The co-founder of an opposition research firm that compiled and distributed a salacious anti-Trump dossier will not cooperate with a Congressional investigation again, his attorney said Thursday.
In a letter to the chairman of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees, an attorney for Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson said his client will not talk to lawmakers again, saying previous witnesses have been slandered and their testimony misrepresented.
“The ’task force’ for its part, has established a clear and abundant record of abusing the confidential interview process in order to mischaracterize the statements of witnesses and unjustly slander and impugn them in public,” said Simpson attorney, Joshua A. Levy.
Two top Republicans, Reps. Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, are investigating the FBI’s use of the dossier filled with unverified allegations to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant for Trump campaign figure Carter Page.
GPS Fusion paid former British spy Christopher Steele to compile the dossier, which was part of opposition research funded by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Mr. Levy compared the investigation into to the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s anti-Communist hearings in the 1950s, accusing GOP lawmakers of repeating the same “treacherous tactics.”
Mr. Simpson has already appeared for three Congressional interviews as part of the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Mr. Levy said that his client’s testimony, which was supposed to be confident, was misrepresented to the public.
“Republican members and staff selectively quoted and otherwise misrepresented to the media and public the contents of Mr. Simpson’s prior confidential testimony in a series of transparent and cynical attempts to impugn him and incriminate him,” Mr. Levy said.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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