In more than 150 pages of testimony released by the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of the firm behind the so-called “Steele dossier,” alleged a constellation of business deals that he said suggested the Russians could be laundering money through then-candidate Donald Trump.
Simpson stopped short of saying the firm had found definitive proof of such dealings, telling investigators that, “evidence, I think, is a strong word.”
Some of Trump’s dealings, Simpson told lawmakers, showed “patterns of buying and selling that we thought were suggestive of money laundering.”
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Democrats immediately used the release of the transcript to urge further investigation of what Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) described as “serious allegations that the Trump Organization may have engaged in money laundering with Russian nationals.”
“Thus far, Committee Republicans have refused to look into this key area and we hope the release of this transcript will reinforce the importance of these critical questions to our investigation,” Schiff said.
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Simpson pointed to a series of Trump’s business dealings that he viewed as particularly suspicious, suggesting that some of his previous property sales could have potentially been used as leverage against him.
“Generally speaking, the patterns of activity that we thought might be suggestive of money laundering were, you know, fast turnover deals and deals where there seemed to have been efforts to disguise the identity of the buyer,” Simpson told the lawmakers.
Those patterns, Simpson said, first came to his attention when the project was funded by the Washington Free Beacon.
Simpson suggested that the business mogul did deals with Russian oligarchs, who doubled as mafia members, who remain largely under the control of Putin.
“If people who seem to be associated with the Russian mafia are buying Trump properties or arranging for other people to buy Trump properties, it does raise a question about whether they’re doing it on behalf of the government,” he continued.
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In the Intelligence Committee testimony, as in the Senate document, Simpson put forward a full-throated defense of Fusion’s work, and described the decision by Steele to brief the FBI on his findings out of “a citizenship obligation.”
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Fusion GPS founder told Congress they found "patterns" of Trump-Russia money laundering https://t.co/m7BOTDLwr3 pic.twitter.com/euYLfACYhw
— The Hill (@thehill) January 19, 2018
Well well. I guess I’m not the only one who has found some of Trump’s real estate deals suspicious. I believe his SIL is also doing this and perhaps his son also.
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