Fusion GPS founders call on GOP lawmakers to release transcripts of bombshell testimony

Devin Nunes. — (Image credit: Getty Images)

In a New York Times op-ed titled "The Republicans' Fake Investigations," the founders of research firm Fusion GPS said they were setting the record straight regarding their testimony in front of three congressional committees about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and the Steele dossier.

The firm's founders, former journalists Glenn R. Simpson and Peter Fritsch, wrote that they explained how they were hired separately by The Washington Free Beacon and Hillary Clinton's campaign to investigate President Trump's business dealings. Simpson and Fritsch said they also told Congress how former British spy Christopher Steele was hired to look into Trump's "complex business past," and said they do not believe the dossier he compiled is what triggered the FBI investigation into Russian interference. "As we told the Senate Judiciary Committee in August, our sources said the dossier was taken so seriously because it corroborated reports the bureau had received from other sources, including one inside the Trump camp," they wrote.

Trump's allies in Congress have "dug through our bank records and sought to tarnish our firm to punish us for highlighting his links to Russia," Simpson and Fritsch said, and Republicans ignored their tips to look at the records of Deutsche Bank and other establishments that fund Trump's businesses. "Republicans have refused to release full transcripts of our firm's testimony, even as they selectively leak details to media outlets on the far right," they wrote. "It's time to share what our company told investigators." If those transcripts are released, it will help the American people "learn the truth about our work and most important, what happened to our democracy." Read the entire op-ed at The New York Times.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.