In September 2015, Fusion GPS was hired by
The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative political website, to do opposition research on Trump and other Republican presidential candidates. In spring 2016 when Trump had emerged as the probable Republican candidate, the
Free Beacon stopped funding investigation into Trump.
[28] From April 2016 through October 2016, the law firm
Perkins Coie, on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the
Democratic National Committee, retained Fusion GPS to continue opposition research on Trump.
[29][30][31] In June 2016, Fusion GPS retained
Christopher Steele, a private British corporate intelligence investigator and former
MI-6 agent, to research any Russian connections to Trump. Steele produced a 35-page series of memos from June to December 2016, which became the document known as the
Donald Trump–Russia dossier.
[29][32] Fusion GPS provided
Marc Elias, the lead election lawyer for Perkins Coie, with the resulting dossier and other research documents.
[30][31]