The co-founders of Fusion GPS revealed in a soon-to-be-released book that they took action against Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the ranking member and former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, after he revealed the firm was paid by then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton through a law firm.
“They actively obstructed justice by disrupting multiple congressional investigations and retaliated against me for revealing that the Steele dossier was funded by the Democrats,” Nunes said in a statement obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, the Fusion GPS co-founders, wrote “Crime in Progress.” They have been appearing on and in media to promote the book, with little fallout from the infamous Steele dossier the firm helped create and promote.
The men wrote in the book that they performed opposition research against Nunes in 2018 as he ran for re-election and expressed frustration that Nunes was able to get the firm’s bank records the year prior, revealing the law firm for the Democratic National Committee and Clinton’s campaign paid Fusion GPS more than $1 million for the investigation into President Donald Trump, Clinton’s opponent in 2016.
Simpson and Fritsch wrote that Fusion “ordinarily didn’t work on congressional races” but decided to investigate Nunes because they felt he was “a threat to [former special counsel Robert] Mueller’s ability to do his job,” the Daily Caller reported.
“Fusion had no illusions about being able to topple Nunes, but the notion of digging into his record made many at the firm salivate.”
When documents they obtained from the committee showed little damaging about Nunes, Fusion investigated a winery Nunes owns in California and tried to uncover wrongdoing in his campaign finance.
The Fresno Bee, which is owned by McClatchy, later published some information about Nunes that the Fusion co-founders referenced. Nunes sued the newspaper chain in April for defamation.
Nunes has also sued Twitter, Republican strategist Liz Mair, Fusion GPS, and Politico for alleged wrongdoing.
“Whatever they accuse you of doing, they’re actually doing. Even the title of the book is hilarious, because they’re the ones that are continuing the crimes,” Nunes said.
“I think part of what this book is about is not to sell a bunch of copies [but] to get out ahead of the lawsuits that are coming,” he added. He said Fusion bankrolling the “smears” against him was going to come out in court.
“I would put us with the brave people who are going up to Capitol Hill and testifying, if I can be so bold,” Simpson said. “For two full years the president of the United States and the majority in Congress had unlimited ability to message against us and against the idea of what we exposed. So it doesn’t surprise me at all that there’s confusion about this whole investigation.”
