Fusion GPS, a private intelligence firm, has failed to provide materials requested in March pertaining to the inflammatory but unverified dossier on Trump’s supposed escapades in Russia. Grassley is not about to let this slide, and if Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson does not comply by next Wednesday, he may get served a subpoena.
The Senate Judiciary Chairman determined that Fusion GPS’ argument for why it is refusing to unveil documents pertaining to the dossier is "inadequate," the senator’s press team said Friday.
"Neither Fusion GPS nor its attorney sufficiently explained how these protections precluded the firm from cooperating," with the Judiciary Committee, Grassley said in a letter dated June 7.
Simpson has until next Wednesday to hand over documents or “the Committee will begin consideration of compulsory process under its rules,” Grassley wrote in the letter.
Anticipating that GPS Fusion might furnish a confidentiality agreement as the basis for withholding information sought by the committee, Grassley asserted, "no such agreement can supersede the Committee’s constitutional authority to compel the production of information."
How did the private intelligence get mixed up in the salacious memo on Trump’s “Golden Shower” orgies in Moscow?
Fusion GPS was first retained by an unidentified GOP donor to do opposition research on Trump in September of 2015, about three months after the New York real estate mogul and reality TV personality declared his candidacy. Fusion GPS provides what are essentially intelligence services to business and political clients by working its network of sources to uncover information otherwise unavailable for an average Joe surfing the web.
Ex-MI6 spy and Russian expert Christopher Steele, author of the dodgy dossier, worked with Simpson from June to December 2016, according to a New York Times exposé.
The gun-for-hire firm did not see its contract renewed by the Republican donor once it became clear that Trump was the presumptive GOP candidate for president, but Simpson kept the operation live on his own terms.
Eventually, Democratic campaign donors shuffled into the picture, eager for the intelligence and information Simpson had collected while collaborating with Steele, who had once been stationed in Moscow as part of his service in the British intelligence apparatus.
Grassley first wrote to Simpson in March to confirm the Times account of just when Fusion GPS hired Orbis Business Intelligence, Steele’s consulting firm. Grassley also expressed that his committee would need the information Steele transferred to Simpson as part of their research. Further, Grassley questioned whether Fusion GPS acted to “instruct, request, suggest or imply” that opposition research materials be given to the FBI.
Grassley was intrigued by the notion that a memo from two private firms had been presented to the 44th and 45th US presidents, along with the rest of the US and British intelligence community.
In his letter to Simpson postmarked March, Grassley wrote, “When political opposition research becomes the basis for law enforcement or intelligence efforts, it raises substantial questions about the independence of law enforcement and intelligence from politics.”
