Five surprises in Glenn Simpson’s testimony
Glenn Simpson
Well, it took a couple of days, but I finally managed to read through Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson’s 312-page testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Thank you to Sen. Dianne Feinstein for releasing this information last week over the objections of Republicans. Sen. Feinstein said the American public deserve to make up their own minds. Couldn’t agree more. You can find the testimony here.
So I thought I would pick things that jumped out at me from Simpson’s testimony:
1. An internal source in the Trump Organization was providing the FBI with information about Russian collusion.
Simpson learned this from Christopher Steele, the former British spy he had hired to investigate Trump’s links to Russia. Steele’s findings, including the scandalous scene in the Moscow Ritz, were so alarming that he took his findings to the FBI. The FBI told Steele, yes, we’ve heard something similar from our internal Trump source. Simpson refused to answer questions about who this source might have been, but this source was not one of Steele’s source. Huge bombshell. (p. 175)
2. Someone has been killed as a result of Steele’s reports.
Simpson’s lawyer, Josh Levy, drops this on p. 279. “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,” he says. Curiously, nobody challenges this, which makes it seem an accepted fact. Maybe they were all just tired after 9 hours of questioning. The person is not named, but presumably it’s someone in Russia. Otherwise, it would be a bigger deal, right?
3. Felix Sater is connected to Russian organized crime kingpin Semion Mogilevich This connection has been alleged in a Supreme Court petition filed in 2012 by lawyers Fred Oberlander and Richard Lerner to unseal Sater’s criminal case. The Website Deep Capture made the same claim, but the sourcing wasn’t very strong, as did two New York attorneys in court filings. (Update: Sources I’ve spoken to led me to doubt this claim.) (p.69)
4. Chris Steele broke off talks with the FBI in part because of a story in The New York Times. This was the infamous Halloween 2016 story that reported that an FBI investigation of Trump found no ties to Russia. The Times story and FBI Director James Comey’s bizarre decision to reopen the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s email made Steele concerned that the FBI was being manipulated for political ends by Trump’s people. (p. 178).
5. Bill Browder’s comical efforts to hide from Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson.
This isn’t a single event. It’s more like a pattern. Maybe Simpson is a liar as Browder says or maybe Browder doesn’t like anybody nosing around in his business practices in Russia. Read it for yourself and see what you think pp 40-48.
Hi there Seth,
I printed out the testimony and have it in a notebook just waiting to open it, with your page numbers as a guide, it’s now open!
Regarding #2: I think I know who was killed, and others who have either been killed or who will certainly be a Russian prison and probably killed.
I read, shortly after the Dossier was released on Buzzfeed, in the NYT, nowhere near the front page, that a guy had been found dead in his car. Also, I saw this confirmed in Collusion. A few days ago Jake Tapper mentioned this guy but said they fact checked it and THAT guy was killed 2 months before the Dossier’s release.
But I don’t believe it. I think he was found dead right after the Dossier’s release. Also, remember that guy who was dragged out of a high level security meeting in Russia — they put a black hood over his head? That guy, and 2 others were arrested very soon after the Dossier’s release.
I saw this confirmed in Collusion too. I had a strong feeling that Putin was going to flip his lid when the Dossier was released. I was literally waiting to hear of a murder in response. I thought it was going to be Christopher Steele, but it wasn’t. It was his sources. I theorized that Putin was thinking “damn it, I didn’t want Trump to know I had this information, I wanted to let him know on my terms” — just theory, but that is the way I saw it.
That guy who was dragged out with the hood over his head will probably never be heard from again, and I would imagine no one in Russia ever talks about it either. I think the Congressmen were too scared to ask more when Levy said that.
Back to your notes …
It’s hard to know for sure. It’s possible Putin may have known about the dossier long before we did. Or perhaps not. Simpson may know something we don’t. Too many variables.
Tell me you aren’t dying to know who that human source is inside the Trump campaign who went to the FBI.
Seth,
Most of the time when I thought of Trump’s ties to Russia, I have always thought the only person who will be hurt by the exposure of such ties is Trump and his cronies — but in reality, the stakes are much higher.
As you know Alexander Litvinkno was killed be/c Putin knew he knew of Putin’s ties to the mafia, and the Apartment bombings. Most Russians believe Putin was behind the Apartment bombings, but they don’t speak it, but only in the most hushed tones, if at all. Too risky.
(Luke Harding’s book “A very Expensive Poison”)
If Trump gets exposed, I mean really exposed, so unambiguously that the American public actually believes the evidence — Putin goes down in tandem.
What I’m doing here, perhaps unsuccessfully, is trying to substantiate why I think the Congressman did not ask any follow up questions, but as I write I remember your book will be about Trump’s ties to the Russian Mafia.
I guess I’m saying — be careful Seth. Be careful.
Yv