Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson on Tuesday pleaded the Fifth following a GOP-issued subpoena to testify behind closed doors before two House committees.
Joshua Levy, a lawyer representing Simpson and the opposition research firm behind the “Steele dossier,” said his client would not be participating in the House Judiciary and House Oversight and Government Reform committees’ joint investigation, calling it a smear campaign that aims to undermine special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
Simpson’s attorney said the Republican-led Judiciary Committee has turned a blind eye to “White House efforts to influence and interfere with the Justice Department’s investigation in this administration,” noting that it has gone after whistleblowers and Mueller.
Levy compared their efforts to McCarthyism.
“Like Sen. [Joseph] McCarthy, this committee has largely conducted its business in secret confidential interviews and depositions, binding witnesses and their counsels to silence, while the members walk outside to all of you and the media and the public and selectively leak from those interviews to tell you what they want you to hear,” Levy added.
Levy, who said his client has cooperated with the investigations of three other congressional committees, has recently taken aim at the GOP lawmakers on the Judiciary and Oversight committees.
In a letter last week, Levy said Simpson will “invoke his constitutional rights not to testify under the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution” because this inquiry “is not designed to discover the truth.”
“Consistent with the September 27, 2018 letter we sent to you, Mr. Simpson, whose testimony is a matter of public record, will not be participating in a confidential deposition before this Committee,” lawyers for Simpson wrote to Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) in an electronic letter, according to a copy obtained by The Hill.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), one of the two GOP lawmakers present for Tuesday’s interview led by committee staff, said the panel will be having discussions in the “coming days” on whether they will move to hold Simpson in contempt for refusing to testify.
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Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson's lawyer: "Rather than continue any further in this charade, Mr. Simpson has proudly stood today on his Constitutional privileges not to testify." https://t.co/lACz7Bs9fp pic.twitter.com/QtpG7e25AZ
— The Hill (@thehill) October 17, 2018
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