Common Cause Calls for Release of Fusion GPS Congressional Interview Transcripts & More Transparent Process

Today, Common Cause urged the three congressional committees that interviewed Fusion GPS employees to release transcripts of the testimony by the opposition research firm. The letters to the Senate Judiciary and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees come in the wake of a New York Times opinion page piece by Fusion GPS founders Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch outlining a smear campaign against them by President Trump's defenders, including misleading excerpts from their congressional interview transcripts. The letters called for more open investigations including open hearings and transcript releases as promised by congressional leaders earlier in the process.

"The American people deserve to know what Congress is learning from its investigations of Russia's coordinated and sophisticated effort to swing the 2016 presidential election, but that is not happening and it is unacceptable," said Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause. "Chairman Grassley and other congressional leaders promised a transparent process but they have left the American people in the dark about this direct attack on our democracy by a hostile foreign power. It is time for Members of Congress to put their country before their party and start giving the Americans they represent some answers."

The letter emphasizes that the vacuum created by the secretiveness of the investigations has allowed and encouraged an extensive campaign by overzealous defenders of President Trump to attempt to discredit the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and to sew confusion with the public.

To read the letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, click here.

To view this release online, click here.