![]() Simpson said that it was Steele’s decision to take what he had discovered to the FBI in early July, explaining that the former MI6 officer felt a sense of responsibility. Steele has said he reported his concerns to the FBI in the summer of 2016. Chairman Devin Nunes recused himself from the inquiry in March after Trump tweeted that Barack Obama had "tapp my phones" and Nunes, in an apparent attempt to defend the president, revealed that some communications involving Trump aides had been intercepted by US surveillance programs. Riven by partisan conflict, the committee appears to be on track to produce two reports – one from each party. ![]() ![]() But the committee has deferred to Mueller in the investigation of Paul Manafort and has interviewed fewer witnesses than others. Hampered early on by partisan disagreement about the scope of its investigation, the committee has interviewed top witnesses including Donald Trump Jr and has taken a particular focus on the firing of James Comey. The committee notably heard testimony from James Comey after the former FBI director was fired. But Burr has also said the committee was not focused on “criminal acts” but a larger picture. ![]() Republican chairman Richard Burr of North Carolina said in October that the question of potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives remained open. The most aggressive of the three committees so far, with a reasonable appearance of bipartisanship. The list of witnesses to have been interviewed so far is long, and includes Donald Trump Jr and Jared Kushner, as well as lesser figures such as former adviser Carter Page Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of Fusion GPS, which commissioned the Steele dossier and Ben Rhodes, the former Obama adviser. The committees have the power to subpoena witnesses and documents. Three separate congressional committees are investigating Russian tampering in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign: the Senate judiciary and intelligence committees, and the House intelligence committee. He said that Steele did not rely on this source for his work with the firm. It was someone who decided to pick up the phone and report something.” He added: “I think it was a voluntary source, someone who was concerned about the same concerns we had. Simpson cautioned that he was paraphrasing Steele’s account, and added: “we did not have the detailed conversations where he would debrief me on his discussions with the FBI.” “He honed in on this issue of blackmail as being a significant national security issue,” Simpson said. Steele had been compiling the dossier during the 2016 presidential campaign and approached the FBI, according to Simpson, because “he thought from his perspective there was an issue – a security issue about whether a presidential candidate was being blackmailed”. ![]() Papadopoulos is cooperating with the ongoing federal investigation into the Trump campaign as a part of a plea deal that he reached with prosecutors after admitting he lied in his first interview with the FBI. However, a person close to the matter suggested Simpson had got some details wrong about the human source during his evidence session in August and was actually alluding to the role of George Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, who shared knowledge of the Russian hacking of Democratic party emails with an Australian diplomat. Simpson said that this information was drawn from Steele after the FBI “had debriefed him” that fall. Steele was concerned “that the FBI was being manipulated for political ends by the Trump people and that we didn’t really understand what was going on”.Feinstein’s decision to make the transcript public renews a fierce debate about transparency surrounding the whole Russia-collusion investigation.Įlsewhere in his 312-page testimony, Simpson told the senators that “an internal Trump campaign source” or “a human source from inside the Trump organization” had reported his or her concerns to the FBI. The dossier – compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele – makes an allegation that there was a “conspiracy of cooperation” between Russian agents and the Trump campaign, and the president has frequently scorned it since its publication last January.Īccording to the transcript, Simpson told Congress that Steele, the former British spy, stopped sharing information with the FBI just one week before the US election because of concerns that the law enforcement agency was being “manipulated” by Trump insiders.Īccording to Simpson, Steele “severed his relationship with the FBI” after the New York Times published a story in late October 2016 that said agents had not found “any conclusive or direct link between Mr Trump and the Russian government”. ![]()
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