Dossier firm loses bid to keep bank data from House panel

WASHINGTON — A federal judge Thursday denied a request by Fusion GPS to block the House Intelligence Committee from demanding bank records of 70 of the private investigative firm’s transactions with law firms, journalists and contractors, ruling that the request did not violate the company’s First Amendment rights to political speech and association.

In a 26-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon of Washington said the data sought by the House GOP-led panel in its investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election concerned only the firm’s business activities, not the substance of its clients’ political activity.

“The financial records the Committee seeks show only the name of the payer or the payee, the amount of the payment, and certain identifying information. They do not indicate what the payment was for,” Leon wrote.

Fusion GPS said it would appeal the ruling, arguing the House panel was ranging into private dealings unrelated in any way to the Russia probe or to President Donald Trump.

Fusion GPS commissioned the so-called Trump “dossier,” researched by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, that reported then-candidate Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.

The dossier included some accurate, false and unverified information, including that the Russian government collected compromising information on Trump and that the Kremlin was trying to assist his campaign.

Republican critics of the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller III into the Trump campaign’s links with Russia have accused Fusion of working with Democrats to set the probe in motion.

Fusion GPS founders Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch this week called those arguments “mendacious conspiracy theories.” spun by Trump supporters who were seeking to create distractions.