Fusion GPS fires back against GOP critics of Trump dossier
WASHINGTON — Fusion GPS, the secretive consulting firm that produced a now-notorious dossier about President Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, publicly pushed back Wednesday at what they called Republican misinformation about their work.
“We’re extremely proud of our work to highlight Mr. Trump’s Russia ties. To have done so is our right under the First Amendment,” former journalists Glenn R. Simpson and Peter Fritsch, founders of the company, wrote in a New York Times op-ed.
They accused congressional Republicans of “selectively” leaking to farright media outlets details of the firm’s testimony to congressional committees and called for full release of the testimony transcripts “so that the American people can learn the truth about our work and most, important, what happened to our democracy.”
But most of the commentary was devoted to rebuffing allegations by Trump allies that the dossier the firm procured provided the impetus for the investigation of connections between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The intelligence committees, wrote the Fusion GPS executives, “have known for months that credible allegations of collusion between the Trump camp and Russia were pouring in from independent sources during the campaign. Yet lawmakers in the thrall of the president continue to wage a cynical campaign to portray us as the unwitting victims of Kremlin disinformation.”
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer, to compile allegations about Trump. The effort was funded first by Republicans and later by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic Committee. “Yes, we hired Mr. Steele, a highly respected Russia expert,” the Fusion executives wrote. “But we did so without informing him whom we were working for and gave him no specific marching orders beyond this basic question: Why did Mr. Trump repeatedly seek to do deals in a notoriously corrupt police state that most investors shunned?
“Mr. Steele’s sources in Russia (who were not paid) reported on an extensive — and now confirmed — effort by the Kremlin to help elect Mr. Trump president,” they wrote. “Mr. Steele saw this as a crime in progress and decided he needed to report it to the FBI.”
Trump and his allies have tried to discredit the congressional and special counsel investigations into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election as fueled by partisanship and the “fake news dossier,” suggesting it played a major role in sparking the probes.