Scope of GPS' investigation (original client -- republicans):
Q. So you had mentioned a few minutes ago 24 that you had done some political or campaign 25 research in the course of the 2016 presidential Glenn Simpson August 22, 2017 Washington, DC 1-800-FOR-DEPO www.aldersonreporting.com Alderson Court Reporting Page 62 1 election and you clarified that that was work 2 related to then Candidate and now President Trump. 3 What can you tell us about that work? Can you just 4 describe it first generally and then I'll ask you 5 some follow-up. 6 A. It was, broadly speaking, a kind of 7 holistic examination of Donald Trump's business 8 record and his associations, his bankruptcies, his 9 suppliers, you know, offshore or third-world 10 suppliers of products that he was selling. You 11 know, it evolved somewhat quickly into issues of 12 his relationships to organized crime figures but, 13 you know, really the gamut of Donald Trump. 14 What we generally do at the beginning of a 15 case if it's possible is to order all the books 16 about the subject from Amazon so we're not 17 reinventing the wheel and we know what's been 18 written and said before. So this was typical. We 19 ordered every Donald Trump book and, to my 20 surprise, that's a lot of books. I was never very 21 interested in Donald Trump. He was not a serious 22 political figure that I'd ever had any exposure to. 23 He's a New York figure really. 24 So anyway, we read everything we could read 25 about Donald Trump. Those books cover his Glenn Simpson August 22, 2017 Washington, DC 1-800-FOR-DEPO www.aldersonreporting.com Alderson Court Reporting Page 63 1 divorces, his casinos, his early years dealings 2 with labor unions and mafia figures. I'm trying to 3 think what else. His taxes certainly have always 4 been a big issue. Again, it was sort of an 5 unlimited look at his -- you know, his business and 6 finances and that sort of thing. 7 Q. And when did this work begin? 8 A. It was either September or October of 9 2015. I recall being in London on other business 10 and hearing somebody wanted for us to take a look 11 at it. 12 Q. And what can you tell us about who engaged 13 you initially to do that work? 14 MR. LEVY: The answer to that question might 15 implicate privilege. 16 BY MS. SAWYER: 17 Q. So it has been publicly reported that the 18 initial engagement of September to October 2015 was 19 by someone with ties -- with Republican ties. Can 20 you confirm whether that is accurate or not? 21 MR. LEVY: We're not going to talk about the 22 identity of clients.