named Alexander Torshin who is a life member of the NRA. And we spent a lot of time investigating Mr. Torshin. And he is well known to Spanish law enforcement for money laundering activity, and you have probably seen the press articles. And I think the Spanish files on him should be available to you. And he, as you know, was supposed to have a meeting with President Trump after the inauguration. And somebody noticed that there had been some stories about him that weren't pretty good.
So he is one of the more important figures, but, you know, another woman with whom he was working, Maria Butina, also was a big Trump fan in Russia, and then suddenly showed up here and started hanging around the Trump transition after the election and rented an apartment and enrolled herself at AU, which I assume gets you a visa.
MS. SPEIER: She rented an apartment where?
MR. SIMPSON: AU Park in Tenleytown. Went to American University and rented an apartment up there. I think she is suspicious. I guess the last thing I will say on this is that we just started seeing this stuff when all the other Russia stuff started bubbling up. And the thing I found, you know, the most absurd about this is that, you know, Vladimir Putin is not in favor of universal gun ownership for Russians. And so it's all a big charade, basically.
MS. SPEIER: You said there were other conservative groups. Are there other conservative groups in the United States that they have infiltrated to your knowledge?
MR. SIMPSON: I think there's been -- we have done some research on some religious groups having relationships with the Russians, having, developing, and pursuing relationships with various religious groups. The names of them
UNCLASSIFIED, COMMITTEE SENSITIVE
