Glenn Simpson, subpoenaed by Republicans in the House trying to shift focus from Russia's attack on our democracy to unfounded accusations of Justice Department misconduct, showed up on Capitol Hill Tuesday and refused to sit for a closed-door deposition, pleading the Fifth.
Joshua Levy, a lawyer representing Simpson and the opposition research firm behind the “Steele dossier," said his client would not be participating in the House Judiciary and House Oversight and Government Reform committees' joint investigation, calling it a smear campaign that aims to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
Simpson's attorney said the Republican-led Judiciary Committee has turned a blind eye to “White House efforts to influence and interfere with the Justice Department’s investigation in this administration,” noting that it has gone after whistleblowers and Mueller.
(...)
Levy, who said his client has cooperated with the investigations of three other congressional committees, has recently taken aim at the GOP lawmakers on the Judiciary and Oversight committees.
In a letter last week, Levy said Simpson will “invoke his constitutional rights not to testify under the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution” because this inquiry “is not designed to discover the truth.”
(...)
Simpson, a former journalist who later co-founded Fusion GPS, hired former British spy Christopher Steele to help compile a dossier on Trump that ended up making a series of allegations about the president's possible ties to Russia — some that have been verified and some that remain unsubstantiated.
(...)
Some conservative House members have alleged that a contractor working for Simpson's firm, Nellie Ohr, could have passed the dossier on to her husband, Bruce Ohr, who worked as a top official with the Justice Department during the election.
Simpson is one of several witnesses tied to the dossier whom Republicans have sought to interview as part of their joint investigation. Congressional investigators are expected to interview Nellie Ohr on Friday.
Levy on Tuesday said there seems to be a double standard when it comes to congressional testimony.
“Even this Congress last year did nothing when members of the president’s staff invoked their privileges or outright just decided not to comply with subpoenas,” Levy said, pointing to former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
“And so what are we to conclude?" he asked. "Unfortunately, if you are not one of the president’s men, these congressional Republicans will show utter disdain for your constitutional rights.”
Fusion GPS co-founder pleads the Fifth following House GOP subpoena (The Hill)