Glenn Simpson, the man behind the Donald Trump ‘dirty dossier’ firm, refuses to testify to Congress

Simpson’s lawyer said the committee’s inquiry ‘is not designed to discover the truth’, but to ‘discredit and otherwise damage witnesses to Russia’s interference in the 2016 election’

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Glenn R. Simpson, co-founder of the research firm Fusion GPS, is seen arriving for a closed House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington in November 2017. He has refused a new subpoena to appear before the House in October. Photo: AP

Published: 7:32am, 12 Oct 2018Updated: 7:33am, 12 Oct 2018

The founder of a political research firm that hired former British spy Christopher Steele to compile a dossier on alleged contacts between then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his advisers and Russia is refusing to testify to a Republican-led investigation by Congress.

A letter sent on Thursday to the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee by lawyers representing Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson said their client will not give a deposition in response to a committee subpoena.

“The committee’s inquiry is not designed to discover the truth,” Simpson’s lawyers said in the letter to the committee’s chairman, Republican Representative Bob Goodlatte. “The goal of this committee is to discredit and otherwise damage witnesses to Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, all as part of an effort to protect [Trump]”, the letter said.

Christopher Steele, the former MI6 agent who compiled a dossier on Donald Trump, is seen in London in March 2017. Photo: AP

Goodlatte announced the subpoena last month after Simpson refused the committee’s request for an interview. The deposition is scheduled for October 16.