Who paid for the Steele dossier and how did funding flow between Fusion GPS and its clients?
Executive summary
The Steele dossier was produced for Fusion GPS, which was paid first by a conservative site during the GOP primary and later by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) via the law firm Perkins Coie; Fusion GPS in turn retained former British spy Christopher Steele through his firm Orbis to compile the memos [1] [2] [3]. Federal regulators later found the Clinton campaign and the DNC misreported payments routed through Perkins Coie to Fusion GPS, resulting in a settlement and fines [4] [5] [6].
1. Origins: a Republican client then a change of customers
Fusion GPS began researching Donald Trump during the Republican primary after being hired by the conservative website the Washington Free Beacon to investigate multiple Republican candidates, a contract that predated work that became the Steele dossier; the Free Beacon has stated it did not pay for Steele’s specific memos and did not have contact with him [1] [3]. When Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, that Republican funding stopped and Fusion GPS’s client changed, according to contemporaneous reporting [3] [1].
2. The Clinton campaign and the DNC paid Perkins Coie, which engaged Fusion GPS
In April 2016 the Clinton campaign and the DNC retained the law firm Perkins Coie, and Perkins Coie then retained Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research on Trump—reports say the money flowed from the campaign and DNC to Perkins Coie, and from Perkins to Fusion GPS [2] [7] [6]. Multiple outlets and later administrative complaints alleged the campaign and DNC purposefully routed payments through Perkins Coie and described them as legal services rather than opposition research [8] [9] [4].
3. Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele and paid Orbis; Steele’s relationship to the clients
Fusion GPS retained Christopher Steele, a former MI6 officer, to investigate Trump-related Russia ties and Steele produced a series of memos for Fusion GPS; Steele testified that he was retained by Fusion GPS and did not initially know the campaign or DNC were the ultimate clients, though he learned of them months after signing the Fusion contract [3] [2]. Steele’s firm, Orbis Business Intelligence, supplied the reporting and received payment via the Fusion GPS arrangement, i.e., client money flowed Perkins Coie → Fusion GPS (Bean LLC) → Orbis/Steele [2] [8].
4. What official probes and regulators concluded about the money trail
The Federal Election Commission concluded the Clinton campaign and the DNC misreported the purpose of payments that funded the research and agreed to a settlement in which the campaign and DNC paid fines; regulators dismissed complaints against Steele, Perkins Coie and Fusion GPS while noting the reporting failures [4] [5] [6]. Administrative complaints filed earlier by groups such as the Campaign Legal Center alleged the payments were hidden through sub-vendor arrangements to avoid disclosure [9] [8].
5. Post‑2016 funding claims and disputed narratives
Some later reports and partisan outlets asserted additional funding streams to Fusion GPS or Steele—claims that entities like the Democracy Integrity Project or individuals funneled large sums in 2018–2019 have circulated in conservative and niche publications, but those sources (for example Minuteman Militia, Epoch, and similar outlets cited here) are contested and not reflected in mainstream regulatory findings presented above; reporting in major outlets and the FEC decision remain the authoritative public record for the 2016 payments [10] [11] [12]. Where such later funding is alleged, public documents and mainstream reporting should be checked; this analysis relies on the public record that traces the core 2016 payment path through Perkins Coie to Fusion GPS and then to Steele/Orbis [2] [4] [5].
6. Bottom line: who paid and how the flow ran
The clearest, document-backed chain for the Steele dossier’s 2016 work runs from the Clinton campaign and the DNC to Perkins Coie, from Perkins Coie to Fusion GPS (Bean LLC), and from Fusion GPS to Christopher Steele’s Orbis, while Fusion GPS had earlier been paid by the Washington Free Beacon during the Republican primary for unrelated work; federal regulators later found the campaign and the DNC misreported those payments and settled with fines [2] [1] [4] [5]. Alternative narratives exist and political actors have incentives to amplify them; those narratives often point to later or peripheral funding claims that are separate from the central 2016 payment trail documented by major outlets and by the FEC [10] [11].