# Fusion GPS A Washington opposition-research and private-intelligence firm founded in 2011 by two former *Wall Street Journal* reporters, [[Glenn Simpson]] and Peter Fritsch. It sells investigative research to law firms, investors, companies and campaigns. It is in this vault because it commissioned the [[Steele Dossier]] — which made it the single most useful villain in the right's account of the Trump–Russia investigation as a "hoax." ## The Trump research chain The chain of who paid for what is the fact that gets garbled most, so it is set out here in order. | Period | Client | What Fusion was doing | |---|---|---| | Sept 2015 – May 2016 | [[Washington Free Beacon]] (conservative outlet backed by [[Paul Singer]]) | General opposition research on Trump during the GOP primary | | Apr 2016 – Oct 2016 | [[Perkins Coie]], on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC (engaged through [[Marc Elias]]) | Continued Trump research | | From June 2016 | — (subcontract) | Fusion hires [[Christopher Steele]]'s firm Orbis to investigate Trump's Russia ties; the result is the 35-page dossier | So the research started on the right and was continued by the Democrats; the **Steele work specifically** happened only in the Democratic-funded phase. The Free Beacon has said it had no connection to the dossier. ## The disclosure problem The Clinton campaign and DNC paid Perkins Coie, which paid Fusion, which paid Orbis — and the campaign reports described the spending as "legal services." In March 2022 the [[Federal Election Commission]] fined the **DNC $105,000** and the **Clinton campaign $8,000** for misreporting the purpose of the payments, resolving a complaint brought by the [[Coolidge Reagan Foundation]]. The fine was for how the spending was labeled, not for the research itself. ## Other engagements that matter here - **The Prevezon case.** In 2014 the law firm BakerHostetler hired Fusion to support the defense of Prevezon Holdings, a Russian-owned company in a Justice Department money-laundering case tied to the Magnitsky affair. That put Fusion on the same side as [[Natalia Veselnitskaya]], Prevezon's Russian lawyer, and against [[Bill Browder]] — the same Veselnitskaya who came to the [[Trump Tower Meeting June 2016]]. Right-wing critics treat this as proof Fusion was itself working a Russian angle; Fusion says the two engagements were unrelated. - **The Planned Parenthood videos.** In 2015 Fusion was retained to analyze the Center for Medical Progress undercover videos about Planned Parenthood and concluded they had been heavily edited — the same deceptive-editing critique later made of [[Project Veritas]]. ## Scrutiny Simpson testified to the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] in August 2017 and to the [[House Intelligence Committee]] in November 2017. The House Republican effort under [[Devin Nunes]] — see [[Release the Memo]] — made the firm and its dossier the centerpiece of the argument that the FBI's [[Crossfire Hurricane]] investigation was politically tainted. Simpson and Fritsch told their side in the 2019 book *Crime in Progress*. [[John Durham]]'s special-counsel inquiry went after the surrounding network. Its first trial ended on May 31, 2022, with the acquittal of Perkins Coie lawyer [[Michael Sussmann]] on a charge of lying to the FBI about the separate [[Alfa Bank]] server tip. ## Why the right keeps it alive In the counter-narrative, Fusion GPS is where the investigation "really" began: a Democratic oppo shop paid a foreign ex-spy to write a smear, and the FBI used it. The documented record is narrower. The dossier's specific allegations were largely unverified; the FBI did rely on it in the Carter Page surveillance applications, which the Justice Department inspector general faulted; but Crossfire Hurricane was opened on the Papadopoulos tip, not the dossier. The narrative outlived the facts because it became policy. Trump's March 6, 2025 executive order against [[Perkins Coie]] names Fusion GPS in its first paragraph, accusing the law firm of hiring it "to manufacture a false 'dossier' designed to steal an election." See [[Trump Retribution Doctrine]]. ## See Also - [[Steele Dossier]] · [[Christopher Steele]] · [[Glenn Simpson]] - [[Perkins Coie]] · [[Marc Elias]] — the Democratic-side client chain - [[Washington Free Beacon]] — the first client - [[Crossfire Hurricane]] · [[Mueller Investigation]] · [[John Durham]] — the investigations - [[Trump-Russia Arc Timeline]]