Washington Free Beacon first hired Fusion GPS: Why?

By Lee Cary —— Bio and Archives February 5, 2018

Comments | Print This | Subscribe | Email Us

The Fusion GPS-Steele dossier was, in its embryo stage, conceived by those who run a conservative Republican website headquartered in the Swamp. No one disputes that. A more definitive description of the news outlet might be: GOP Establishment-aligned. On October 27, 2017, Matthew Continetti and Michael Goldfarb, respectively Editor-in-Chief and Chair of the Washington Free Beacon (WFB), posted this statement on their website:

“Since its launch in February of 2012, the Washington Free Beacon has retained third party firms to conduct research on many individuals and institutions of interest to us and our readers. In that capacity, during the 2016 election cycle we retained Fusion GPS to provide research on multiple candidates in the Republican presidential primary, just as we retained other firms to assist in our research into Hillary Clinton. All of the work that Fusion GPS provided to the Free Beacon was based on public sources, and none of the work product that the Free Beacon received appears in the Steele dossier. The Free Beacon had no knowledge of or connection to the Steele dossier, did not pay for the dossier, and never had contact with, knowledge of, or provided payment for any work performed by Christopher Steele. Nor did we have any knowledge of the relationship between Fusion GPS and the Democratic National Committee, Perkins Coie, and the Clinton campaign.”

The WFB, originally part of the Center for American Freedom (CAF), is now owned by…well, we don’t exactly know. William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard and a hardcore NeverTrumpster, was on the original CAF Board. Continetti and Goldfarb both once worked for the Weekly Standard. Oh, Continetti is married to Kristol’s daughter. The conservative billionaire Paul Singer, also a prominent NeverTrumpster, is a recognized financial contributor to the WFB. Breitbart’s Big Journalism reported that, “The Washington Free Beacon, funded by GOP mega-donor Paul Singer, was the original funder of Fusion GPS’ research project that attempted to dig up dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump — a project that would later be funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign.”

It’s reasonable to assume that the WFB was not a major distributor for Trump’s MAGA campaign caps. And, there’s no elaboration, in their statement above, about hiring Fusion GPS to provide “research on multiple candidates in the Republican presidential primary.” What other GOP primary candidates did they target for oppo research? Suppose Jeb Bush was one? The Hill, now deep into exposing the Steele dossier, posted and answered this question: What is Fusion GPS? “[Glenn] Simpson, a former Wall Street Journal [plus Roll Call] investigative reporter, cofounded the strategic intelligence firm with two other Journal alumni in 2012. The company has done research for Democrats on 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney and for Planned Parenthood on a series of undercover videos released by anti-abortion activists, among other clients. It has also done work for an American law firm defending Prevezon Holdings, a company owned by the son of a senior Russian government official. The U.S. government sued Prevezon in 2014, alleging fraud.” Why would the alleged conservative WFB need to hire Fusion GPS for oppo research on Trump? If Fusion GPS “conducts open-source investigations" using information that is readily accessible, surely WFB reporters know how to search Google and LexisNexis, to start. And, they probably have phones. You suppose the WFB didn’t want Trump to become the GOP Presidential candidate? Their founding, funding, and research friends suggest that motive. But we don’t know. And we don’t know because no one is pressing the question, from either the Left or the Right. Why is that?