Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS, which commissioned file on presidential candidate, gives only private interview undertaken so far as part of senate inquiry

The co-founder of a Washington opposition research firm that produced a dossier of salacious allegations involving President Donald Trump has met for hours with congressional investigators in a closed-door appearance that stretched into the evening.

Glenn Simpson’s lawyer, Josh Levy, emerged from the day-long private appearance with the Senate judiciary committee and said his client had “told Congress the truth and cleared the record on many matters of interest”.



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“Following up on comments from certain Senate judiciary committee members who have noted Mr Simpson’s cooperation with this investigation,” Levy said, “I would like to add that he is the first and only witness to participate in an interview with the committee as it probes Russian interference in the 2016 election.”

Leaders of the judiciary committee said last month that they were trying to get Donald Trump Jr and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to make similar appearances. However, no such interviews have taken place. Donald Jr has attracted scrutiny for accepting a June 2016 meeting invitation with Russians at which he expected to receive damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Levy noted that Simpson appeared voluntarily. The sheer length of Simpson’s appearance — far longer, for instance, than Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, spent earlier this summer before Senate and House intelligence committees — reflected the intrigue on Capitol Hill surrounding the dossier and the origins of the document.

Simpson’s firm, Fusion GPS, hired a British intelligence contractor who produced a dossier containing allegations of ties between Trump and his associates and Russia. Simpson kept the identities of the firm’s clients confidential during his appearance before Congress, his lawyer said.



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“Fusion GPS is proud of the work it has conducted and stands by it,” Levy, Simpson’s lawyer, said in a statement.



He said the “investigation into Mr Simpson began as a desperate attempt by the Trump campaign and its allies to smear Fusion GPS because of its reported connection to the Trump dossier”.

The document attracted public attention in January when it was revealed that the FBI director, James Comey, had briefed Trump about its existence soon before he was inaugurated as president. It is unclear to what extent the allegations in the dossier have been corroborated or verified by the FBI since the bureau has not publicly discussed it.

