During the summerof 2016, Simpson said, he spoke with reporters about “allegedconnections between the Trump campaign and the Russians,” adding: “Someof what we discussed was informed by Chris’s reporting.” A lawyer forthe Republican members of the committee then presented Simpson with anaffidavit from Steele’s lawyers, which had been presented in a lawsuitfiled against Steele and his firm, and which said that, at the end ofSeptember, Steele, “at Fusion’s instruction,” had briefed journalists“from the New York
Times, the Washington
Post, Yahoo News,
The New Yorker, and CNN.”
The lawyer went on to quote the affidavit saying that Steele “subsequently participated infurther meetings, at Fusion’s instruction, with Fusion and the New York
Times, the Washington
Post, and Yahoo News, which took place inmid-October, 2016. In each of those cases the briefing was conductedverbally in person. In addition, and again at Fusion’s instruction, inlate October, 2016, (Steele) briefed the journalist from
Mother Jones bySkype.”
When Simpson was asked if the affidavit from Steele’s lawyer presented a“full and accurate account of all the news organizations with whichFusion and Mr. Steele shared information from the memoranda,” hereplied, “I’d say that’s largely right,” but added that he thought thebroadcast network was ABC News rather than CNN. The lawyer also askedSimpson if Fusion GPS had disclosed any hard copies of Steele’smemoranda to journalists. At this point, Simpson’s lawyer interruptedand said he wasn’t going to answer that question.
From Simpson’s perspective, it seems fair to assume, thesebehind-the-scenes media briefings didn’t have their desired effect. The
Mother Jones reporter David Corn was the only journalist to publish abig story based on Steele’s research before the election, and most ofthe mainstream media didn’t pick it up. On October 31st, eight daysbefore the polls opened, the
Times published
astory saying that the F.B.I. had been investigating Trump’s Russia connectionsfor much of the summer but so far hadn’t found “any conclusive or directlink between Mr. Trump and the Russian government.”
That is from The New Yorker. (A far left publication by the way!)
The newly released testimony of the Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson provides new details about the genesis of the infamous document.
www.newyorker.com
