{"id":31022,"date":"2018-01-10T12:40:02","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T20:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=31022"},"modified":"2018-01-10T12:40:02","modified_gmt":"2018-01-10T20:40:02","slug":"feinstein-spills-the-beans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2018\/01\/10\/feinstein-spills-the-beans\/","title":{"rendered":"Feinstein Spills the Beans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is not my favorite Democrat, as I have had trouble telling the difference between her and a Republican on more than one occasion.  However, when she gave Chuck "Snake in the" Grassley (R-IA) a Saguaro suppository by releasing the transcript of the Fusion GPS testimony, before the Senate Judiciary Committee she could not have been more patriotic.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"1010DiFi\"<\/p>\n

Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, defied her Republican colleagues on Tuesday to unilaterally make public a much-discussed transcript<\/a> of the committee\u2019s interview with one of the founders of the firm that produced a salacious and unsubstantiated dossier outlining a Russian effort to aid the Trump campaign.<\/p>\n

The interview, with Glenn R. Simpson of Fusion GPS<\/a>, provided few revelatory details about the firm\u2019s findings on the Russian election effort or on President Trump and his campaign. But both the circumstances of its release and the vivid picture it paints of Mr. Simpson\u2019s operation and his chief Russia investigator, Christopher Steele, provided fresh ammunition to both sides of a growing fight over the dossier.<\/p>\n

In his testimony, Mr. Simpson sought to portray himself as an astute researcher well versed in the Russian government and that country\u2019s organized crime. And he said Mr. Steele, the former British spy he hired to investigate the campaign\u2019s ties to Russia, had \u201ca Sterling reputation as a person who doesn\u2019t exaggerate, doesn\u2019t make things up, doesn\u2019t sell baloney.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Steele believed that his investigation had unearthed \u201ca security issue about whether a presidential candidate was being blackmailed,\u201d Mr. Simpson told the committee…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <NY Times<\/a>><\/font><\/p>\n

The transcript verified Democratic claims that "Snake in the" Grassley had been lying about the character and quality of Simpson’s testimony.  It also counters Republican attempts to paint Steele as an purveyor of fake news.<\/font><\/p>\n

Rachel Maddow<\/a> covered the story.<\/font><\/p>\n