President Trump slammed Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday over her decision to release a 300-page transcript from the Senate Judiciary Committee’s interview of Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson.
“The fact that Sneaky Dianne Feinstein, who has on numerous occasions stated that collusion between Trump/Russia has not been found, would release testimony in such an underhanded and possibly illegal way, totally without authorization, is a disgrace,” the president tweeted.
“Must have tough primary!” he added of Feinstein, 84, who announced her bid for re-election last October.
The California Democrat published the transcript from Simpson’s interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday afternoon after growing frustrated with “the innuendo and misinformation circulating about the transcript,” she said in a statement accompanying its release.
“The only way to set the record straight is to make the transcript public,” Feinstein added, accusing her critics of pursuing “a deeply troubling effort to undermine the investigation into potential collusion and obstruction of justice” by Trump and his campaign associates.
Simpson, who had urged Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, to make his testimony available to the public, commended the California senator on Tuesday for “her courage” in acting unilaterally to fulfill his request.
Meanwhile, Grassley accused Feinstein of dodging protocol since “neither the special counsel, nor any other congressional committee, has released transcripts of private interviews in the course of their investigations.”
Simpson’s firm Fusion GPS was behind a now infamous dossier of allegations against then-candidate Trump during the 2016 election. In the testimony released Tuesday, the firm’s lawyer Joshua Levy claimed that someone has already died as a result of the document. Levy refused to identify the individual by name.
Trump reiterated his disapproval of the ongoing Russia investigation on Wednesday, referring to it as “the single greatest witch hunt in American history.”
“There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes,” the president tweeted. “Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control!”
