In a surprise twist, opposition research firm Fusion GPS says that it did not give its dossier of infamous anti-Trump research to BuzzFeed News prior to the outlets Jan. 10 publication of the salacious document.
That revelation, made in court papers filed by Fusion GPS lawyers in a Washington, D.C., federal court Tuesday, re-opens the issue of who provided the dossier to BuzzFeed.
Tracking down BuzzFeeds source could prove crucial to several lawsuits that have been filed over the dossier.
Fusion GPS made the disclosure in a motion to quash a request for discovery made by Aleksej Gubarev, a Russian tech executive who is suing BuzzFeed for defamation. Gubarev was identified in a Dec. 13 memo contained in the dossier, which was written by former British spy Christopher Steele.
Gubarevs lawyers have pressed Fusion GPS to provide details about its work on the dossier. A Hillary Clinton ally hired the firm last June to investigate Donald Trumps activities in Russia. Fusion GPS then hired Steele to conduct the investigation.
In his Dec. 13 memo, Steele cites an unnamed source who claimed that Gubarev planted viruses and malware to hack into the Democratic National Committees computers. Gubarev has denied the allegation and says that BuzzFeed was careless in publishing the dossier without fully vetting Steeles allegations.
It was widely believed that Fusion GPS was BuzzFeeds source for the dossier.
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Who Gave Trump Dossier To BuzzFeed? | The Daily Caller