there were more — that you considered in assessing the credibility of this was Mr. Steele, his background, his reputation, overall the fact that you had information and knowledge of Russia meddling in other countries' elections, and then the broader work of Russia to disrupt political systems of other countries?
A. I covered that. I also would add that the China case was for me in my journalistic career a formative event that took — you know, consumed years of my reporting and was about, you know, a Chinese intelligence operation to swing the '96 election to the Democrats.
The only other thing I'd add to all that is, again, in the mid 2000s one of the stories I wrote — actually, I wrote a couple different stories about a Russian oligarch having a meeting with Senator John McCain shortly before the 2008 presidential election and another story or set of stories about Paul Manafort and his involvement with some Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs who were considered to be suspicious or corrupt.
So I also knew — or I formed an opinion or impression that the Russians were interested in making friends with the Republicans and that Paul
