Elon Musk on russiagate: what the evidence says · JRE #2223

What the evidence says 01 / RECORD

The research firm Fusion GPS was hired in April 2016 by Perkins Coie, the law firm representing Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee, to conduct opposition research on Donald Trump; Fusion GPS subsequently subcontracted former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, whose memos became known as the Steele dossier. A FISA application dated October 21, 2016, cited by the House Intelligence Committee's Democratic memo, identifies a "U.S.-based law firm" (Perkins Coie) as having hired Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson to conduct the Trump-Russia research. Fusion GPS had initially been retained by a different, Republican-aligned client (the Washington Free Beacon) during the primary, before the Clinton campaign/DNC funding arrangement began after Trump secured the GOP nomination. The characterization of a Perkins Coie lawyer being paid by, or working on behalf of, the Clinton campaign to fund this research chain is well-supported by contemporaneous reporting and the FISA application record; the claim as stated omits the intermediate step that Fusion GPS, not the Clinton campaign directly, contracted Steele, and omits that funding a dossier does not itself establish whether its underlying allegations were accurate.