October 28, 2017

A conservative US website has admitted that it initially hired the political research firm behind the controversial dossier on Donald Trump that outlined the president’s alleged ties to Russia.

During the 2016 election race, the Washington Free Beacon, a rightwing site funded by a prominent Republican donor, hired a firm called Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on several GOP presidential candidates, including Trump, the site said on Friday. But Matthew Continetti, editor-in-chief, said the Free Beacon had “no knowledge of or connection to” the dossier or Christopher Steele, the former British spy behind the document.

The revelation came days after reports that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic national committee (DNC) helped fund the Fusion GPS opposition research that led to the high-profile Trump-Russia dossier. Trump seized on the reports about Clinton and the DNC, recently tweeting a quote about the document that said the “victim here is the president”.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/27/donald-trump-russia-dossier-washington-free-beacon