Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley on Wednesday said he will hold a committee vote to release the transcripts of a 10-hour hearing with Glenn Simpson, the former reporter for the Wall Street Journal whose firm helped compile the infamous “dossier” about President Trump’s campaign team and Russia.
Grassley was put on the spot during a town hall meeting in Mount Air, Iowa, Wednesday when a man in the audience asked what he and his committee discovered during an all-day closed-door meeting with Simpson on Tuesday and whether they would share those findings.
“The answer is, it will take a vote of the committee to do it, but I presume that they will be released,” Grassley said, even adding later that he would “of course” call for the vote.
The Iowa senator warned the committee would have to give Simpson and his lawyer a copy of the transcript for them to look over before potentially making it public.
“First of all, it takes a long time for the court reporter to get it ready to go, but we’ll have to give it to them before the thing you’re asking me about can be done,” Grassley added.
Grassley said he expects to vote for the release of the transcript, but will need time to consider how to tread through this unprecedented political matter.
“I don’t know why I wouldn’t. But I don’t want to say so because I’ve never — in all the years I’ve been in Congress, well, I guess I’ve only been chairman of two committees, I’ve never gone through this process before. So I’m not going to answer your question until I get a firm footing of what the precedent is,” Grassley said.
Simpson, after leaving the Wall Street Journal then helped create Fusion GPS — a company that does political opposition research that hired former British spy Christopher Steele, who produced the “Russia Dossier,” Most of its claims have either been debunked, or are no longer taken seriously.
The chairman subpoened Simpson last month after he had refused to testify. Simpson later agreed to talk before the group of senators in a private setting on Tuesday.
Grassley said it may be of greater interest to the public to have former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., and Simpson testify on-the-record before his committee.
“But here’s what might happen as a result of this: We have not given up the possibility that we would have Simpson and Donald Trump Jr. And Manafort, it depends what comes out of the transcripts. There has to be an open session. That’s something we’re going to wait for until we get done,” Grassley finished.
Manafort and Trump Jr. made deals with the committee to also speak with them in private.
