Who initially contracted Fusion GPS to research Donald Trump and Russia?
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Executive summary
Fusion GPS first did opposition research on Donald Trump in 2015 for the conservative website The Washington Free Beacon; that engagement ended in May 2016 (Free Beacon funded the earlier work) before Fusion GPS was retained in April 2016 by the law firm Perkins Coie on behalf of the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee to continue research that led to hiring former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele (Perkins Coie engaged Fusion GPS and Steele was subcontracted) [1][2][3].
1. The early phase: a conservative client opened the file
Fusion GPS’s work on Trump began during the 2016 GOP primary when the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news site, retained the firm to research Trump and other Republican candidates; the Free Beacon has publicly acknowledged hiring Fusion GPS and confirmed its funding ran from 2015 into spring 2016 [1][4][5].
2. The transition: from Free Beacon to law-firm engagement
When Trump emerged as the likely Republican nominee, the Free Beacon stopped funding the project; Fusion GPS then approached Perkins Coie, which in April 2016 retained Fusion GPS to “continue research” regarding Donald Trump on behalf of its clients—the Clinton campaign and the DNC—according to the law firm and contemporaneous reporting [2][6].
3. Who hired Christopher Steele and when
Fusion GPS subcontracted the Russia-focused portion of the work in June 2016 to Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer working for Orbis Business Intelligence; Steele produced the set of memos now known as the Steele dossier [7][3][8].
4. Money trail and client confidentiality
Reporting and court filings indicate Perkins Coie paid Fusion GPS during the April–October 2016 engagement and that Fusion GPS in turn paid Steele’s firm; specific dollar figures (for instance, the amounts Fusion GPS reported receiving from Perkins Coie or paying to Orbis) are referenced in several sources but the precise breakdown and some client identities remained contested for a time while Fusion GPS invoked client confidentiality [8][3][9].
5. Why confusion and controversy persisted
Multiple factors produced public confusion: the project had two distinct phases with different payers (a GOP-aligned private client during the primary, then Perkins Coie representing Democratic clients during the general-election phase), Fusion GPS’s guarded client list, and later political attacks that amplified gaps and alleged improprieties [3][9][10].
6. What investigators and media confirmed
Congressional transcripts, contemporaneous reporting and Fusion GPS testimony make the sequence clear: Free Beacon funded pre-primary work; that funding stopped; Fusion GPS solicited and obtained a Perkins Coie engagement for Clinton/DNC-related research in April 2016; Fusion GPS then hired Steele in June 2016 to investigate Russian connections [1][2][7].
7. Competing narratives and open questions
Some Republican officials and commentators have suggested alternative origin stories or attempted to emphasize the initial Republican funding; others have stressed the centrality of the Democratic campaign-era Perkins Coie engagement in the dossier’s production. Sources agree on the two-phase client history but differ on interpretation and political framing [10][11][5].
8. Limitations in available reporting
Available sources do not mention a publicly identified individual Republican who funded Fusion GPS during the primary; reporting instead describes that early client as “unknown” or “a conservative donor” and points to the Washington Free Beacon as the publicly confirmed early payer [12][1]. Detailed bank-level accounting of every dollar and every communication between all parties is not fully public in the sources provided here [9][8].
9. Bottom line
Factually: Fusion GPS was first hired by the Washington Free Beacon to research Trump during the GOP primary; after that funding ceased, Perkins Coie retained Fusion GPS in April 2016 on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC, and Fusion GPS then subcontracted Christopher Steele in June 2016 to investigate Russian ties [1][2][7].