© 2026 ABC News

\"PHOTO:
Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
PHOTO: Glenn R. Simpson, co-founder of the research firm Fusion GPS, arrives for a scheduled appearance before a closed House Intelligence Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Nov. 14, 2017.
>

Fusion GPS was hired — first by Republicans and later by Democrats — to conduct research into then-candidate Trump. The dossier contains unverified information compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele on behalf of the investigative firm.

BuzzFeed published the 35-page document in its entirety in January 2017, noting that the “allegations are unverified, and the report contains errors,” but “Americans can make up their own minds about allegations about the president-elect that have circulated at the highest levels of the U.S. government.”

The dossier includes allegations Cohen played a key role in the alleged Russian effort to interfere in the 2016 election. Steele recorded claims that Cohen had secret meetings with Kremlin officials in Prague in August 2016, at the height of the campaign, during which he allegedly discussed how to pay Kremlin-associated hackers for their work against the rival Hillary Clinton campaign.

\"PHOTO:
Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
PHOTO: The newsroom of the Los Angeles headquarters of the website Buzzfeed.com, photographed Oct. 7, 2013.
>

Cohen has forcefully and repeatedly denied any knowledge of any such operation.

“I want to be very clear,” Cohen told ABC News. “I have never been to Prague or the Czech Republic, and I have never engaged with, been paid by, paid for, or communicated with anyone representing the Russian Federation or anyone else to hack anyone or any organization or disseminate false news reports or interfere in any way with this election.”

Cohen has also attracted the interest of congressional investigators probing Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election for his role in the negotiations to build a Trump Tower in Moscow in 2015 and 2016. Cohen told ABC News in August that while the Trump Organization seriously considered the proposal, the plan was eventually abandoned.

Cohen appeared behind closed doors before members of the House Intelligence Committee in October. His scheduled appearance before members of the Senate Intelligence Committee in September was postponed, with committee leaders calling for an open session in the “at a date in the near future.”

ABC News’ Matthew Mosk and Alex Hosenball contributed to this report.

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