Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) on Thursday denied that she ever said she was "pressured" to release private testimony of Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson.
Feinstein, who is the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the transcript without consulting Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and said Wednesday that she was "pressured" to do so. On Thursday, however, she said she was not pressured and denied ever having said that.
"I made no statement to that effect," Feinstein said about being pressured. BuzzFeed reporter Emma Loop pressed the senator further, saying that there is a recording of her saying just that.
"I don't believe there are [recordings]," Feinstein told Loop. "I don't believe I said that."
Just asked Feinstein about her comment yesterday about being "pressured" to release the Simpson transcript.
"I made no statement to that effect," she said.
Me: but there are recordings of you saying you felt pressured
"I don't believe there are. I don't believe I said that."
— Emma Loop (@LoopEmma) January 11, 2018
Loop added that CNN and the Daily Beast reported Feinstein’s comments, and her office admitted as much by saying she "misspoke."
Feinstein apologized to Grassley for releasing the transcript and said she intended to talk to him but was pressured not to.
"I meant to tell him, and I didn’t have a chance to tell him, and that concerns me," she told reporters. "I just got pressured, and I didn’t do it."
FEINSTEIN says she’s sorry to Grassley for not giving him a headsup about the release of the Fusion GPS transcript. 'I meant to tell him, and I didn’t have a chance to tell him, and that concerns me," she told us. 'I just got pressured, and I didn’t do it."
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) January 10, 2018
She also said she "had a bad cold" that may have "slowed down" her thinking. It is still unclear by whom she felt pressured or why she is denying something she said that was widely reported.
Disclosure: The Washington Free Beacon was once a client of Fusion GPS. That relationship ended in January 2017. For more information, see here.