Fusion GPS, the research firm that compiled the dossier detailing President Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, said U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley endangered the lives of its employees by naming them in documents.
Attorneys for Fusion GPS firm berated Mr. Grassley, Iowa Republican, in a letter sent in response to his committee publishing correspondence Thursday involving the panel’s ongoing investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 election.
“Your office made public, on your official website, six letters requesting documents related to a number of individuals, including employees of our client Fusion GPS, even after we had requested — in writing — that the names of employees not be disclosed to the public because of well-founded concerns about their public safety,” Josh Levy and two other Fusion GPS lawyers wrote on behalf of the firm Monday, Reuters first reported.
“Ignoring our requests, your office knowingly put these people in danger, by releasing their names to the public,” the attorneys argued. “These leaks are unauthorized and unethical.”
Dated Jan. 25, the letters cited by the Fusion GPS lawyers were sent by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week to a half-dozen individuals sought for questioning by lawmakers investigating the dossier as part of their probe into the 2016 race, including three high-ranking members of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign, Democratic National Committee chair Thomas Perez and former DNC chairs Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Donna Brazile.
Each of the letters requested, among other details, communications that happened between March 2016 through January 2017 involving each of the recipients and a few dozen individuals and entities listed by lawmakers, including several Fusion GPS employees, by the firm’s own admission.
The letters sent by lawmakers only listed the individuals by name, however, and none of the letters specified that the people were affiliated with Fusion GPS.
“Official releases of information by the chairman of the Judiciary Committee about its work are, by definition, not leaks,” Taylor Foy, Mr. Grassley’s spokesman, said in a statement, The Hill reported Tuesday.
“Senator Grassley’s letter did not identify any individual as an employee of Fusion GPS,” Mr. Foy said. “The only indication that individuals referenced in Sen. Grassley’s letter work for Fusion GPS come from Mr. Levy’s own complaint.”
Compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence agent, the dossier alleged multiple illicit connections between Mr. Trump and Russia — a prime topic of interest for congressional lawmakers investigating the 2016 race and allegations of possible collusion between the president’s inner circle and operatives abroad.
The dossier was initially commissioned by The Washington Free Beacon newspaper before being funded in part by Mrs. Clinton’s unsuccessful 2016 campaign and the DNC. Mr. Trump, on his part, has repeatedly decried its contents as “fake news.”
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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