Glenn Simpson was a no-show for his testimony before a congressional panel today and his lawyers say he will invoke the 5th Amendment. Bruce Ohr testified and his testimony conflicted with Simpson’s. Simpson’s lawyers told the committee that they weren’t interested in the truth.
People who tell the truth do not invoke the Fifth Amendment unless they have broken the law. That means both Rosenstein and Simpson refuse to testify. Investigators must be getting very close to the truth. The flak is always heaviest when you are right on the target.
The Hill reported:
The lawyers told Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) in an electronic letter that Simpson will not participate in the committee’s inquiry because it “is not designed to discover the truth.”
“Consistent with the September 27, 2018 letter we sent to you, Mr. Simpson, whose testimony is a matter of public record, will not be participating in a confidential deposition before this Committee,” lawyers for Simpson wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Hill. “He will instead invoke his constitutional rights not to testify under the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution.”
In the latest scathing letter, the lawyers continued to slam the committee — marking a departure from the otherwise typically quiet approach that most lawyers and witnesses involved in this joint probe have taken.
“The obvious — and at times explicitly stated — 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 a President who has sought to placate and curry favor with a hostile foreign power and who demands that the Justice Department stop investigating him,” they wrote.
The lawyers accused the panels’ Republicans of seeking to “ruin the reputations of some of the government’s most dedicated and experienced civil servants,” in an attempt to “weaken the independence of this Justice Department.”
Rod Rosenstein doesn’t show today. Now Fusion’s Glenn Simpson reportedly takes the Fifth.
At some point, we have to realize: the problem has never been President Trump. The problem is the coordinated effort to undermine him… and those who will stop at nothing to cover it up. https://t.co/KtE3b00Ki8
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) October 11, 2018
You know we’re getting close when first Rosenstein is a no-show, and now Glenn Simpson is taking the 5th.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) October 11, 2018