Trump dossier figure questioned behind closed doors on Capitol Hill
The head of the firm behind the infamous anti-Trump dossier was interviewed for hours behind closed doors Tuesday on Capitol Hill, sources confirmed to Fox News.
Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of investigative firm Fusion GPS, met with staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of the committee’s investigation into Russian meddling and potential collusion with the Trump campaign in the 2016 presidential election.
A committee spokesperson did not give Fox News any further information on the meeting with Simpson and Judiciary staff, though a source confirmed that Fusion GPS has given the Senate committee over 40,000 documents.
"Mr. Simpson told Congress the truth and cleared the record on many matters of interest to congressional investigators," his attorney Josh Levy told Fox News.
Simpson's company was behind the dossier that was compiled during last year's campaign and which contained crude allegations against now-President Trump.
Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and committee Ranking Member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., originally had issued a subpoena for Simpson’s testimony at a public hearing before the committee last month. But they withdrew it after Simpson reached arrangements to interview with the committee in private.
The committee’s hearing in July pertained to oversight of the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA). At the public session, CEO and founder of Hermitage Capital Bill Browder testified that Fusion GPS and Simpson worked “on behalf of the Russian government” in an effort to fight U.S. sanctions that had enraged Moscow’s elite.
Browder told lawmakers that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who met with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower in June 2016, also was responsible for hiring Simpson to “conduct a smear campaign against me and Sergei Magnitsky in advance of a congressional hearing on the Global Magnitsky Act.” The Magnitsky Act is a U.S. law that brings sanctions against Russian oligarchs suspected of money laundering.
Firm behind anti-Trump dossier also worked for Russia, Senate witness says
The company behind an infamous anti-Trump dossier also worked "on behalf of the Russian government" to fight U.S. sanctions that had enraged Moscow's elite, a key witness testified to a Senate committee on Thursday.
The testimony of Bill Browder, the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital, shed new light on the dealings of the controversial company Fusion GPS -- which was tied to the dossier of spurious claims about President Trump. According to Browder, the company also conducted a "smear campaign" against him in a bid to fight Russia sanctions.
Further adding to the complexity, Browder also testified that this campaign was orchestrated by Natalia Veselnitskaya – the same Russian attorney who sought the highly scrutinized Trump Tower meeting last June with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
"They were talking about a repeal of sanctions so that Russian torturers and murderers could keep their money in America," he testified. The dramatic testimony had been blocked a day earlier by Senate Democrats, as part of delay tactics executed in protest of ObamaCare repeal efforts.
But Browder's comments could raise problems for both pro- and anti-Trump camps.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
