What role did Fusion GPS play in compiling the Steele dossier?

1. Fusion GPS hired Steele and managed the Russia phase

Fusion GPS retained Christopher Steele in June 2016 “to research any Russian connections to Trump,” and Steele produced a series of memos from June to December 2016 that became the Steele dossier ^[1]. Multiple accounts — including Fusion’s founders and contemporary reporting — characterize Fusion as the firm that subcontracted Steele’s work and “oversaw the compilation” of the dossier ^{[4] [3]}. Fusion’s role was not simply passive: it commissioned Steele and channeled the investigation that shifted the firm’s focus from Trump’s business history to alleged Russia ties ^{[5] [6]}.

2. Two distinct research phases — Fusion’s earlier work vs. Steele’s Russia memos

Public descriptions separate Fusion’s earlier, GOP-funded opposition research from the later Russia-focused phase that produced the dossier. Fusion had done public-source research earlier in 2015–2016 for the Washington Free Beacon, but that material “does not appear in the Steele dossier”; the dossier itself came from Steele’s subcontracted memos focused on Russia ^[2]. Fusion’s founders say their initial assignment was about Trump’s business dealings and only later did they engage Steele to pursue Russia connections ^{[7] [5]}.

3. Fusion as coordinator, not the primary author

Sources consistently attribute authorship of the memos to Steele, a former MI6 officer, rather than to Fusion staff. The dossier consisted of Steele’s memos drawn from his own network of sources and was written by Steele for Fusion GPS ^{[2] [1]}. Fusion functioned as the client and coordinator — commissioning, receiving, and distributing Steele’s reports — rather than being the primary author of Steele’s fieldwork and memos ^{[2] [3]}.

4. How Fusion presented and used the material

According to Fusion’s founders, Steele’s memos were originally internal reports “supposed to be used internally to guide further investigation, and were shared selectively to spur more digging” ^[7]. That account frames Fusion’s role as using Steele’s product to guide subsequent reporting and research rather than as publishing or making the dossier itself a public document ^[7].

5. Legal and political fallout tied to Fusion’s involvement

Fusion’s central coordinating role exposed the firm to legal and political scrutiny. Courts have ordered Fusion to turn over internal communications tied to the work surrounding the dossier, and Fusion has been involved in lawsuits and congressional inquiries about its activities ^{[8] [1]}. Fusion’s public profile — and the founders’ book — have both reinforced the narrative that Fusion commissioned and oversaw Steele while contesting some public portrayals of how the dossier emerged ^{[4] [9]}.

6. Competing narratives and partisan claims

There are sharply divergent public narratives about Fusion’s role. Mainstream accounts, Fusion’s own testimony, and contemporaneous reports describe Fusion as the firm that hired Steele and supervised the Russia investigation that produced the dossier ^{[2] [3]}. At the same time, partisan outlets and conspiracy-oriented sites have amplified claims that Fusion played a much broader or more nefarious role in multiple anti-Trump narratives, but those assertions are unsupported in the mainstream sources provided here ^{[10] [11]}. Available reporting in the provided sources does not substantiate sweeping claims that Fusion authored the memos or that it was paid by Russia; instead, sources show Fusion subcontracted Steele and handled the dossier as a product of his memos ^{[1] [2]}.

7. What the primary sources do not (or do) say

Primary reporting and Fusion’s own accounts emphasize three facts: Fusion commissioned Steele, Steele wrote the memos based on his sources, and those memos collectively became known as the Steele dossier ^{[2] [1] [3]}. Available sources do not mention Fusion itself drafting Steele’s memos or directly supplying Steele’s confidential Russian-source material; they instead describe Fusion as the commissioning firm that managed and disseminated Steele’s work ^{[2] [1]}. If you are seeking more granular detail — for example, exact emails or internal timelines beyond what has been turned over in litigation — those specifics are the subject of court filings and Fusion’s own book rather than fully laid out in the general reporting summarized here ^{[8] [4]}.

Bottom line: the sources provided present Fusion GPS as the commissioning and coordinating firm that hired Christopher Steele in mid‑2016 and oversaw the production and circulation of the Steele dossier, while Steele himself is identified as the author of the memos and the dossier’s primary source-gatherer ^{[1] [2] [3]}.