House panel drops effort to force testimony on Trump 'dossier'

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A congressional panel on Wednesday dropped attempts to force the founder of a firm that hired a former British spy to compile a dossier of links between the 2016 Trump election campaign and Russia to testify under oath, a lawyer for the firm said.

Fusion GPS lawyer Joshua Levy said in a statement that Republican Representative Mike Conaway and Democrat Adam Schiff, leaders of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Trump campaign contacts with Russia, had “agreed to withdraw a subpoena” served on Glenn Simpson, a founder of the firm.

“Mr. Simpson will instead sit for a voluntary interview next week, and nothing will be said at that interview – per the agreement of Mr. Conaway and Mr. Schiff – shall interfere with Mr. Simpson’s ability to assert privileges in this investigation,” Levy said.

He said that under this agreement, Fusion GPS would be allowed to “cooperate while honoring its obligations to clients.”

-snip-

#POLITICS NOVEMBER 8, 2017 / 5:08 PM / UPDATED 24 MINUTES AGO
Mark Hosenball
3 MIN READ


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-dossier/house-panel-drops-effort-to-force-testimony-on-trump-dossier-idUSKBN1D835B

[Me.]

1. Yet Another Win To Record Today

What about Nunes, will he succeed in getting an interview considering Fusion is resisting?

[mamas]

2. Are they afraid?

Wonder what they really know?

[pecosbob]

3. Don't think I ever had much confidence in the House's ability to police the administration or itself

These are mostly the same people who tried to repeal Obamacare like forty-seven times in the last ten years.

[hedda_foil]

4. How about interviewing the Mercers.

[Sunlei]

5. We don't need to know what Republican paid for the original vetting of trump- we do need to

know how DNC and others were hacked, how are elections were hacked/attempted and who colluded with a foreign government to attack Americas democracy.

Also be good to get some money approved and national security investigations-, FBI/CIA? and settle once and for all what happened to Seth.

[Honeycombe8]

7. I think we know that, don't we? Bannon is going after the guy:

Steve Bannon is reportedly going 'off the chain' to destroy hedge fund giant Paul Singer
Bannon told President Trump during a phone call Friday night that he was going "off the chain" to destroy Paul Singer, Axios reports.
Singer is a major Republican donor and the head of Elliott Management.
This follows reports saying The Washington Free Beacon — a Singer-backed conservative website — hired Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on several Republican presidential candidates, including Trump.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/30/steve-bannon-reportedly-trying-to-destroy-hedge-fund-giant-paul-singer.html

[ananda]

6. Adam Schiff went along with this?

???

[Honeycombe8]

8. It may be because they have trouble subpoenaing a British citizen. Just a guess.

So this way they get information, but it's not under oath, and Simpson can still be protected legally. For example, could be some of his taping may have been illegal.

[mobeau69]

9. It's a crime to lie to Congress whether you're under oath or not.

Either way is hard to prove but they both are crimes non-the-less.

[madville]

10. I bet they got word Mueller will be interviewing them as well

It's a given at this point that Mueller and his team will be digging into Fusion and their Russian relationships. It will be interesting to see if the Russian officials Fusion used as sources were funneling information, true or not, in order to influence or cause chaos in the election.

It's especially interesting that the Russian adoption lawyer met with the Fusion co-founder right before her meeting with Trump Jr. and then right after.