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US State Department Ex-Official Refuses to Testify in Congress on Trump Dossier

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - David J. Kramer, a former assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, has used his Fifth Amendment right not to testify before the House Intelligence Committee about the dossier with unverified compromising information on US President Donald Trump, according to US media.
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Kramer, who is currently an affiliated senior fellow at Washington-based think tank, the McCain Institute for International Leadership, chose not to appear before the committee, FOX News broadcaster reported on Thursday, citing a law enforcement source.

Kramer testified before the committee in December in a closed-door session, indicated that he had some information about the dossier's sources and then received a subpoena.

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The compilation of memos with allegations of misconduct and conspiracy was made public by BuzzFeed news outlet in January last year, shortly before Trump's inauguration.

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According to media reports, US research firm Fusion GPS was hired to find out Trump's vulnerabilities as part of the opposition research during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. The investigation was funded first by Trump's own party, the Conservatives, and later by the Democratic Party.

The White House has denounced all of the allegations in the dossier. Meanwhile, the intelligence committees both in US Senate and the US House of Representatives are looking into an alleged collusion between Trump's campaign and Moscow, which appears to be corroborated by the unverified dossier. A similar investigation is being led by the Special Counsel under the direction of former FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the allegations of collusion were false. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the dossier in particular "a forgery."

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