Administration, and that new book on this presidency called fire and fury has apparently torched its first victim. Steve bannon is out as the head of Breitbart News. Well have the latest on that just ahead, but also out tonight, 10 hours in all of testimony from the cofounder of the Company Behind that trumprussia dossier. That testimony came from glen simpson, that man right there, who appeared before the Senate Judiciary committee back in august, and the 312page transcript of that event gives us a much more detailed look at what the Research Firm fusion gps was doing and what u. S. Authorities knew and when. Its complicated, but lets get to it. The firms work has taken center stage in this partisan battle on the hill over the russia investigation, and this glen simpson has called on the Committee Senior republicans to release his testimony. Well, today the Judiciary Committees top democrat did that for him. Senator Diane Feinstein of california released the testimony against the wishes of Committee Chair republican chuck grassley. I think people are entitled to know what was said, and the lawyers also wanted it released. I see no problem with releasing it. What were trying to do is keep some investigation going on, and i dont think it harms it at all. I mean, were looking for information, and whoever can provide it, thats useful. Feinsteins unilateral move comes just days after grassley, without the full committees backing, referred the author of this dossier, the former British Intelligence officer named Christopher Steele, to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation. Today a spokesperson for grassley issued this statement about feinsteins actions, saying, quote, it undermines the integrity of the committees oversight work and jeopardizes its ability to secure candid voluntary testimony relating to the independent recollections of future witnesses. Fusion gps hired steele, this veteran investigator, to look into Donald Trumps background during the 2016 campaign. According to the committee testimony, Christopher Steele approached the fbi in the summer of 2016 because he was extremely troubled by his findings and, quote, said he was very concerned about whether this represented a National Security threat and he said he thought we were obligated to tell someone in government, in our government, about this information. He thought from his perspective there was an issue, a security issue about whether a president ial candidate was being blackmailed. When steele finally did make contact with the fbi a few months later, it turned out he was not the first person to do so. According to this testimony again, quote, they believed chris information might be credible because they had other intelligence that indicated the same thing. And one of those pieces of intelligence was a human source from inside the trump organization. Now, two sources close to fusion gps have told nbc news that human source was actually George Papadopoulos, the Trump Campaign aide who has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with Robert Mueller. Weve also learned that by the time steele sat down with the fbi, an australian diplomat had passed to u. S. Officials details of his conversation with one George Papadopoulos about the russians and hacked democratic emails. Here is how some of the senators on the Judiciary Committee reacted to this release today of the fusion gps testimony. Im actually okay with that. I want the public to know about the dossier and how it was used by the fbi. I want the public to see some of the things ive seen about mr. Steele. The bottom line is that there is a reason that mr. Mueller exists, and looking at the fbi and the department of justice in terms of the way they behaved is not an either or. I think its unfortunate that the majority, not a minority, on the Judiciary Committee have come to an impasse at making progress. I think this is a signal of the end of my cooperation in the Senate Judiciary committee in terms of investigating the russian matter. On that note, lets turn to Michael Crowley back with us, National Senior editor and correspondent for politico. Matt miller, a justice and security analyst. And Jennifer Rogers is back with us, attorney of new york and attorney for public integrity. Welcome to you all. Michael, id like to begin with you. While this is not the pentagon papers and there is a movie starting friday about that, for those who need a refresher on the story. Why did Diane Feinstein feel she had to do this and to you . What were the major findings . Well, brian, i think Diane Feinstein did this in part as a culmination of democratic frustration with republican with what democrats feel are republican mischaracterizations and even smears of the work that fusion gps and Christopher Steele did during the campaign. Among other things late last week, and i think it was a really precipitating event. The senator recommended that Mueller Probe the fbi who wrote this dossier for potentially lying to federal officials. And i think feinstein and Many Democrats were infuriated by the way the republicans handled that, so were seeing a bipartisan breach. I think the findings, brian, there really is not a bombshell that hastens our understanding of what the russian saga is about. It doesnt reveal any new information about Donald Trumps contacts with the kremlin or moscow in particular. If people are wondering, there are some very sola cio us allegations in the dossier. It really is the portrait of glen simpson and his outlet. Especially Christopher Steele, the former British Intelligence agent, as being thorough professionals. As simpson being very open and forthcoming in my reading of the transcript, answering questions, not prevaricating, not dodging, not seeming to tell conflicting stories. The dossier portraying Christopher Steele of almost stumbling into something that seemed like a true security threat. The United States of america, where Christopher Steele and simpson felt there was an obligation to notify federal authorities in the u. S. , that in fact russia may have its hooks into donald trump in a deeply troubling way that really, for simpson out of patriotic duty, and for steele out of duty of a former official and one of americas closest allies obliged them to report this, and that completely runs counter to the republican narrative of this entire enterprise of having been essentially a democraticfunded, political smear hit job trafficking and fiction. The solacious portions of this were so gross, and the attack had been so unending, so unrelenting by the gop, Christopher Steeles name has been soiled in the Public Domain a little bit, i would argue. When you look at his behavior in this case, what do you see . You know, youre absolutely right. When you look at the way that they have portrayed Christopher Steele, its kind of as this mercenary, someone who is carrying out the bitter Hillary Clinton campaign. When you look at the portrait of him portrayed in this dossier, it is someone that is a National Security professional, formerly from the ni6, the British Intelligence agency, who started this work not with any goal in mind but to just find out what Donald Trumps business dealings in russia were. And in the course of doing interviews, he came across these findings that he alleges in his report were close russian ties or close ties between the russian government and the Trump Campaign with the intent to elect donald trump president. He was so alarmed as someone who apparently loves the United States very much, someone who believes greatly, wants to advance the National Security of the United States, that he took those findings to the fbi. And i would say that runs counter not just to the narrative republicans have painted of him, but it runs really counter to the behavior weve seen from the Trump Campaign. We know, of course, donald trump jr. Got information that the russian government wanted to help elect his father. He didnt take it to the fbi, he took a meeting. Same thing with jared kushner, same thing obviously with George Papadopoulos. You see someone here who is not an american citizen who i think was really acting to advance United StatesNational Security in a way we havent seen from the trump orbit. Jennifer, as the former fed here, what have you learned today about the extent and the depth of the investigation that we now know was going on all during the Trump Campaign . Well, its very interesting because, you know, we know that some of this information started coming out last summer. Of course, none of us heard about it until much, much later in the year. We know the fbi was really engaged in and looking at the Hillary Clinton emails, and this seems to have been on the back burner, with Christopher Steele saying to his revelations when he briefed the fbi on it, jim comey didnt even know about this stuff even though they supposedly did have an intel investigation going on about it. Its still a bit unclear what they knew, what they were doing last summer, and when they started sifting through this with purpose. But i agree that it sounds like the information steele gave to them was taken seriously. The fbi community knew of him and he was trusted. Once they started getting him going on this and shifted gears from the clinton stuff, they finally did, as we know, take it seriously in the end. Michael, as you know, grassley and feinstein are two veterans up on capitol hill. It would appear that their relationship is irretrievably broken for the purposes of this investigation. That leaves the warnerburr access at the other committee, and that leaves mueller, and in your view, does it really just leave mueller as the preeminent investigation . Brian, warner and burr have a better relationship than grassley and feinstein at this point. But really, on capitol hill, this has evolved into two separate partisan tracks. There is basically very little agreement, comedy, bipartisanship on the subject of russia. As we get closer and closer to the midterm elections in particular, this story will get increasingly politicized. The House Intelligence Committee has basically collapsed into partisan acrimony. The House Democrats want to start a probe and issue a report. Youre starting to get that sense on the intelligence side as well. Yes, i think youre right, that congress has sort of wound up in a predictable place where the two parties are in their political trenches. Its only getting worse. What happened today is only going to further inflame it. But Robert Mueller keeps on plugging along. Most of his work remains out of public view. These spats and going on television and taking shots at each other and acting unilaterally, none of that has to do with mueller. He is plugging along and we just all have to wait for the next shoe to drop from his office which could be, really, any week now, another bombshell indictment. We just dont know. Well have to wait. Matthew, its been a year since we first laid eyes on this dossier, and people were reading it individually. In a group setting, though, you could hear people audibly reacting when their eyes reached that portion. Do you think we are better served as a government, as a society, as consumers, as taxpayers that the dossier came out . Its a very difficult question. I think were obviously better served that the fbi has it in their possession and is able to investigate it and run down any of those leads. We know that theyve interviewed Christopher Steele, not just during the 2016 election, but since bob mueller has been assigned as special counsel, theyve gone back and reinterviewed Christopher Steele. So i think its important the government has been able to take it seriously, and ultimately i think well find out whether any of those leads were true when bob mueller finishes his work. Whether we as a public are better off, thats tough. For all of Donald Trumps behavior, it does put the president in a difficult position when you have allegations put out publicly. He can deny them, but its very tough to push back on Something Like this when the sources are kind of hidden, kind of blind, and i do think thats a difficult place for the president to be. But look, hes not helped himself throughout this investigation. If he had behaved the way you would think most president s to do and made a statement about what his conduct was and what his conduct wasnt instead of trying to undermine the people who commissioned this information, i think he would be in a much better place. Jennifer, im curious. Will you view the results of the Mueller Investigation as the chief among equals, the preeminent investigation . I will, but of course i have my Law Enforcement bias. I never put a lot of stock into what congress is doing, because it is so partisan, and theyre not really trained to investigate the way mueller and his team are. I always thought that internal investigation which is more likely to reach it from here. In terms of getting to the bottom of what happened, i certainly thought muellers team would do that better than any other entity. To matthew crowley, Jennifer Rodgers, thank you for being here. A mueller interview with a mueller interview with this president. Plus, as we reported, steve bannon woke up this morning the head of Breitbart News. Tonight he is out of work. And donald trump has weighed in on his good friend oprah. That and more on a tuesday night when we continue. Would you be willing to speak under oath to give your version of events . 100 . We have a situation which is very unusual. Everybody said there was no collusion. If Robert Mueller asks you to speak to his committee, are you committed to doing that . Just so you understand, theres been no collusion, theres been no crime. But we have been very open. Were going to continue to be in full cooperation with them. As youve heard, Donald Trumps white house said its totally committed to cooperating with Robert Mueller, but they have limits on behalf of their client. As reported by the Washington Post, quote, the president s attorneys are reluctant to let him sit for openended, facetoface questioning without clear parameters. The fear is that donald trump could incriminate himself within minutes. On the other hand, refusing to testify could imply guilt. There is another option. Its no better for the president , and thats getting subpoenaed by mueller to come testify in front of a grand jury without his lawyer present. As Washington Post opinion writer Jennifer Rubin put it, quote, for all of trumps boasting that hes done everything right, 100 percent, and his lawyers ludicrous assertions that a president cannot commit obstruction of justice, the prospect for trump to be interviewed under oath presents the greatest risk to his presidency yet. We talked Jennifer Rodgers to stick around and join in this conversation as well. Jill, are there any good options for donald trump . There is no good option, because i think it has been laid out quite well in your opening. If he doesnt tell the truth, hes committed perjury if hes under oath. If he takes the fifth amendment, hes committing political suicide. His past behavior is such that hes very likely to incriminate himself by being careless in his answers, and he hasnt got a choice because all the cards are stacked against him. Mueller can subpoena him. If he doesnt come in voluntarily, then hes subject to subpoena and he will have no choice but to testify. I think the law is very clear on that, that hes not above the law, he can be subpoenaed, he can be required to produce documents, he can be required to testify. Jennifer, pick up on the extent of this mine field for donald trump. Think of the public statements and utteran ces he has made about this case. Think about the fact that he wont know what flynn has told. You