The story behind the Steele dossier

Book review of Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump

In the annals of political warfare, sober recitations of facts often pale next to lurid speculation. Before they founded the private intelligence firm Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch had long careers reporting and editing for The Wall Street Journal. As old journalism hands, they shouldn’t have been surprised when their diligent research into Donald Trump’s finances slipped into the media stream with barely a ripple, while the raw intelligence memos sent to Fusion by the former MI6 agent Christopher Steele landed like a breaching whale.
 
In Crime in Progress, Messrs Simpson and Fritsch said they “played down”