Conservative Site First Hired Firm to Create Dossier

“The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website funded by a major Republican donor, first hired the research firm that months later produced for Democrats the salacious dossier describing ties between Donald Trump and the Russian government,” the New York Times reports.

“It has long been known that Fusion GPS was first hired by Republicans, but it was not known who was the source of the funding.”

Washington Post: “Opposition research is nothing new in political races, or the corporate world, but it is not a common practice for a news website to hire out such work, which is often expensive. Firms like Fusion GPS can charge tens of thousands of dollars for research on a single subject.”