fusion g.p.s. and you see all the things that have happened from bruce or and nellie or being part of that organization then you have the fact that they were having secret meetings approved or had secret meetings with the people at fusion g.p.s. with glenn simpson and of course with christopher steele the one who planted the fake russian dot ca it is absolutely incredible why the justice department is not putting a special prosecutor on robert mueller to investigate iranian one n. fusion g.p.s. is beyond all recognition i can't even imagine why that is not happening the only thing i can think of is maybe jeff sessions is compromised in some respects you know richard way in there i mean these are i mean it at the very least these are uncomfortable things that have been revealed that have been during the election in the transition here i mean the fact that you have a high ranking member of the f.b.i. his wife is working for fusion g.p.s. i mean that is just extraordinary i mean we have and it took qu

steele was hired by fusion g.p.s. to research mr. trump's alleged ties to russia. his work was funded by the democratic national committee and the clinton campaign. now, remember, it took a subpoena and a court battle with the house intelligence committee to force that fact out into the open. lawyers for the democratic national committee and the bill clinton campaign officials denied it to the press for months. in other words, they lied. the founder of fusion g.p.s. denied that his firm was, quote-unquote, democratically linked. that, too, was untrue. when the news finally broke, "new york times" reporters actually complained that people who knew better had flat-out lied to them about who funded mr. steele's dossier. but back before the 2016 election, it is unclear who knew that steele was gathering dirt on trump for the democratic national committee and for the clinton campaign. many of his sources for claims about the trump campaign are russian government officials, so steele, who was working for fusion g.p.s., who in turn was working for the democratic national

fusion g.p.s. a little bit of. space to redeem themselves in the article in january second tier of the republican speak investigation by glenn simpson and peter i think that's how you pronounce his name and here they say. in the years since the publication of the so-called steele dossier the collection of intelligence reports we commissioned about donald trump's ties to russia this is a fabrication this is fake this is fake it wasn't a collection of intelligence reports that is this is opposition research completely different ok and they're trying to pass it off as being the same thing and you have the failing new york times carrying water profusion g.p.s. this is a complete scam on many different well the new terms have been so shameless in its campaign against trump for over a year but you know i think two years is just it's impossible to read them because out of nine if they get in my meal you know or. eight i think. trump is bad but i think there is an interesting point here i think it's comical when the same t

four here so both are fine have a life of their own mark here but i'm really really think this fusion g.p.s. thing is the key to it this is the this is the glue that has the entire russia gate conspiracy theory how is it pulls it all together there's a big broad legal pushback that's the story at the beginning of this year against russia gate. metaphor is suing the f.b.i. special investigator mueller for stepping outside the boundaries of anything to do with the election trump russia gate and going back through his tax records from that from more than a decade ago so he's calling for judicial review of the powers that mueller has we have the clinton foundation is now being investigated for corruption for taking . of money from saudi arabia and other gulf countries while the us was arming these countries to the hilt we have this investigations are being called for into both krista first steal this this former british spook for hire that was hired by the d.n.c. and later essential picked up by the f.b.i. if they were at least paying his expenses to create opposition research it initially inte

but if you look at fusion g.p.s. and you see all the things that have happened from bruce or and nellie or being part of that organization then you have the fact that they were having secret meetings bruce or had secret meetings with the people at fusion g.p.s. with glenn simpson and of course with christopher steele the one.

i mean, the people at fusion g.p.s.s their reporting and their research uncovered money laundering and other links between the president and russians, and they said they would prefer to have all their testimony presented to congress which might not have been in the dossier to be public and, at the same time, we have members of congress saying, fine, the invitation for you to be public is open. >> right, so they've already testified before congress and as they said in the op-ed, they would like transcripts of the testimony released. that will be up to the discretion of members of congress to do so and you saw some republicans push back today and say, well, we'll have you back in open testimony so we can question you again in public. and i do think that this is going to be a theme going forward of, again, republicans trying to paint the dossier in a certain light and the people behind it as metical operatives. and this is going to be, i think, a little bit of the chess match going forward. >> sreenivasan: and, mark, as yo

after the election and bruce or his wife works for fusion g.p.s. i mean that's just one example rod rosenstein and the head of the f.b.i. both testified before congress neither one would say when i asked did the f.b.i. pay for any of that dossier and did they take it in its completed form to the pfizer court to get warrants to spy on members of the trump team coming and incoming trump team they would not answer those questions this is very very serious stuff when the document apparently refers to officials in the above or administration mean could it have any implications for the ongoing special counsel investigation into alleged russia tiny's. yeah i think it's going to put a bigger cloud than already exists for the you know there's a lot of talk there has been a lot of talk that some members of the obama administration you know illegally and without any reason or rhyme went and got warrants against members civilians american civilians who were affiliated with trump with absolutely no reason to to have those obtain you think obama didn't know abou

well there's a reason why fusion g.p.s. and buzz feed are being sued by three russian bankers an entrepreneur i think trumps lawyers suing fusion g.p.s. . the trump russia does see a was. nonsense and it was a fantasy maybe bill clinton's fantasy who knows it was complete and utter nonsense gossip hearsay derived from russian sources so so the collusion is actually the d.n.c. and hillary clinton purchasing the dust for around nine million dollars in fees to the law firm that clinton used. the congress should ask for an itemized report to find out how much was actually paid for this nonsense used for feisal war and so that's what. the memo it's all about that's what we're getting all about. gossip and hearsay being used. you just mentioned. you just mentioned going to james here you remember when the quote unquote trump dot ca russia does ca came out how everybody wanted to shop it around after buzz feed let it go everybody wanted to shop and look at did look at that l mazing amazing of course they were a bunch of fools they

most of what was in that famous they call it the dossier put together by christopher steele for fusion g.p.s. and forget the salacious stuff there's a lot of stuff in there about how russia for years going back years have been trying to influence and get some hawk into donald trump way before the campaign started so it could go as high as the present what do you think of the blackmail insinuation. it's certainly i think it's credible i think is possible and christopher steele again who was hired former british spy hired by this firm fusion g.p.s. which is an opposition research firm they work for a lot of clients candidates christopher steele was hired by them was so concerned about the possibility that trump was being blackmailed by the russians that he actually went to the f.b.i. himself and said hey you guys ought to be aware of this so he took it seriously and the f.b.i. is taking it seriously think we'll have a government shutdown. i don't think so you know i. have seen one right with newt gingrich. ten years for fifteen twenty maybe twenty years ago now it didn't work too well for nucu

yes and we know fusion g.p.s. limbaugh they don't even get what's going on there and the left goes oh no no she's that russian lawyers or she just she was sent in by putin they all actually agree on it and i think the good thing is ok but no they hang on to sort of wake up and figure this out on both sides i hope so but i don't have a lot of hope but what this is a and oasis right here on cross talk ok because we'll talk about all of the issues here i don't have much hope for m s n b c i watched morning joke and meager today i mean what what universe did they live in i have no idea what they're talking about here ha i mean i think we all kind of agreed that you know the die is been cast here i mean us russian relations are for a generation done ok and i actually i don't really think about it much anymore ok because there's not much of that to be done about it but what i think is really interesting here in perth me personally it's not about trump it's not about hillary it's about the the future of the republic inst

steele was hired by fusion g.p.s. to research mr. trump's alleged ties to russia. his work was funded by the democratic national committee and the clinton campaign. now, remember, it took a subpoena and a court battle with the house intelligence committee to force that fact out into the open. lawyers for the democratic national committee and the bill clinton campaign officials denied it to the press for months. in other words, they lied. the founder of fusion g.p.s. denied that his firm was, quote-unquote, democratically linked. that, too, was untrue. when the news finally broke, "new york times" reporters actually complained that people who knew better had flat-out lied to them about who funded mr. steele's dossier. but back before the 2016 election, it is unclear who knew that steele was gathering dirt on trump for the democratic national committee and for the clinton campaign. many of his sources for claims about the trump campaign are russian government officials, so steele, who was working for fusion g.p.s., who in turn was working for the democratic national

fusion g.p.s. and that kind of dissipated quickly there is now this new question about whether f.b.i. agents were sending each other to f.b.i. agents that were involved in the investigation were and also having an affair were sending each other texts that were very disparaging about the president and therefore they were somehow biased and the and the investigation was biased i just don't think that dog's going to hunt i don't think it's going to go very far i think that. muller removed these two individuals from office so i think if anything it enhances his credibility and i don't all for investigating and finding out if there were any people that were biased i mean everybody in the f.b.i. has a political view of one form or another you don't have to check your views necessarily just so long as you do your job as an investigator effectively but i don't think that's going to distract from the bigger issue here we know the russians interfere in the election we know that trump campaign members whether

because fusion g.p.s. had worked on separate projects, one with christopher steele, and a separate one with the russian operative, some began to suggest that russia had been fusion's client or that steele was the victim of the campaign. then there was the uranium one rabbit which began when a right-wing author suggested that hillary could be responsible for a company acquiring uranium in the united states. this rabbit remains a topic of investigation in congress and in right-wing media. and then there are the attacks on bob mueller, which, like rabbits, multiply by the hour. as the special counsel's investigation started heating up over the late summer and fall, the right wing began investigating the investigation, alleged conflicts of interest, histories of campaign donations, inappropriate text messages, questions about spouse's employment. but the big one was that the f.b.i. was corruptly involved in the procurement of the steel dc sia and this launched the witch-hunt. however, a week ago reporting by "t

of an interview with glenn simpson one of the men behind the dossier was made public his group fusion g.p.s. commissions the report on the alleged russia trump ties some republicans say it led to the whole f.b.i. investigation despite containing salacious details that trump himself described as fake news a large part of simpson's testimony is devoted to the meeting of trump jr well the russian lawyer one of the key moments that those who support the russian collusion theory r.t. as he goes down i've met with that lawyer that's hardly ever so let's discuss the latest revelations newsnight given the simpson that you've known the person behind this testimony glenn simpson for quite a while now tell us more about how your relationship came about when. we met for the first time in twenty fifteen during my first visit to the united states before that we exchanged e-mails we were introduced by lawyers who were hired in new york to rip. and our client a russian businessman in a case initiated by the notorious mr broder in twenty thirteen during our corporation he showed excellent information gather

did not have any reaction to the transcript that was released by senator feinstein related to fusion g.p.s. is the president aware of this transcript? does he have any reaction to the f.b.i. references within the transcript and what was said by that gentleman? sarah: we certainly think it's a gross overstep by senator feinstein to release that transcript. there's been a lot of comments about obstruction of justice, and frankly, the only people we have seen trying to influence the investigation are former director comey and democrats in congress and that would include senator feinstein, representative schiff who have both selectively leaked to the media witness interviews. we see that to be a big problem and something that should certainly be considered and looked at. reporter: and my follow-up question, today ecuador said hey are granting asylum to wikileaks founder asung. do you have any comment on that? sarah: no. reporter: [inaudible] october decertifying signing sanction waivers, he said words to the effect of fix it or he wouldn't do this again. [inaudible] include some legislation wh

think is possible and christopher steele again who was hired former british spy hired by this firm fusion g.p.s. which is an opposition research firm they work for a lot of clients candidates christopher steele was hired by them was so concerned about the possibility that trump was being blackmailed by the russians that he actually went to the f.b.i. himself and said hey you guys ought to be aware of this so he took it seriously and the f.b.i. is taking it seriously think we'll have a government shutdown. i don't think so you know i. have seen one right with newt gingrich. ten years fifteen twenty maybe twenty years ago now it didn't work too well for nucular kitchen it didn't work so well for the republicans i think a government shutdown would hurt both parties and i think both of them are would like to would almost do anything to avoid it but i think the one thing democrats are not going to go for this deal the trump is offering them larry right now there he's saying yeah you you can have your dreamers if you give me eighteen billion dollars from my wall i've talked to a lot of democrats on t

fusion g.p.s. and that kind of dissipated quickly there is now this new question about whether f.b.i. agents were sending each other to f.b.i. agents that were involved in the investigation were and also having an affair were sending each other texts that were very disparaging about the president and therefore they were somehow biased and the and the investigation was biased i just don't think that dog's going to hunt i don't think it's going to go very far i think that. muller removed these two individuals from office so i think if anything it enhances his credibility and i don't all for investigating and finding out if there were any people that were biased i mean everybody in the f.b.i. has a political view of one form or another you don't have to check your views necessarily just so long as you do your job as an investigator effectively but i don't think that's going to distract from the bigger issue here we know the russians interfere in the election we know that trump campaign members whether

speaking of which, one of the questions of the russia investigation has been the senate testimony of fusion g.p.s firm that compiled the infamous "steele dossier" of allegations against trump. it's got a lot of stuff in fusion's founder testified to the senate back in august, and he's repeatedly asked for it to be made public, but that's been blocked by iowa senator and man who gives out religious pamphlets for halloween, chuck grassley. well, today, senator dianne feinstein said, "screw it, i'm 84. here it is." ( laughter ) the testimony was released as a 312 page pdf, and, just like everyone else, i quickly downloaded it and searched for the word "pee pee." nothin'. also tried "tinkle," "urine," and "asparagus." nothing. got skunked. we'll have more on the story tomorrow as it trickles out. ( laughter ) meanwhile, back to the russia probe headed by special counsel and man who was just asked how the investigation is going, robert mueller. historic moment because, according to multiple sources, "special counsel robert mueller has informed lawyers for president trump that he may seek an interview

slam who he is now calling sneaky senator dianne feinstein because she unilaterally released the fusion g.p.sstimony before congress and trump tweeted democrat dianne feinstein should never have released secret committee testimony to the public without authorization. very disrespectful to committee members and possibly illegal. now, she blamed her poor decision by the way on the fact that she had a cold, i bet in school the dog ate her homework. and while feinstein's actions are threatening to disrupt the senate's investigation releasing the transcript provided very revealing information about fusion gps and their found glenn simpson. simpson testified he never even bothered to verify with the former british spy christopher steele had actually put in the russian sourced phony dossier. he also admitted he was against trump during the election. clearly simpson was clearly happy to take over $10 million from hillary clinton and the dnc she is running and put this dossier together that they then tried to use to influence the american people. oh, russian propaganda to influence an election. bought

slam who he is now calling sneaky senator dianne feinstein because she unilaterally released the fusion g.p.sstimony before congress and trump tweeted democrat dianne feinstein should never have released secret committee testimony to the public without authorization. very disrespectful to committee members and possibly illegal. now, she blamed her poor decision by the way on the fact that she had a cold, i bet in school the dog ate her homework. and while feinstein's actions are threatening to disrupt the senate's investigation releasing the transcript provided very revealing information about fusion gps and their found glenn simpson. simpson testified he never even bothered to verify with the former british spy christopher steele had actually put in the russian sourced phony dossier. he also admitted he was against trump during the election. clearly simpson was clearly happy to take over $10 million from hillary clinton and the dnc she is running and put this dossier together that they then tried to use to influence the american people. oh, russian propaganda to influence an election. bought

republicans on the judiciary committee refuse to release testimony by the cofounder of fusion g.p.s., testimony about russian efforts to collude with the trump campaign. senators grassley and graham, last week, called on the justice department to investigate former british mi-6 officer. think about that. instead of calling about the investigation of the serious charges in the so-called dossier, they had an investigation of the author of the report. the president is becoming increasingly aggressive in attacking the investigations. he again called them a witch-hunt and demanded, and i quote, republicans should finally take control. well, the partisan attacks on special counselor robert mueller are especially shameful. he is a decorated marine, vietnam veteran, was nominated as f.b.i. director by president george w. bush and approved by the senate 98-0. when his term was up, president obama asked the senate to extend his term for an additional two years and that request was granted by unanimous consent. director mueller was confirmed for another two-year term by a unanimous vote of 100-0

russia influence it is so amazing when we start finding out facts that there was a dossier that fusion g.p.s. was involved in getting -- strictly an opposition research effort at ended up having a totally fabricated, really outrageous outlandish allegations. and according to the news media what was in that dossier was so outlandish and you would think these stupid americans have to be out of their minds to think that donald trump would have done something like this. but maybe, maybe the now weaponized d.o.j. in america and the obama administration, when coupled with the clinton campaign, maybe they are crazy enough to think that donald trump would do something like this and that would affect the election if the campaign were crazy enough to utilize such a total fabricated dossier. i guess that would affect the election. but i still have trouble getting tell american heroes, stand down, don't try to save the lives of our ambassador and the others with the ambassador. tyrone woods wasn't going to have any of it. he and others headed out there to help as they could, including willingness to lay

the co-founder of g.p.s. fusion denies the influence of his company on those allegations the dossier itself wasn't the only topic of the interview that. came up almost as many times as the dossier she was accused of being involved in. with donald trump jr and twenty sixteen. to discuss the latest details. night you. know the person behind this testimony glenn simpson for quite a while now tell us more about how your relationship came about with. this woman for the first time in twenty fifteen during my first visit to the united states before that we exchanged e-mails were introduced by lawyers who were hired in new york to represent a client a russian businessman in a case initiated by than a tourist mr browder in two thousand thirteen during our corporation excellent information gathering and analytical skills including the ability to distinguish truth from gossip i was very excited about reading the testimony he delivered back in august this long documents of almost three hundred pages because two different topics

. >> senator feinstein ridiculous apology for publicly released the closed door testimony of fusion g.p.s. >> i have had a bad cold and maybe that slowed down my mental facilities a little bit. ♪ ♪ ♪ steve: he sang that song on this here program parking lot party. ainsley: this here program. it's a great song, isn't it? parking lot party. that's what everybody does. college football you tailgate beforehand. before concerts. brian: i don't know what you are talking about. ainsley: in your in effect woods there is a place called something beach where i have been to a concert. steve: jones beach. brian: jones beach. ainsley: go to a jimmie buffet parties there. you can't drink in the concert. brian: hard for them to sing over the blengsder on the ice machine it makes a lot of noise. they put it on crush. ainsley: i was wondering why he chose that video though because you can't brink inside. everyone was drinking on the outside. steve: already thinking about closing time on friday. brian: absolutely. steve: lots of news to think about. we have been telling you all week long there has been som

news has reported that fusion gps was being paid by a kremlin linked law firm statement that it was digging for dirt on then candidate donald trump. advocates have accused g.p.secretly working for the russians. congressman jason chaffetz is here. >> did i read that op-ed from fusion gps. first of all, if they want to maximize openness and transparency, there is nothing, nothing that holds back fusion gps from releasing all the documents in all the financial transactions. i have the house intelligence committee having to issue subpoenas in order to get that information. >> that's a great point. >> today they could release all of that information if they want. don't blame the house intelligence committee. it is against the through go out and hire foreign national to engage in these activities during the campaign. so they potentially broke the law there you have mark elias who was general counsel for the dnc. hillary clinton is involved in this. have you got the op-ed group involved in this. there is some really nefarious things and you have a top official at the fbi whose wife works at fusion gps at the same time that they're doing an investigation so don't cal