Glenn Simpson, whose firm commissioned the infamous ‘dirty dossier’ on Donald Trump, has handed over a trove of information to Senate investigators.
Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, met with staff fort the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday at a closed meeting.
The panel kept the details of the appearance under close guard – declining to provide details about the time or location when asked about it, while senators are away for recess.
A source told Fox News that his firm, Fusion GPS, had turned over more than 40,000 to the Senate committee.
Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, who commissioned the infamous ‘dirty dossier’ on Donald Trump, met with Senate Judiciary Committee staff Tuesday
The degree of cooperation could represent a turnaround: the firm’s attorneys have previously argued that its client relationships are confidential.
The Judiciary panel, headed by Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, is probing compliance with the Foreign Registration Act. The Senate Intelligence Committee is conducting its own probe.
A public hearing the committee held before a Senate recess featured Hermitage Capital founder William Browder, who testified that Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya hired Simpson’s firm in an effort to ‘smear’ him.
Browder’s lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, died in a Russian prison, prompting passage of the Magnitsky Act slapping sanctions on Russian officials.
Participants at the hearing detailed efforts by Veselnitskaya to try to roll back the Magnitsky Act without having registered as a foreign agent.
William Browder testified that Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya hired Simpson’s firm Fusian GPS in an effort to ‘smear’ him
Ex British intelligence officer Christopher Steele produced the dossier. ABC reported he met with the FBI and provided source information
Veselnitskaya was among those attending a June 2016 meeting attended by Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort under the pretext of providing dirt on Hillary Clinton.
‘Veselnitskaya, through [the firm] Baker Hostetler, hired Glenn Simpson of the firm Fusion GPS to conduct a smear campaign against me and Sergei Magnitsky in advance of congressional hearings on the Global Magnitsky Act,’ Browder testified.
A recent New York Times story detailed the connections of another meeting participant, Russian immigrant and naturalized U.S. citizen and lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin, to the KGB. It reported a case where the firm that was a rival to one of Akhmetshin’s clients was subjected to an attempted hacking.
The committee had subpoenaed Simpson to testify in public, but ended up withdrawing the subpoena in exchange for his private testimony to staff.
The dirty dossier included unproven and discredited allegations against Donald Trump, and surfaced during the presidential campaign.
It’s author, ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, compiled alleged compromising information that Russia held over Trump.
Steele has met with FBI agents and provided the names of sources of his information in the dossier, ABC News reported.
Fusion GPS got paid by both Republicans and Democrats to dig up dirt on Trump.