Originally, under the aegis of Republican Never Trumpers, used the Washington Free Beacon to do opposition work on Trump, plus other Republican candidates. This was not part of the dossier prepared by Steele.
Hillary's lawyer, Marc Elias, stated he hired Fusion GPS in April 2016 to do opposition research on Trump. Fusion GPS engaged Christopher Steele, former Brit spy (MI6 per wiki) to work on the dossier. Steele contacted Russian agents for information. Besides the salacious golden shower story, the dossier stated Trump colluded with the Russians to hack DNC email. Steele stated the dossier was unverified and was NOT supposed to be shown to outside press by Fusion GPS.
http://www.washingtontimes.com...er-charge-unverifie/
The dossier has NOT been verified, despite left wing claims. Julian Assange (WikiLeaks) exposed the DNC and Podesta email. Assange claims he did not get the info from the Russians. Recently, Democrats claimed the Assange is a Russian stooge. Its getting interesting. The only crime identified is that Fusion GPS and the DNC did not report the $6 million or so expended on the dossier and the use of foreign persons to prepare the dossier. The first is a civil crime. The second can be a felony.