were talking about it freely. It was only, you know, later that it became a subject of great controversy and people clammed up, and at that time the whole issue of the hacking was also, you know, not really focused on Russia. So these things eventually converged into, you know, a major issue, but at the time it wasn't one.
Q. I have five or so more minutes and I know that I have a lot more questions just about some of that work, but I do want to just pin down a couple things about the engagement in particular before we end this hour.
So with regard to selecting Mr. Steele specifically to do the Russia — to do work on Candidate Trump's ties to Russia, do you believe based on his experience and background that Mr. Steele would have been aware of the potential in his discussions with these people that he could be fed this information?
A. When Chris — I don't believe it, I know it. When Chris briefs in a sort of more formal setting, which I've seen, you know, when he introduces himself — you know, he was the lead Russianist for MI6. So the first sort of beginning of that is he says, you know, I've worked on this
