buttoned-down kind of guy who you could count on to do the work.
MR. QUIGLEY: When exactly did he start working under contract?
MR. SIMPSON: My recollection is that, you know, we began talking about the -- I don't remember when we started talking about the engagement, but the work started in June, I believe.
MR. QUIGLEY: Okay.
MR. SIMPSON: Possibly late May, but --
MR. QUIGLEY: And when would you have gotten the first batch of information, or was it all at once?
MR. SIMPSON: The first memo is dated, I think, June 20th, somewhere around there.
MR. QUIGLEY: Okay. And then how often did you get information and what -- was it varied quantities or --
MR. SIMPSON: Well, this was a very unusual situation, because right around the time that the work started, it became public that the FBI suspected the Russians of hacking the DNC. And so there was sort of an extraordinary coincidence. It wasn't really a coincidence but, you know, our own interest in Russia coincided with a lot of public disclosures that there was something going on with Russia.
And so what was originally envisioned as an original -- as just a sort of a survey, a first cut of what might be -- whether there might be something interesting about Donald Trump and Russia quickly became more of an effort to help my client manage a, you know, exceptional situation and understand what the heck was going on.
So after the original reporting, I don't remember what I specifically said, but
UNCLASSIFIED, COMMITTEE SENSITIVE
