information

Yes. Water Closet was a leak for spy/collude/deny/cover-up left-wing scheme. It's amazing how much traction they can get with a complicit Press and interested foreign and domestic parties.

tim in vermont said...

MR. SIMPSON: I think I was saying we did not
have the detailed conversations where he would
debrief me on his discussions with the FBI. He
would say very generic things like I saw them, they
asked me a lot of questions, sounds like they have
another source or they have another source. He
wouldn’t put words in their mouth.


Hmmmm....

Inga...Allie Oop said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Original Mike said...

"...this sounds as if it may be a different person inside the Trump circle."

Why?

Ignorance is Bliss said...

I should clarify: the FBI's source was an Australian diplomat, who had talked with the drunk Papadopoulous, and then told the FBI what Papadopoulous said.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

"...this sounds as if it may be a different person inside the Trump circle."

“Why?”

I’ve read that this person actually may have called the FBI and reported this, Papadopolous was arrested and then he started singing. That’s what makes it sound like it wasn’t Papadopoulos. WaPo is reporting it was Papadoplous according to Iggy above 8:33PM, so who knows who it really was? I guess we’ll find out one day.

Gk1 said...

Isn't it interesting that you can get an FBI investigation kicked off by a 28 year old, drunken blowhard puffing up his chest in a bar. What are the odds? I would think a BS dossier peddled by GPS Fusion would be a likelier catalyst.

Original Mike said...

"I’ve read that this person actually may have called the FBI and reported this,"

The Aussie diplomat.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Simpson would not say who the FBI’s source was, but confirmed that it was someone seperate from Steele’s own sources and said that, “It was someone like us who decided to pick up the phone and report something.”

Simpson later clarified that he wasn’t sure if the intelligence that the FBI had received had come from the Trump campaign or the Trump Organization (i.e. Trump’s businesses).

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“I’ve read that this person actually may have called the FBI and reported this,"

“The Aussie diplomat.”

Could be, but the Aussie diplomat was not in Trump’s circle. I don’t know if Steele was just assuming it was someone inside Trump’s circle or if he knew for sure.

Sam L. said...

It does kinda seem that the FBI has dirty, dirty hands...

tim in vermont said...

Again, at this time, you know, while we
21 believed that we had very credible reporting here,
22 you know, what we really -- we just wanted people
23 in official positions to ascertain whether it was
24 accurate or not.


Survey says! NO!

Still haven’t read anything new or incriminating here, just that Fusion was alarmed by public reports, never substantiated, that Russia had hacked the DNC, and yet the servers were not allowed to be examined, and nobody cares that a person who had access to everything was apparently involved in criminal activities and money laundering, and had been paid inordinate amounts of money by the DNC.

So it seems like a lot of vague associative stuff with no hard links. Yes, Russia tries to hack servers.

tim in vermont said...

I don’t know if Steele was just assuming it was someone inside Trump’s circle or if he knew for sure.

TPM may not have reported this section of the transcript that I quoted above, but here it is again.

MR. SIMPSON: I think I was saying we did not
have the detailed conversations where he would
debrief me on his discussions with the FBI. He
[Steele] would say very generic things like I saw them, they
asked me a lot of questions, sounds like they have
another source or they have another source. He
wouldn’t put words in their mouth.


So maybe it’s all a wild goose chase. looking for this. source inside Trump’s circle. Certainly, on further questioning, as I quoted here, he was a lot more equivocal as to whether there was some kine of MOLE, as Inga said, in the Trump campaign. The news story about the Aussie diplomate and the drunken ramblings of Popadopolis or whatever his name is certainly fit the testimony perfectly well.

Drago said...

It's pappadappydoppolous again.

That's all this is.

LOL

Meanwhile, Bruce Ohr keeps getting further demotions...LOL.

Not a smidgen of corruption. Not a smidgen.

And all you have to do is read the reports of Steele's hilariously walkback while under oath in the London courtroom where he had to be a lot more honest about how nothing he had was corroborated.

Literally, LITERALLY, the ONLY fake hoax dossier "claim" that has been corroborated was Carter Page went to Moscow, which everyone has known forever and Carter Page has told everyone since day one.

The funniest part? Steele couldn't even corroborate who Page met with, even though Page had already told everyone!!

LOL

Once again, if an oppo research firm comes to you and says we want you to collect garbage on an opposing candidate and we want you to call up Russians and offer them cash for info, I GUARANTEE the russians will continue to come up with whatever you want for as long as you want.....and for as long as you keep paying!

trumpintroublenow said...

The congressional political inquiries should be public so long as Mueller's investigation is not compromised. I'm pretty sure Senator Feinstein got his okay before releasing the transcript.

tim in vermont said...

The congressional political inquiries should be public so long as Mueller’s investigation is not compromised.

But Congress can go to Hell, right Steve?

Original Mike said...

The Simpson testimony sounds like, you know, amateur hour.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“And all you have to do is read the reports of Steele's hilariously walkback while under oath in the London courtroom where he had to be a lot more honest about how nothing he had was corroborated.”

When did Steele testify in a London court?

Link?

narciso said...

Steele had worked with bureaus agent gaeta on the fifa investigation, but none of those figures were involved here, j e dyer provided the details.

Simpsons statement is devoid of any proof and subsequent info has proven that he was in contact with the Russians he had denied.

narciso said...

Re the gubatev suit against buzz Fred, try to keep up.

Original Mike said...

Let's see Fusion's banking records.

narciso said...

gubarev, and buzzfeed, which Ben Smith is still vouching for: two words nick dentin.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian tech executive suing BuzzFeed News, is asking a federal judge for help in compelling the testimony of Christopher Steele, whose 35 page dossier of Trump research was published by BuzzFeed in January.

On Wednesday, Gubarev’s lawyers filed a motion in the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida asking the judge on the case, Ursula Ungaro, to submit a request for international judicial assistance with a court in London, where Steele lives and works.”

WHEN was the court date?

narciso said...

This should have been the end of it:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/apr/25/christopher-steele-admits-dossier-charge-unverifie/

narciso said...

And there were stories in August of this year:


http://dailycaller.com/2017/11/02/mccain-aide-who-handled-trump-dossier-is-accused-of-dodging-subpoena-in-buzzfeed-lawsuit

Inga...Allie Oop said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Inga...Allie Oop said...

Drago claimed Steele testified under oath in a London courtroom. Has the court date even happened yet? On what date did Stelle supposedly testify in a London courtroom? Or is Drago full of shit, as usual?

“And all you have to do is read the reports of Steele's hilariously walkback while under oath in the London courtroom where he had to be a lot more honest about how nothing he had was corroborated.
———————————-
“Mr Gubarev filed a libel lawsuit against Buzzfeed News for publishing its contents, part of which alleged that Russian agents pressured him to plant viruses and bugs, and steal data “altering operations against the Democratic Party leadership” during the 2016 US election.

He has denied these claims.

Now. Judge Ursula Ungaro of the US District Court in southern Florida has ruled that lawyers for Mr Gubarev can now ask permission of the UK government to question MI6's former Moscow-based charge on funding and source details of the dossier.

Valentin Gurvits, one of Mr Gubarev's attorneys, told ABC News he will likely be the first to speak with Mr Steele under oath.

"I know that he is trying very hard to prevent that from happening," he added. “

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/christopher-steele-us-court-ruling-trump-russia-dossier-british-spy-report-hotel-room-bed-a7904956.html

tim in vermont said...

OK, finished it, and there is nothing new in it but Simpson’s explanation of his meetings with the Russian lawyer.


So according to this, Steele was so upset about the golden showers thing, which is actually pretty funny, and might be true, IDK, I mean, they peed on the bed, not Trump, so “golden shower” is not really the correct terminology, and Trump’s joke about the fact that Hillary had deleted a shit-ton of evidence from the time, BTW, that she was taking many dozens of millions of dollars from Putin, and the fact that Russia conducts hacking activities, and bingo! Let’s sick the FBI on Trump, and make sure that the press knows we did it!

Of course he is always very clear to say that the Russians never really had anything on St Hillary! Not our squeaky-clean Hillary that Putin had paid scores of millions to!

Oh yeah, and the Russians gave the info to Trump at the Trump Tower meeting even though the “dossier” says that they had been feeding Trump compromising information on Hillary for FIVE FUCKING YEARS prior to the campaign!

I think the main thing that the Democrats get from this is to put another explanation behind the fact that Fusion met with the Russian lawyer both before and after the meeting at Trump Tower. He says she speaks no English and he speaks no Russian and the meetings were purely “social” having to do with the fact that she had hired Fusion before.

He could be lying, of course. I kind of feel like he might be, but that’s just a feeling from reading the whole damn thing.

Drago said...

Blogger Inga: "Drago claimed Steele testified under oath in a London courtroom."

Steele has provided written filings, testimony, under penalty of perjury, to the London Court where the libel case will be heard.

I'm sorry this confuses you, given that any lefty denying anything becomes "The Truth" to you....because....if it "feels right, it is right"!

The newest lefty "Fake But Accurate"!

It's about time you guys got a new one. The old one was getting...well...old.

Drago said...

It's unfortunate for the dems that they are running out of "slam dunk" guilty Trump collusion folks.

We've cycled thru about half a dozen now.

You should read the comments from Pappywappydappydopolous' girlfriend about what her FBI interview was like.

It was hilarious.

Drago said...

The reason Steele had to back off his nonsensical and laughable claims about Trump in his filings to the court is because now he is on the hook for telling the actual truth.

The actual truth is not very exciting to Inga, so she has decided to stick with the not-under-oath-just-spitballin'-here comments by Steele instead!

Because, and we can't say this enough of our lefty pals, "if it feels right, it IS right!"

Dan Rather smiles.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Steele has provided written filings, testimony, under penalty of perjury, to the London Court where the libel case will be heard.”

Ah, so you are full of shit. Being deposed is not testifying under oath “IN A LONDON COURTROOM”, now is it? I’d love to see the court filings, because I surely wouldn’t take your word or the word of your sources that he walked back his original report in the Dossier.

Drago said...

I can't wait until we can compare what Steele provided to the London Court and what he said to our very own FBI.

Let's hope there is not a scintilla of difference in those 2 "stories" because we know that lying to the FBI is frowned upon....unless you are a Clinton lacky.

In that case, you get pre-interview immunity, no one takes notes or records the interview, and you are allowed to destroy evidence!!

Good times, good times.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

I KNEW the case hadn’t been heard yet, LOL!

Drago said...

Keep hope alive Inga!

Mueller is closing in!!

This time for sure!!

Why, I'll bet this is nothing less than the 4,798th time in the last month alone that Trump is "nearing the end"!

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“I can't wait until we can compare what Steele provided to the London Court and what he said to our very own FBI.”

Why wait Drago, why don’t you just make it up? Tell us how he testified under oath in a London courtroom, BEFORE it even happened! LOL!

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Drago, thanks for the big laugh tonight, Nighty night!

Drago said...

Inga: "I KNEW the case hadn’t been heard yet, LOL!"

Inga thinks court filings don't count!

Feel free to lie to your hearts content!

Wow.

You are a real rocket scientist!

tim in vermont said...

After reading the whole thing, amateur hour sums it up pretty well.

Drago said...

While we are at it, we'll just pretend that depositions prior to trials don't have to be the truth either!

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Inga thinks court filings don't count!”

Nope, I didn’t say that at all. I know what a deposition is sweetie. What is ISN’T is “testimony in a London courtroom”, as you claimed. Just admit you were either lying or just mistaken. It’s OK.

Drago said...

I'm starting to understand why Hillary knew she could simply lie to the rubes like Inga and get away with it.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

You got caught with your pants down Drago, LOL!

Original Mike said...

"After reading the whole thing, amateur hour sums it up pretty well."

Don't forget to throw in a "you know".

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Oh you are so cute, trying to deflect furiously from your silly mistake. It’s OK just admit you were mistaken.

Drago said...

Nope, I didn’t say that at all. I know what a deposition is sweetie. What is ISN’T is “testimony in a London courtroom”,

LOL

Inga believes that depositions don't count if they don't occur in the physical location of the courtroom!

Why, I'll bet the lawyers and the judges involved don't even file their paperwork to the court! They probably just leave it in a suitcase on the subway!

I'm pretty sure Inga was a character on the original "The Paper Chase"!

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Inga is far too stupid to realize just how stupid she is. That's what makes her comments so entertaining.

Drago said...

Inga: "You got caught with your pants down Drago, LOL!"

Now Inga confuses me with a fully woke democrat lefty hollywood producer!!

Don't worry Inga, as long as I'm not caught with my pants down in a physical courtroom, it doesn't count!

Drago said...

exiledonmainstreet: "Inga is far too stupid to realize just how stupid she is. That's what makes her comments so entertaining"

Indeed.

I'll bet she thinks that if opposing counsel doesn't read the court filings IN the courtroom, they don't count!!

Huzzah! Steele is off the hook baby!

Drago said...

You know, now that I think about, since Hillary didn't "wipe her server",...like..."with a cloth"...IN a courtroom, how can we even begin to hold her accountable.

She probably wasn't within 5 miles of a courtroom when it happened! No wonder she is innocent.

narciso said...

Yes she's like Otto in a fish called wanda speaking of Belgian Aristotle and the London underground as a political movement. Btw you know who owns the independent a former?? kgb operative and oligarch named lybimov, who was expelled from the UK in 1971.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Inga believes that depositions don't count if they don't occur in the physical location of the courtroom.”

An oath is taken, yes indeed but a deposition happens as a part of discovery, silly man, it is not the testimony in a courtroom DURING the trial, as YOU stated.

“Overview. A deposition is a witness's sworn out-of-court testimony. It is used to gather information as part of the discovery process and, in limited circumstances, may be used at trial. The witness being deposed is called the "deponent."”

You and your silly friend Exiled are looking pretty ignorant at this point.

Drago said...

I'll bet Steele also employed the always useful and seldom discovered "finger crossed" method when providing his court filings, so any lies in the filings like, totally don't count!

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Uh, bonehead, most depositions are taken in the conference room of a law firm. They are still legally binding.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Uh, bonehead, most depositions are taken in the conference room of a law firm. They are still legally binding.”

You moron, no one said they weren’t.

Drago said...

Inga likes going down these rabbit holes so she doesn't have to confront Steele's walkback of his "confidence level" in the fake hoax democrat oppo research document.

Which is why Graham and Grassley forwarded their referral to the Justice department for review and determination if Steele was "inaccurate" in his statements to the FBI.

Those guys in the Senate Committee have clearly seen significant discrepancies.

But, you know, I'll bet than when Steele misrepresented the fake dossier to the FBI he was NOWHERE near a courtroom.

So it's all good....LOL

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“Inga likes going down these rabbit holes so she doesn't have to confront Steele's walkback of his "confidence level" in the fake hoax democrat oppo research document.”

Actually, I was just proving that you often are full of shit and assert things that are not true or greatly exaggerated. You do it daily and it was great fun catching you in the act. Pants down!

Drago said...

Come to think of it, when obama lied about keeping your doctor, he wasn't in a courtroom either!

I guess that means it wasn't a lie.

Good to know. Good to know.

tim in vermont said...

Oh yeah, and Simpson takes the position that the “dossier” was not paid for by Hillary, it was just that Steele is such a “boy scout” that was his term, that he wrote it up on his own time.

Of course, Hillary said, I mean perjured in her campaign filings that the payment to Fusion was for “legal expenses” which is clearly not the case, nothing Simpson describes doing for Clinton is anything other than a campaign expense, opposition research. And of course that money was paid to a foreign spy to go and listen to tales told by Putin spies, who were more than happy to share with him the intimate details of Putin’s business.

It would be interesting to know who it was that was claimed to have been killed. it would also be interesting to know the name of Steele’s contact in the FBI? Could it be the Zelig of this story, Strzok? IDK.

Drago said...

BTW, you cannot be a truely "woke" #MeToo activist if you don't tell your story in an actual courtroom.

That's the only way we have to know if something is true.

It's like, science, or something.

Drago said...

Tim at large: "Oh yeah, and Simpson takes the position that the “dossier” was not paid for by Hillary, it was just that Steele is such a “boy scout” that was his term, that he wrote it up on his own time."

Yep.

Hillary and the DNC (but I repeat myself!) pay Perkins-Coie. Perkins-Coie pay Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS hires Steele. Steele does what he has to do to get Putins pals to provide the necessary lies.

And in the end? All the dems claim no one was actually paid and besides, working directly with Putin's pals to generate dirt on a US Presidential candidate and then injecting that foreign BS into our campaign is TOTES COOL!

Do you know how I know it's totally cool?..........Because they did it all outside a courtroom!!

tim in vermont said...

The whole thing looks like CYA and whatever you do, don’t say anything bad about Hillary. Of course, he did throw in the part about the huge sellout of her Husband to the ChiComs in 1996, but he managed to keep her name out of it! Good doggie!

narciso said...

This guy,


Http://news.com.au/world/europe/russian-spy-oleg-erovinkin-linked-to-donald-trumps-dirty-dossier-found-dead-in-moscow/news-story/2f09fe637d692769d260d1f3fd603ddd

Now of course they had mark riches firm glencore, handle the deal as well as the Qatari investment trust and an Italian bank. Santipaolo.

tim in vermont said...

All the dems claim no one was actually paid and besides,

That’s right! Enough shell corporations and it’s all Inga approved and collusion disappears!

narciso said...

Odd in the 90s , Chinese inteligencevgives money to the ckintons, and the Chinese improve thief missiles range and accuracy. In the 00s, Russians give money to Hillary and their rockets exported to north Korea, improvevtheir range and accuracy, coincidence I'm sure

tim in vermont said...

“Erovinkin’s body was sent to the FSB morgue”.

Probably as a part of their “assassination quality control” protocol.

Original Mike said...

Simpson: "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."

I love that "honest work".

tim in vermont said...

The “dossier” is a hoot too. I love the part where Trump has moles, with an ’s,’ in the DNC!

Drago said...

Original Mike: "I love that "honest work"

Hey, he didn't say it in a physical courtroom so his lie doesn't count!

tim in vermont said...

Actually, Simpson doesn’t say that Steele did the dossier on his own, but that he went to the FBI on his own, but then he stopped talking to the FBI because he thought that Trump had compromised them.

LOL, Moles in the DNC, compromising the FBI before he is even president! Maybe he really is playing 12 dimensional chess!

chickelit said...

The dossier needs to linger; It needs to fester; It needs to become well-associated with the party of Feinstein. I suspect that's exactly what she doesn't want.

Achilles said...

The Democrat party is going to spend the entire Summer watching their leaders and apparatchiks get indicted.

2018 is going to be glorious.

n.n said...

So, basically, the DNC denied a woman, Clinton, the vote, in favor of the black man, Obama. After Obama's turn, Clinton felt entitled to the Democrat nomination. To the extent that the Obama/Clinton/DNC axis denied the nomination to the Jewish man. Unfortunately, Deep Plunger, a disenfranchised Democrat insider, decided that the conspiracy had progressed too far, and he chose to expose rabid diversity at the DNC and axis factions.

The reason for Water Closet and the cover-up was because this time a Republican candidate was favored in the election, and eventually won. This is twice that Clinton was denied what she believed was her entitlement.

So, Obama spied on the Republicans, Clinton colluded with foreign (e.g. former British intelligence, post-coup government in Kiev, and disgruntled Soviet agents) and domestic (e.g. Fusion GPS) parties, and DNC denied the vote to a Jewish man, followed by a multi-trimester cover-up lead by The Washington Post, The New York Time et al that was intended to influence the election, and, if elected, to abort the Republican president.

It will be a neat trick if they can get away with this grand collusion.

In any case, we now know the order of leverage exploited by national and international left-wing interests: black, feminist, secular Jewish.

Yancey Ward said...

I scanned the entire document trying to figure out exactly what it was that Feinstein wanted made public, and decided the one item they wanted public was the death of a Russian aid to Selchin who is being "called" Steele's source, by many so-called pundits, for the the Page meeting even though not a single bit of evidence has been seen that this guy was a source to Steele, including from Steele himself.

I am guessing that later today you will see multiple articles going up discussing how the dossier has to be true because some guy in Russia died under mysterious circumstances- a guy no one has yet definitively declared to be a source for Steele. I am willing to bet that the Democrats are looking high and low for mysteriously dead Russians to call Steele sources right about now. It should be hilarious.

Etienne said...

Speaking of Axios...

They have this policy of sending little pixel packets and they use these to track your movements on their site. If you get email from someone linking an Axios page, they will know you opened the email.

Most of us have selected "Do not track" in our browsers. Yes, well, Axios doesn't care. They track you anyway. It's in their privacy policy.

Reminds me of the woman who said no, so the man raped her. Doesn't no mean no?

I feel so dirty now, having followed that link. I may have to take a bath and scrub my genitals.

Yancey Ward said...

Believing that Steele was told there was a source from within the Trump Campaign by the FBI reveals one of two things- (1)Simpson was lying during his testimony or relaying a lie told to him by Steele, or (2) the FBI was already running a corrupt investigation at that point- otherwise who would tell Steele such a key piece of information? The existence of such a mole would be a closely held secret. I am willing to bet no such mole exists outside of Glenn Simpson's wishful thinking.

Yancey Ward said...

My overall impression of the testimony is this- it is damning to GPSFusion and Simpson- especially given what we have learned since August. There are a number of people who are going to testify to Congress in the next few weeks who will have to try to align their testimony to Simpson's- probably one of the reasons Feinstein published it- but they will have major problems in doing so since Simpson evaded and refused to answer so many key questions.

One of the major things I noted was how Simpson answered the question about having clients who paid the firm to get a government investigation started- he dodged it heroically, but this is the key question at hand- what was he told to do by Coie-Perkins? This goes to the other major thing from his testimony- he somehow forgot to mention Nellie Ohr when asked a pretty direct question about hires with her particular skill set. One strongly suspects that he was trying to hide her involvement because of her direct line to Bruce Ohr and the DoJ. The really funny thing about the Ohrs is this- the leak about Nellie Ohr's involvement with GPS was almost certainly leaked by the Democrats or GPS since it came just before GPS lost their request for an injunction over their bank records- the jig was up and they got ahead of the story.

tim in vermont said...

Yancey, I agree. It’s one thing to read the whole thing, it’s another to read it in the context of what we know now, and clearly there were times he was hiding stuff, looking for ways to sound like he was answering the question while not really answering it.

I also think that it is funny that he said that Steele went to the FBI out of a sense of professional duty, but when the FBI didn’t seem to be handling it the way he would have preferred, and when they even seemed to be turning on Hillary on account of, well, the obvious crimes she had committed, he stopped talking to them.

Who the hell does Steele think he is deciding what the FBI should do with his information, and clamming up to them because they seem to be investigating his paymaster.

tim in vermont said...

Oh, and Simpson found the fact that Trump went to Moscow four times and never came away with a deal highly suspicious. And he claimed that Putin had offered Trump at least four deals that were sweetened by corruption in order to compromise him, and Trump didn’t take any of them. What the fuck was up with Trump not dipping his beak in Moscow corruption!

FIDO said...

The message she is sending is clear 'you will not be protected, your testimony will scuttle your career, and if you want to talk HERE is the Narrative and the talking points which will give the Republicans no traction.'

She is trying to scare, shame and cover the other witnesses. This was a classless, short sighted and culturally destructive action to defend ONE horrible politician whom even the Democrats are finding...inconvenient if not blatantly disliked.

Now she has made it necessary for the Republicans to make these people more scared of them than the Democrats.

What might be done? Jail terms for unhelpful witnesses. I think Lois Lerner might have a leak very soon. Rampantly destroyed careers with K Street getting memos that there are people who are poison to hire, at least for the next four years.


And if the midterms go wobbly for the Dems? They are trying to run out the clock until they have a 'friendlier' Senate.

Here is the problem. It is actions like this which have lead the Democrats to only have a thirty seven percent approval rating.

More than 54 percent find them untrustworthy. When you consider that Democrats are something like 30 percent of the population...this is bad. REALLY bad!

Stunts like this aren't going to help.

Seeing Red said...

As Insty says now they know what to say.

Publish the bank records.

wildswan said...

Thanks Tim.

Based on what you isolated out I now think that Glenn Simpson, reporter, found some interesting leads suggesting Bill Clinton-China corruption back in the Nineties and these leads led to a Congressional investigation which showed that there had been payoffs. So then in the 2016 election someone came to Glenn Simpson, oppo-researcher, and said? anyhow came to him and asked him to dig up dirt suggesting Trump-China corruption. He only had to find suggestive leads and then the government - FBI, Congress - would take over. His track record would make such an investigation, based on his suggestive leads, plausible. So he is guilty in his own mind of doing nothing but looking and the FBI/Congressional/media axis is guilty of doing nothing but investigating what a sharp reporter is turning up as it did once before under the Clintons. That is what he wants people to think and that is what the FBI/Congressional/media axis wants people to think. But this time around Simpson was not a sharp reporter, he was a paid dirt-digger with a sharp shovel. The FBI/Congressional/media axis should have distinguished the situations. That little blurry bit where no one distinguishes is the corrupt bit.

wildswan said...

And also note that the FBI is claiming that they believed Australian intelligence, not Simpson, the dirt-digger. But then they used Simpson. So they all - Simpson, FBI, Australian intelligence - have deniability though this "deniability" is like a bikini. It's more of a revelation than a cover-up. Bikini wearers know what they are doing but I have a feeling that Simpson and the FBI expected a Hillary presidency to act as burka over this bikini. They never expected to wear it in public and have the whole beach commenting on those ... revelations.

Fritz said...

Original Mike said...
Let's see Fusion's banking records.


That seems a fair trade for revealing all of Simpsons testimony. Let's see where the money came from and went.

Spaceman said...

Might as well read the fabled dossier

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-10/here-full-35-page-report-alleging-trump-was-cultivated-supported-and-assisted-russia

BUMBLE BEE said...

What we need is Clara Peller to ask Mueller... "WHERE'S THE BEEF?"
Blogger Ray has a fascinating comment there. Who do you think may have ratted Nellie out?
I'm just sayin. Nellie's license is right there on the FCC page.
That is why this blog is TOPS!