Washington Free Beacon Statement On Fusion GPS and the Trump Dossier
“[N]one of the work product that the Free Beacon received appears in the Steele dossier”
The conservative Washington Free Beacon has come under fire for first hiring Fusion GPS to conduct research on then-candidate Trump. The resulting “Trump dossier” or “Steele dossier” may have been used as a false premise to conduct investigations into Trump campaign collusion with Russia.
While the left would like to make their involvement the focus, the Washington Free Beacon was not involved in the later skulduggery and apparent corruption involving the DNC, the Hillary Clinton campaign, and perhaps the FBI and even the Obama White House.
The Washington Free Beacon has issued the following statement:
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.
Representatives of the Free Beacon approached the House Intelligence Committee today and offered to answer what questions we can in their ongoing probe of Fusion GPS and the Steele dossier. But to be clear: We stand by our reporting, and we do not apologize for our methods. We consider it our duty to report verifiable information, not falsehoods or slander, and we believe that commitment has been well demonstrated by the quality of the journalism that we produce.
The First Amendment guarantees our right to engage in news-gathering as we see fit, and we intend to continue doing just that as we have since the day we launched this project.
Matthew Continetti
Editor in ChiefMichael Goldfarb
Chairman
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Comments
This article, in the first paragraph, implies that the “Trump Dossier” resulted from the connection between Fusion GPS and the Washington Free Beacon. There is no evidence presented that this is true. Seems to be and illogical conclusion – and poor journalism.
What? Did you read the subhead? “[N]one of the work product that the Free Beacon received appears in the Steele dossier” or the second paragraph or the WFB statement?
What gave you the idea that the Trump dossier was the direct result of the WFB hiring Fusion first when none of the product they received even appears in the final report? I truly have no idea why you would think that.