Firm Behind “Trump Dossier” Refuses To Comply With Congressional Subpoena
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Oct 16, 2017
The three co-founders of Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm responsible for overseeing the creation of the infamous “Trump dossier”, will refuse to comply with a subpoena ordered by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, according to a letter from their attorneys originally obtained by Business Insider.
But experts say the argument their lawyers are using to ask that they be excused relies on shaky legal grounds, and is unlikely to hold.
Attorneys from Cunningham, Levy & Muse said in a letter that, if called to testify, their clients planned to invoke their first amendment rights to exempt them from answering questions. The move – which has all the hallmarks of a stalling tactic – is the latest attempt by the firm’s founders, who reportedly were aware that not all of the allegations contained in the dossier were credible before turning it over to the FBI, to forestall delivering public testimony. Glenn Simpson, a former WSJ investigative reporter and one of the firm’s three founders, met privately with the Senate Judiciary Committee for ten hours over the summer. Afterwards, a group of senators, including Democrat Richard Blumenthal, pushed for Simpson’s testimony to be made public, and the committee is reportedly still mulling whether to release it.
However, Simpson and his fellow Fusion GPS co-founders Thomas Catan and Peter Fritsch, plan to invoke constitutional privileges and decline to testify before the House Intelligence Committee, their attorney wrote in a letter obtained by Business Insider on Monday.
“We cannot in good conscience do anything but advise our clients to stand on their constitutional privileges, the attorney work product doctrine and contractual obligations,” wrote Fusion GPS counsel Josh Levy in response to subpoenas issued earlier this month by the committee’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes.
Levy argued that complying with the subpoenas would violate “the First Amendment rights” of the cofounders “and would chill any American running for office … from conducting confidential opposition research in an election.”
“Should you compel any of our three clients to appear at the scheduled deposition, they will invoke their constitutional privileges not to testify,” Levy wrote. “Since that will be the case, we ask that the Committee excuse them from appearing.”
The Rest…HERE
