Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund research that resulted in the famous Steele dossier, which posited that connections exist between President Donald Trump and Russia.
Sources cited in the Washington Post story did not disclose dollar amounts paid to the firm that conducted the research, but they said Clinton's campaign and the DNC shared the cost.
That firm, Fusion GPS, hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.
Marc E. Elias is a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign as well as the DNC, and made the decision to work with Fusion GPS in April 2016. At that point was funded by an unknown GOP client while the primary was still going on.
Steele gave reports and other documents to Elias, but one source claimed that he or she was not aware of the role of Steele's work.
The people aware of the matter claimed that the Clinton campaign didn't direct Steele's research.
Trump on Saturday called on the FBI to release the information about who paid for the dossier.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/921828280998744066
Fusion GPS hasn't named the Democrat or group behind Steele's work despite congressional Republican objections, citing confidentiality agreements.
Last week, Fusion GPS invoked the Fifth Amendment to not answer questions from the House Intelligence Committee. Its founder has however previously given an interview to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Fusion GPS has been fighting the release of its bank records and has until Friday to negotiate a resolution with Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.).
Immediately following the Washington Post article being published, New York Times reporters pursuing this story complained about the Clinton camp denying it. They accused Elias and Clinton's team of lying to them "with sanctimony" for the last year.
When I tried to report this story, Clinton campaign lawyer @marceelias pushed back vigorously, saying "You (or your sources) are wrong." https://t.co/B5BZwoaNhI
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) October 24, 2017
Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year https://t.co/vXKRV1wRJc
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 24, 2017
EDITOR'S NOTE: Prior to October 27, 2017, the Washington Free Beacon published several articles referencing the research firm Fusion GPS that did not disclose the relationship between Fusion GPS and the Washington Free Beacon. The reason for this omission is that the authors of these articles, and the particular editors who reviewed them, were unaware of this relationship.
The articles in question tended to be aggregated stories relying on the reporting done by other media outlets. This type of article undergoes a different editorial process from the original investigative pieces that appear on our website. Beginning today, all articles referencing Fusion GPS will mention its history with the Washington Free Beacon. The Free Beacon is also reviewing its editorial process with respect to aggregated news sources to consider ways to avoid similar issues in the future. We regret the error.