A federal judge on Thursday denied a request by Fusion GPS, the private intelligence firm behind the so-called Trump dossier, to block a subpoena issued by the House Intelligence Committee on the firm’s bank for certain financial records.
In court filings Friday morning, Fusion GPS indicated that it planned to appeal the decision and asked the judge, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon, to put Thursday’s order on hold.
Leon, in his opinion Thursday, brushed aside the concern Fusion GPS raised that the committee would leak its clients’ confidential information, and said the subpoena did not constitute a First Amendment violation, as Fusion GPS had argued.
Leon also rejected the firm’s claims that the subpoena was overly broad and that it had been issued outside of the committee’s rules.
“Because the Committee possesses the power to investigate Russian active measures directed at the 2016 Presidential election, and there is a reasonable possibility that the records requested will contain information relevant to that investigation, the Subpoena is not impermissibly broad, even if the records turn out to be unfruitful avenues of investigation,” Leon wrote.
For months, House Intel and the firm have duked it out over the firm’s cooperation with the committee’s Russia probe. Fusion GPS has accused the committee’s Republicans of being on a smear campaign against the firm.
Fusion GPS’ lawsuit to block the subpoena of its bank records was first filed in October, but the litigation died down when it appeared that congressional investigators and the firm had come to an agreement on sharing certain bank records.
That agreement apparently fell apart, prompting them to take the fight to Leon’s courtroom, where he heard arguments on blocking the subpoena in November.
The firm has become a focus of GOP lawmakers on the various committees probing Russia, with some Republicans echoing President Trump’s talking points that it may have been the Democrats who colluded with Russian, given that the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee for a time financed the dossier project. The research project was first paid for by the right-leaning Washington Free Beacon, and taken over by the Dems in spring 2016. British ex-spy Christopher Steele was hired after that to produce the dossier, which included various allegations of Russian-Trump ties.
Thursday’s court order comes as House Intel Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) also secured a deal — reportedly with Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) backing — to view Justice Department documents related to its attempts to corroborate the dossier’s claims.
Read Judge Leon’s opinion below:
IIRC, wasn’t the dossier initially a project of Republican 'Never Trump’ers?
yes, but at issue are a couple things here:
Abbreviated Wiki page on the judge:
Leon graduated from the Holy Cross (where he was a classmate of Clarence Thomas) in 1971.
Leon served as deputy chief minority counsel on the House Iran-Contra committee from 1987 to 1988.
Leon was with Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease from 1999 to 2002, when he was appointed to the district court. (Manafort was with Vorys from 1977-1980)
Leon was nominated to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia by George W. Bush on September 10, 2001 and confirmed by the Senate on February 14, 2002.
Leon issued a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for ordering graphic images on cigarette packs. On February 29, 2012, Judge Leon’s final ruling held that the graphic images & statements violated the commercial right to free speech.
On May 17, 2016, Judge Leon ruled the Washington, DC handgun carry permitting scheme unconstitutional. He struck down the District requirement that an applicant show “good reason” before a concealed carry permit would be issued
Except Steele didn’t illegally hack anyone’s computer or work with a foreign government to illegally hack private US computers…other than that its just like the GOP’s collusion with Putin except it wasn’t illegal or treasonous !,We now see this this criminally insane religious cult known as Republicans reduced to Pee-Wee Herman’s use of "logical reasoning "…I know you are but what am I…???
George Orwell’s 1984 is the language of Republicans…
Ooooooooooh, now we’re now in so much doody that our only hope is to try to discredit someone by poking in their bank accounts.