Chuck Grassley backpedals after Trump-Russia stunt backfires on him

Back in August of 2017, a town hall attendee asked Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley whether he was willing to publicly release the testimony given about the Trump-Russia dossier by the head of Fusion GPS. Grassley made excuses for a moment before confirming that he would support releasing the transcript, and that he would put it to a vote. More than four months later, that transcript never has seen the light of day. Now it’s suddenly backfiring on Grassley, and he’s rapidly trying to backpedal.

Grassley clearly had no intention of allowing the transcript to see the light of day. Why? We still have no idea. But considering how the Republican Congress has almost uniformly begun trying to sabotage the Trump-Russia investigation, we’re left to conclude that the transcript was damning, and the GOP didn’t want it out there. The head of Fusion GPS finally had enough of the GOP antics, and he published a scathing op-ed in the New York Times last night which exposed that the party has been lying about the sourcing of the investigation all along.

The op-ed brought renewed questions about why Grassley and the Republicans on his committee have spent all these months sitting on the Trump-Russia dossier testimony transcript. Grassley is feeling the heat, and he’s trying to backpedal by suddenly offering to let Fusion GPS come back and testify in public, according to a new Politico report (link). This is still a bizarre move by Grassley, and it raises even more questions.

Why is Chuck Grassley talking about having Fusion GPS come back and testify in public, instead of simply releasing the transcript from the last time these same people testified about this same topic before this same committee? Even if some of it is classified, it could be redacted. There is still no above-board reason for Grassley’s actions. But at least he’s now acting like he’s been backed into a corner.