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President Trump

What follows is the Senate Judiciary Committee's interview of Glenn Simpson, the head of Fusion GPS, a research firm that was retained to perform an investigation of then-candidate Donald Trump, and the Committee's review of a series of memoranda detailing intelligence collection activities in support of Fusion GPS' mission.

Before diving in, it's important to become familiar with some terminology to better understand the researchers' world.

Kompromat

At the heart of all of this is the concept of kompromat, which is a Russian word for blackmailable information that can be used for the coercion of an individual or group. According to memoranda provided by Christopher Steele, working on behalf of Fusion GPS, Russians had alerted the Trump Campaign to the existence of kompromat intelligence on Bill Clinton and on Hillary Clinton separately, and the Trump Campaign was eager to receive it. — This is what made headlines in the US.

Separate reporting by Steele also stated the Russians had significant kompromat on Donald Trump himself, recounting lurid activities at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow and other sexual activities in St. Petersburg.

While we're here, we should talk a bit about the FSB, a Russian state intelligence organization which collects this kind of information. The FSB, among other state intelligence organizations, originated from the Committee of State Security — the KGB — in the days of the USSR. The FSB is the Federal Security Service, which is responsible for surveillance, internal and border security, and counterterrorism within Russia. The FSB was the primary actor mentioned in connection with Russian kompromat activities.

The Dossier

Steele's reporting occurred in a series of memoranda to Fusion GPS. These memoranda were leaked to Buzzfeed and mischaracterized as a "dossier" of intelligence. A link to the leaked memoranda appears at bottom.

These memoranda were the reason Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS volunteered over nine hours of testimony to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee last August. Released this past Tuesday was the 312-page transcript of that testimony.

I happened to have a minute, so I read it for you. You're welcome.

What is Fusion GPS?

Fusion GPS is the name of a research company formed by Glenn Simpson and other investigative journalists formerly of the Wall Street Journal.

Fusion GPS is typically contracted by companies to investigate issues of concern with potentially litigable outcomes, like being hired to investigate why that company failed to win a contract they felt they should have won. (In fact, Fusion GPS was collecting research regarding a Russian company called Prevezon when they were commissioned to research Donald Trump. Simpson characterized Prevezon as a victim of extortion.¹ The case made national news.² ) Fusion GPS is also hired, particularly during political seasons, to do oppositional research on political candidates. Simpson claims the company is itself politically neutral, suggesting that they'd been hired at times by each party to perform investigations on candidates of the other. (Reporting from The Washington Post suggests the research on Donald Trump was initially funded by a "GOP megadonor" before lawyers from the DNC retained Fusion GPS to continue the research.)³

Fusion GPS' research, asserts Simpson, is open-ended, meaning that there is no predefined end game for the research itself — conclusions are drawn from the result of the research. With respect to their research on Donald Trump, the objective was simply to investigate whether his business dealings were legitimate, and whether he was representing himself honestly.

Fusion GPS conducts its research primarily, or initially, through open-source means. In the case of Donald Trump, Simpson said his first steps involved ordering every book on Donald Trump from Amazon. Other open sources include public filings and other information obtainable through Freedom of Information Act requests.

If additional research is needed, the company may contract with certain knowledgable and trusted third parties to obtain additional intelligence on specific topics. For example, if Fusion GPS became particularly interested in Donald Trump's golf courses in Scotland, they might send somebody to Scotland to investigate the courses — not necessarily sharing that the actual objective is an investigation into Donald Trump.

The testimony for the Senate Judiciary Committee was centered on information obtained by Christopher Steele, a subcontractor to Fusion GPS, and the reporting (memoranda) he provided.

The Research

Fusion GPS initially discovered connections between Mr. Trump and various crime organizations.

I found various references to [Trump] having connections to Italian organized crime and later to a Russian organized crime figure named Felix Sater.⁴ ... As it happens, Felix Sater was connected to the same Russian crime family that was at issue in the Prevezon case.⁵ ... I saw that Donald Trump was in business with Felix Sater in the Trump SOHO project and a number of other controversial condo projects.⁶ ... We learned that Felix Sater had some connections with [alleged Kazakh money launderers], and it's been more recently in the media that he's helping the government of Kazakhstan recover this money. There's been media reports that the money went into the Trump SOHO or into the company that built the Trump SOHO.⁷ ... Another figure involved in the Trump SOHO project was a Central Asian person named ARIF... if you search under a different transliteration of that name you can find open source reporting alleging that he's an organized crime figure from Central Asia and he's had an arrest for involvement in child prostitution.⁸

This research gave rise to bringing Steele aboard to "see what he could find out about Donald Trump's business actiities in Russia." ⁹

Simpson noted he was shocked at the reports Steele filed:

So the purpose of this was to see if we could learn more, generally speaking, about [Trump's] business dealings in Russia. What came back was something... very different and obviously more alarming... which outlined a political conspiracy and a much broader set of issues than the ones we basically went looking for.¹⁰

The Memoranda

Alarming it was. The combined reporting from Steele laid out a shocking story of corruption and deceit:

• Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting TRUMP for at least 5 years. Aim, endorsed by PUTIN, has been to encourage splits and divisions in western alliance
• So far TRUMP has declined various sweetener real estate business deals offered him in Russia in order to further the Kremlin's cultivation of him. However he and his inner circle have accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin, including on his Democratic and other political rivals.
• Former top Russian intelligence officer claims FSB has compromised TRUMP through his activities in Moscow sufficiently to be able to blackmail him. According to several knowledgable sources, his conduct in Moscow has included perverted sexual acts which have been arranged/monitored by the FSB.
• A dossier of compromising material on Hillary CLINTON has been collated by the Russian Intelligence Services over many years and mainly comprises bugged conversations she had on various visits to Russia and intercepted phone calls rather than any embarrassing conduct. The dossier is controlled by Kremlin spokesman, PESKOV, directly on PUTIN's orders. However it has not yet been distributed abroad, including to TRUMP. Russian intentions for its deployment still unclear ¹¹

This was just the first memorandum, dated June 20, 2016.

A second memorandum, dated July 26th was titled "RUSSIA/CYBER CRIME: A SYNOPSIS OF STATE SPONSORED AND OTHER CYBER OFFENSIVE (CRIMINAL) OPERATIONS."¹² The memorandum included:

A former senior intelligence officer divided Russian state-sponsored offensive cyber-operations into four categories (in order of priority): targeting foreign, especially western, governments; penetrating leading foreign business corporations, especially banks; domestic monitoring of the elite; and attacking political opponents both at home and abroad. The former intelligence officer reported that the Federal Security Service (FSB) was the lead organization within the Russian state apparatus for cyber operations.¹³

Quick recap. In these two reports alone (there was a total of 16), we've learned:

• The Russians are actively conducting cyberattacks against foreign governments, banks, and political targets;
• The Russians had compiled a kompromat dossier on Fmr. Sec of State Clinton at President Putin's direction;
• The Russians had snared Donald Trump in his own, particularly lurid kompromat which could be used as blackmail;
• Donald Trump had been receiving intelligence from the Kremlin on his rivals, and receiving other support and assistance from the Kremlin since 2011.

But wait! There's more! Subsequent reporting set the actual date of Mr. Trump's collusion back to at least 2008, and offered greater detail:

...an intelligence exchange had been running between [TRUMP and PUTIN] for at least 8 years. Within this context PUTIN's priority requirement had been for intelligence on the activities, business and otherwise, in the US of leading oligarchs and their families. TRUMP and his associates duly had obtained and supplied the Kremlin with this information.¹⁴

The interview also makes mention of Paul Manafort, and his relationship with Russian and Ukranian oligarchs, and much ado about Michael Cohen, who was basically Mr. Trump's "fixer" for all things Russian. The intel Steele provided stated "a key role in the secret TRUMP/ Kremlin relationship was being played by Michael COHEN." ¹⁵  Furthermore, "COHEN engaged with Russians in trying to cover up scandal of MANAFORT and exposure of PAGE" — this was damage control — "in the attempt to prevent the full details of TRUMP's relationship with Russia being exposed." ¹⁶  Lastly, former Gen. Flynn was identified in one of the memoranda naming political figures receiving indirect support from the Kremlin on recent trips to Moscow. ¹⁷

The full transcript of the Senate Judiciary Committee interview may be found here.
The memoranda referred to during the interview may be found here.

Conclusion

First and foremost, I'm grateful to Sen. Feinstein for releasing the transcript to the public. I'm also grateful to Buzzfeed for publishing the leaked memoranda because it allowed me greater insight into some of the context of the Senate Judiciary Committee interview, helping me to understand the controversy.

This entire chapter in the history of our nation is written on pages I wish I could tear out. In the last elections, many Americans were looking for a departure from politics as usual. Our democracy is now run by a man who has been providing intelligence to Russia for at least 10 years under threat of blackmail.

Our nation is living our worst Cold War nightmare.

Footnotes:
¹ “Read the full transcript of Glenn Simpson's Senate testimony.” Apps.washingtonpost.com, The Washington Post, 25 Jan. 2018, apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/politics/read-the-full-transcript-of-glenn-simpsons-senate-testimony/2700/, p.114.
² See https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-crime-prevezon/u-s-settles-russian-money-laundering-case-idUSKBN18904I
³ See https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/01/09/what-you-need-to-know-about-christopher-steele-the-fbi-and-the-dossier/
⁴ “Read the full transcript of Glenn Simpson's Senate testimony.” Apps.washingtonpost.com, The Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2018, apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/politics/read-the-full-transcript-of-glenn-simpsons-senate-testimony/2700/, p. 67
⁵ ibid., p. 68.
⁶ ibid., p. 69.
⁷ ibid., p. 296.
⁸ ibid., p. 298.
⁹ ibid., p. 74.
¹⁰ ibid., p. 143
¹¹ "Trump Intelligence Allegations", retrieved 1/26/2018 from https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3259984-Trump-Intelligence-Allegations.html.
¹² ibid., p.4. The memo was erroneously dated 26 July 2015 instead of 2016.
¹³ ibid., pp. 4, 5.
¹⁴ ibid., p. 11
¹⁵ ibid., p. 30
¹⁶ ibid., p. 32. "PAGE" refers to Trump Campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page, whom was believed to be an easy target for Russian subversion.
¹⁷ ibid., p. 16.