Fusion GPS

Fusion GPS
Company type	Private
Industry	Opposition research, Strategic intelligence
Founded	2011
Founder	Glenn R. Simpson, Peter Fritsch
Headquarters	Washington, D.C., United States
Products	Research and strategic consulting services

Fusion GPS operates as a firm specializing in opposition research and strategic intelligence, with its main office located in Washington, D.C.. Established in 2011 by Glenn R. Simpson, formerly an investigative journalist for Roll Call and The Wall Street Journal, alongside Peter Fritsch, a previous senior editor at the Wall Street Journal, the company focuses on open-source investigative work. It provides research and strategic consulting services to corporations, law firms, investors, and political campaigns. The acronym "GPS" represents "Global research, Political analysis, Strategic insight."

History

Founded in 2011 by Glenn R. Simpson and Peter Fritsch, Fusion GPS capitalizes on its founders’ experience in journalism to deliver strategic intelligence solutions.

Opposition research on Mitt Romney

In 2012, Fusion GPS was contracted to perform opposition research concerning U.S. presidential hopeful Mitt Romney. Their findings contributed to a Mother Jones piece that exposed donor Frank VanderSloot's $1 million contribution to a super PAC supporting Romney’s campaign. VanderSloot subsequently filed a defamation lawsuit against Mother Jones; during the ensuing legal proceedings, Fusion GPS founder Simpson was deposed amid accusations of collusion with the Obama campaign. Ultimately, the Idaho court dismissed the lawsuit in 2015.

Planned Parenthood

In August 2015, Planned Parenthood engaged Fusion GPS to assess the validity of covert videos released by anti-abortion activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt from The Center for Medical Progress. These videos purportedly depicted Planned Parenthood personnel consenting to the sale of fetal tissue to researchers. Fusion GPS enlisted experts in video and transcription analysis who produced a forensic report determining that the allegedly "unedited" footage had been "heavily edited." Activists explained missing segments as resulting from "bathroom breaks and waiting periods." This forensic assessment was presented to congressional leaders amid debates over Planned Parenthood’s funding.

Following a grand jury’s decision not to indict Planned Parenthood, Daleiden and Merritt faced 15 felony charges in California in March 2017, including criminal conspiracy and unlawful recording. They entered not guilty pleas in February 2020. In July 2020, a Superior Court judge permitted prosecution to continue on several counts against both defendants.

Prevezon Holding

In 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice, under U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, initiated legal action against Prevezon Holding—a Cyprus-based corporation registered in New York—alleging money laundering connected to $230 million stolen funds under the U.S. Global Magnitsky Act. The suit sought forfeiture of Prevezon’s assets and real estate within the United States. The company’s sole shareholder was Russian national Denis Katsyv; his father Petr Katsyv serves as vice president of Russia’s state-controlled rail monopoly and is reportedly linked to Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

Because Katsyv’s Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya lacked U.S. licensing, Prevezon retained BakerHostetler for legal defense; BakerHostetler subsequently hired Fusion GPS to conduct litigation-related research. Fusion GPS investigated Bill Browder, a principal witness for the Justice Department.

On October 18, 2016, BakerHostetler was disqualified due to a conflict of interest: the firm had previously represented Browder’s hedge fund Hermitage Capital Management during an earlier probe into Russian tax fraud involving Hermitage portfolio companies. The Justice Department maintained that Hermitage was defrauded and that BakerHostetler’s prior representation created a conflict undermining their defense of Prevezon.

In December 2016, Browder filed a complaint accusing Fusion GPS of lobbying against the Global Magnitsky Act on behalf of Russian interests without proper registration. The Global Magnitsky Act, passed in December 2016, targets human rights abusers and corrupt officials; it is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer who died while detained in Russia after uncovering a corruption scandal tied to Browder’s firm.

The Prevezon case concluded with a settlement in May 2017 for $6 million—less than half the amount sought by Bharara—with no admission of guilt from either party. Both sides declared victory following the settlement agreement.

Prevezon and FARA investigation

On March 30, 2017, Senator Chuck Grassley, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Republican from Iowa, requested that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate potential connections between Fusion GPS and Russia. The inquiry focused on whether Fusion GPS operated as an unregistered foreign agent in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Specifically, concerns were raised about whether the Russian government financed Fusion’s defense efforts in the Prevezon case while Fusion simultaneously collaborated with Christopher Steele on the dossier. Fusion GPS denied any lobbying activities or breaches of FARA regulations.

Following the settlement of the Prevezon lawsuit in July 2017, Fusion GPS accused the White House of attempting to discredit the firm due to its research into President Trump’s alleged ties with Russia. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders characterized investigations concerning Trump’s 2016 campaign connections to Moscow as politically motivated efforts aimed at weakening his administration. Fusion GPS clarified that its work with law firm BakerHostetler was limited to supporting civil litigation unrelated to Russian opposition to the Magnitsky Act and maintained it had no FARA registration obligations.

A "Fact Checker" article by Glenn Kessler highlighted that prior to Congressional investigations, there was no evidence indicating that the Russian government funded Fusion’s Prevezon defense activities concurrently with its examination of Trump’s Russian business dealings.

Trump–Russia dossier and Christopher Steele

In September 2015, Fusion GPS was contracted by The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news outlet, to conduct opposition research targeting Trump and other Republican contenders. When Trump emerged as the presumptive Republican nominee in early 2016, funding from The Free Beacon for this research ceased.

Between April and October 2016, Perkins Coie law firm, representing both the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee, engaged Fusion GPS to continue opposition research on Trump. In June 2016, Fusion GPS hired Christopher Steele, a former MI-6 officer and private investigator specializing in corporate intelligence, to investigate Trump’s links to Russia. Steele compiled a series of unverified memos from June through December 2016, collectively known as the Steele dossier. Fusion GPS delivered these materials along with related investigative findings to Marc Elias, Perkins Coie’s lead election attorney.

House Intelligence Committee investigation

On October 4, 2017, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes issued subpoenas demanding documents and testimony from Fusion GPS leadership. These subpoenas were reportedly issued solely by the Republican majority. On October 18, Fusion GPS principals Peter Fritsch and Thomas Catan appeared privately before the committee but invoked their Fifth Amendment rights, refusing to answer questions regarding their opposition research dossier on President Trump. Their counsel stated they were willing to cooperate with legitimate inquiries but condemned what they described as efforts to vilify their client.

On October 23, Fusion GPS filed for a court injunction to block a subpoena seeking over two years of banking records, arguing that compliance would damage their business and infringe upon First Amendment protections. Nevertheless, on January 4, 2018, Judge Richard J. Leon ordered these financial documents be turned over; Fusion announced plans to challenge this ruling on appeal.

On October 28, The Washington Free Beacon revealed it had hired Fusion GPS from 2015 until May 2016 to conduct research on Donald Trump and other Republican candidates aimed at uncovering potentially damaging information. Both The Free Beacon and its financier, hedge fund manager Paul Singer, denied any involvement with the Steele dossier, emphasizing that their funding ended prior to Steele’s engagement.

The committee conducted a seven-hour interview with Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson on November 14, 2017. The transcript was made public on January 18, 2018.

Senate Judiciary Committee inquiries

In July 2017, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley and top Democrat Dianne Feinstein arranged for Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson to provide a private testimony before their panel. The inquiry centered on potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), following claims by witness Bill Browder that Simpson and Fusion GPS failed to register while conducting opposition research related to the Magnitsky Act. Fusion GPS rejected any allegations of breaching FARA. Additionally, senators sought to question officials from the Justice Department regarding possible links among Veselnitskaya, Prevezon, Fusion GPS, the Trump campaign, and the Russian government.

Simpson participated in a closed-door interview lasting approximately ten hours on August 22, 2017. Although the committee did not initially release a transcript, Fusion GPS submitted more than 40,000 heavily redacted pages of documents. Simpson upheld client confidentiality; nevertheless, the identities of his clients—The Washington Free Beacon and law firm Perkins Coie (representing the DNC and Clinton campaign)—were revealed to the House Intelligence Committee during its investigation.

On January 2, 2018, Simpson and Peter Fritsch co-wrote an op-ed in The New York Times urging congressional committees to disclose complete transcripts of Fusion GPS’s testimony. While Grassley initially resisted releasing Simpson’s August 2017 transcript, Feinstein made it public on January 9, 2018, amplifying public attention on Fusion GPS’s involvement in the Trump dossier probe.

Initiated by Alfa Bank stakeholders

Three owners of Alfa-Bank named in the dossier as having ties to Vladimir Putin filed a libel and defamation lawsuit against Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson. As of October 2020, this legal case remained unresolved. One plaintiff, German Khan, one of Russia’s wealthiest individuals, is also known as the father-in-law of Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, who faced charges during the Mueller investigation for providing false information to the FBI.

Lawsuit by Michael Cohen

On January 9, 2018, Michael Cohen initiated defamation proceedings against BuzzFeed and Fusion GPS concerning assertions made in the dossier. Following FBI searches of his properties amid a criminal inquiry, Cohen voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit on April 19, 2018.

Claim by Shervin Pishevar

Billionaire Shervin Pishevar, who was falsely implicated in a fabricated police report alleging sexual assault at a London hotel in May 2017, alleged in court that Fusion GPS was responsible for creating and leaking the forged document to a Fast Company journalist with the intent to harm his reputation.

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