Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was irate that his fellow Senate Judiciary Committee member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) decided to release the transcript of their closed door meeting with Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, conducted last year.
Grassley's press secretary Taylor Foy released a statement criticizing Feinstein for going back on her word and not consulting with the chairman before releasing the transcript.
"Her action undermines the integrity of the committee’s oversight work and jeopardizes its ability to secure candid voluntary testimony relating to the independent recollections of future witnesses," Foy said.
On Wednesday, CNN's Manu Raju got a reaction from the senator himself, who emphasized the "problems" Feinstein has created for the committee and the investigation. The Fusion GPS would have been released eventually, but Feinstein acted much too prematurely.
"People will be more reserved about cooperating," and voluntarily coming forward to interview, Grassley said. People, he meant, like Jared Kushner.
Grassley just told us that Feinstein release of transcript makes it harder to bring in Jared Kushner. Asked him if Kushner is off the hook: “No, not at all.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 10, 2018
President Trump also responded to Feinstein's action, giving her the nickname "Sneaky."
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. Must have tough Primary!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2018
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Grassley, not entirely amused, told CNN he "doesn't want to know" what Trump meant by the statement.
In the formerly confidential transcript, we learned that one person died as a result of the publishing of the dossier, so Simpson's attorney Josh Levy told the committee.
DOJ official Bruce Ohr lost two job titles after the discovery he met secretly with the dossier author last year. Trump lawyer Michael Cohen went public with a defamation lawsuit against BuzzFeed and Fusion GPS on Tuesday.
Despite the controversy over the release of the transcript, Grassley said that he and Feinstein were working on which witnesses to bring forward.
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