Just days before Donald Trump's inauguration, Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch contacted Christopher Steele via an encrypted app after news of the dossier broke. Steele, with a surprisingly naive view of U.S. politics, was shocked yet hopeful that the government would intervene to prevent Trump from taking office. However, Simpson and Fritsch warned him that this was unlikely and that their identities as whistleblowers would likely be revealed. They agreed to remain silent, hoping the focus would stay on Trump and Russia rather than on them. Fusion GPS, founded in 2010 by Simpson and Fritsch, initially conducted open-source investigations for businesses and political opposition research. In late 2015, they were hired to investigate Trump’s finances, which led them to troubling connections with Russia. To navigate these findings, they enlisted Steele, a former British intelligence agent, who produced memos that became known as the Steele dossier, raising serious concerns about Trump's ties to a foreign power. These memos reached U.S. intelligence and eventually became public on January 10, 2017, propelling the Trump-Russia narrative into the global spotlight. Fusion GPS, a small consulting firm, found itself at the center of a major news story, leading to accusations of witch hunts, conspiracy theories, and the Mueller report. Simpson and Fritsch share their high-stakes journey in this compelling account.
