(From left) Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) are seen on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is pulling back from plans to subpoena Glenn Simpson. | Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images Senate Judiciary backs off plans to force Glenn Simpson to publicly testify A spokesman for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Senate Judiciary Committee is pulling back from plans to subpoena Glenn Simpson, the co-founder of the firm that helped commission the salacious, disputed dossier on President Donald Trump’s alleged connections to Russia, according to a source familiar with the matter. Instead, Simpson is expected to be allowed to testify privately.

A spokesman for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


The initial plan for Simpson to testify in the open had raised the specter of public testimony about the dossier's seamy and contested claims of sexual misconduct and a years-long Kremlin conspiracy to boost Trump.

Separately, a person close to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation said former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort will meet with that panel in the next 48 hours and has agreed to provide notes of a now-controversial meeting at Trump Tower last year with a Kremlin-linked lawyer.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, however, has issued a subpoena for Manafort to publicly testify at its hearing on Wednesday.