The co-founder of the opposition research firm that created an unsubstantiated dossier about President Donald Trump's alleged ties to Russia will not appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee next week, according to news reports Friday.
The attorney for Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS told CNN that his client was not appearing next Wednesday at a public hearing on oversight of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Fusion hired former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele to create the dossier with the unverified accusations.
Donald Trump Jr. and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort were also scheduled to appear before the Judiciary Committee.
Their attorneys were in talks Friday with Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa about their appearances, a committee spokesman told Newsmax.
According to CNN's Manu Raju, Simpson's attorney said his client considered Grassely's request "partisan" – calling it a "pretext to try to cast doubt on efforts to look into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials."
The panel also sought documents from Simpson that the attorney said were "way too broad," Raju said.
In addition, the attorney said that Simpson would "potentially" take the Fifth Amendment should he be subpoenaed to appear before the committee, he reported.
Grassley has said that he would subpoena Simpson, as well as Trump Jr. and Manafort, should they not agree to appear.
The committee's spokesman, Taylor Foy, reiterated to Newsmax on Friday that Grassley and committee Vice Chairman Dianne Feinstein of California reserved the right to issues subpoenas to compel testimony and the production of documents.
Foy did not immediately respond to a Newsmax query on the CNN report.
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