Hey Chuck Grassley, where the hell are those Trump-Russia dossier transcripts?
On occasion I’ve been accused of having a little too much faith in Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. I don’t actually trust him to do the right thing. I simply trust him to be so egotistically self-important that he’s unwilling to let anyone or anything stand in the way of his committee’s Trump-Russia investigation. In this instance I’ve got to call Grassley out for not being a man of his word, or at least being a slow man of his word.
About a month ago, Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS testified in private before the Senate Judiciary Committee. His company hired former MI6 agent Christopher Steele to craft what would end up being known as the Trump-Russia dossier, most famous for its “Pee Pee Tape” assertion, but also notable for connecting a number of dots when it came to collusion between Russia and The Trump campaign. When a constituent asked Senator Chuck Grassley during a town hall whether he’d be willing to release the transcripts of that testimony, his meandering answer was basically “yes.”
So where the hell are these transcripts already? Grassley had a point when he explained that before the transcripts could be released, Simpson himself would need to sign off on their accuracy. But Simpson said long ago that he was fine with the idea of the transcripts being released, so there’s no reason to believe that he’s the one dragging his heels. Grassley simply has to put it to a vote before his committee, and best anyone can tell, that vote still hasn’t happened.
There are some potentially valid explanations as to why these transcripts still haven’t seen the light of day. Perhaps Special Counsel Robert Mueller stepped in and informed Chuck Grassley that releasing the transcripts could interfere with his investigation. But it’s been a month since the Senator told us that he wouldn’t stand in the way of their release. At this point he owes us all an explanation as to why it hasn’t yet happened.
