Fusion GPS announced the November release date of a book on its 2016 investigation into Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, promising to shed new light on British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s dossier about the future president.
The Washington, D.C.-based opposition research firm’s book, announced Monday, is expected to come a few weeks after release of a report into the origins of the investigation into Trump and Russia, which has shadowed his presidency since taking office in January 2017. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report is expected to cover allegations of abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by the FBI and the Department of Justice — including the government’s reliance on Steele’s dossier to obtain surveillance warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to monitor Trump campaign associate Carter Page.
Random House, publisher of Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump, promised the book would illustrate “the never-before-told inside story of the high-stakes, four-year-long investigation into Donald Trump’s Russia ties — culminating in the Steele dossier, and sparking the Mueller report — from the founders of political opposition research company Fusion GPS.”
Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, the book’s co-authors, are former Wall Street Journal reporters who co-founded the firm. The duo has been largely silent over the past couple years, with the exception of occasional interviews and New York Times op-eds condemning “Republicans’ fake investigations.”
The Steele dossier, which included salacious descriptions of Trump’s activities in Moscow as a businessman before he became president, has been a political rorschach test into views of the Russia investigation. Trump supporters largely view it as an unverified raw file of information aimed at undermining the legitimacy of his presidency, while critics contend its main assertions have stood up well over time.
The 412 pages of redacted FISA documents released in 2018 show the DOJ and FBI made extensive use of Steele’s dossier. Fusion GPS was hired by Clinton’s campaign and the DNC through the Perkins Coie law firm. Fusion GPS then hired Steele, who allegedly reached out to Russian sources to put together his dossier.
Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook said they received briefings about Fusion GPS’s findings during 2016. But watchdog groups allege the Clinton campaign purposely concealed the hiring of Fusion GPS and Steele by reporting the payments it made to Perkins Coie as “legal services” without mentioning opposition research. Perkins Coie was paid over $12 million between 2016 and 2017 for its work representing Clinton and the DNC. According to congressional testimony from Simpson, Fusion GPS was paid $50,000 per month from Perkins Coie, and Steele was paid roughly $168,000 by Fusion GPS.
