Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of the firm that assembled the infamous “Russian dossier” that purported to offer intelligence about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, will be interviewed by the Senate Judiciary Committee later this month.
Simpson’s interview, however, will most likely be with committee staff instead of the senators themselves, according to a report by Politico, which cited a source familiar with the issue.
The funding for the dossier has become of increasing interest for conservatives, as it assembled a host of allegations against Trump while he was a candidate, most of which have either been debunked or can’t be proven. Many of the sources of the claims in the dossier also can’t be pinned down with any accuracy.
The dossier was used in part to obtain a warrant to surveil Trump associate Carter Page in 2016, according to a report by the Washington Post in April. Page has constantly mocked the document as the “dodgy dossier.”
The dossier was also heavily relied upon as a basis for questions by Democrat members of the House Intelligence Committee when they held their first open hearing into Russian meddling in the 2016 elections.
Fusion GPS hired former British spy Christopher Steele to compile the dossier as part of opposition research organized to possibly damage Trump while still a candidate.
The Politico report also noted that committee spokesman Taylor Foy said Fusion GPS has turned over 41,000 documents, but says most of them are of no value.
Two people have testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that Fusion GPS ran “smear” campaigns. One of them was William Browder, a banker who worked to expose financial corruption within the Putin regime. Fusion has refuted Mr. Browder’s claims.
The other person is Thor Halvorssen, head of the Human Rights Foundation, who gave written testimony to the committee that he believes Fusion GPS operated smear campaigns against journalists who were on the case of potentially millions of dollars in fraud that involved South American power plants. The fraudulent profits were allegedly laundered in the U.S. and then funneled back to Venezuelan officials.
