Former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele’s company was paid $168,000 for its work creating a dossier on Donald Trump, Reuters reported Thursday.
Citing a statement from the research firm that paid Steele’s company, Fusion GPS, Reuters reported that the money paid to Steele was part of $1.02 million in fees Fusion GPS had received from Perkins Coie, a law firm representing the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Prior to Democrats hiring Fusion GPS for research, conservatives funded the firm’s work: Editors of the conservative news site Washington Free Beacon admitted Saturday that the outlet first contracted Fusion GPS to research Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primary. “We do not apologize for our methods,” they wrote. “The First Amendment guarantees our right to engage in news-gathering as we see fit.”
Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, however, have focused on Democrats’ work funding the research firm. On Sunday, Trump baselessly claimed the dossier cost $12 million.
Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?),….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017
The dossier, though still largely unverified, alleged that Russians had compromising information on Trump. Republicans have raged at the possibility that the dossier influenced, and perhaps initiated, congressional and federal investigations of Trump and his associates.
