House panel says it will get bank records from firm behind Trump dossier

The House Intelligence Committee announced Saturday that it has reached a settlement to obtain bank records from the private intelligence firm that produced a controversial dossier alleging ties between President Trump and Russia.

“The parties have reached an agreement related to the House Intelligence Committee’s subpoena for Fusion GPS’s bank records that will secure the Committee’s access to the records necessary for its investigation,” the committee said in a statement.

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Fusion GPS had hired Christopher Steele, a former British spy, to compile the dossier on Trump. House Republicans have sought the firm’s bank records to find out who paid for the research. The records could reveal more details about the funding surrounding the project.

The Washington Post reported earlier this week that a lawyer working for Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee had retained Fusion GPS in April 2016, before the firm hired Steele.

The conservative website The Washington Free Beacon revealed to the House Intelligence Committee on Friday that it had originally funded Fusion GPS to compile research on Trump and other GOP presidential candidates.

The publication said it stopped funding the firm in the spring of 2016, before Democrats picked up funding for the project. The firm eventually produced a 35-page document full of unverified claims about Trump’s ties to Russia.

The House Intelligence Committee has been engaged in a back-and-forth with Fusion GPS for weeks. Earlier this month, executives at Fusion GPS refused to testify in front of the panel, citing their constitutional privileges.

“Should you compel any of our three clients to appear at the scheduled deposition, they will invoke their constitutional privileges not to testify,” an attorney for Fusion GPS wrote to the committee. “Since that will be the case, we ask that the Committee excuse them from appearing.”

In September, the committee also subpoenaed the FBI and the Justice Department for documents related to Fusion GPS and the dossier. 

– John Bowden contributed

Updated: 4:39 p.m.