Firm behind Trump dossier rebuffs Russia inquiry subpoena
Lawyers say Nunes’ call for info is sloppy and shameful
The political consulting firm behind an infamous dossier alleging ties between President Trump’s campaign and the Russian government refused Monday to comply with a subpoena from the House intelligence committee.
Lawyers for the firm, Fusion GPS, dismissed the subpoenas as “shameful” in a letter to the committee’s chairman, Rep. Devon Nunes, R-Calif., whom they accused of having launched his own “parallel investigation to the detriment of any serious attempt by this Committee to obtain information about whether the Russian government and its associates influenced the 2016 presidential election.”
Fusion GPS commissioned former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to research Trump in the months before the election. The result was an explosive — and unverified — dossier alleging extensive ties between Trump and the Russian government, allegations Trump has called false and “disgraceful.”
The dossier — both its accuracy and its role in the FBI’s inquiry into alleged Russian influence — has become a subject of the three separate congressional Russia investigations.
Fusion GPS’ lawyers, Joshua Levy and Robert Muse, said in a letter Monday that Nunes signed subpoenas Oct. 4 seeking records and testimony from three people connected to the firm. Among other things, lawmakers have been trying to determine who paid Fusion GPS to investigate Trump. The subpoenas had not previously been made public.
In their letter, the lawyers told Nunes “you have left us with no choice but to advise our clients to assert their privileges in the face of these subpoenas.”
Fusion GPS’ co-founder Glenn Simpson testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in August.
Muse and Levy questioned Nunes’ role in authorizing the subpoenas. Nunes said in April that he would turn over leadership of the committee’s Russia investigation after the House Ethics Committee said it was looking into whether he had improperly released classified information to the news media.
“Your unilateral issuance of these subpoenas violates your recusal and further undermines the legitimacy of this investigation,” the lawyers wrote.
A spokesman for Nunes declined to comment on Monday.
The lawyers complained that Nunes’ subpoena appeared to have been hastily prepared — part of it was addressed to the CIA — and said it did not appear to have been properly authorized by the entire committee.
They said that producing records about the firm’s political consulting would “chill the exercise of confidential opposition research in elections and might put a halt to it, once and for all.”
The dossier — both its accuracy and its role in the FBI’s inquiry into alleged Russian influence — has become a subject of the three separate congressional Russia investigations.