The conservative Washington Free Beacon disclosed in congressional testimony on Friday that it is the mysterious client that initially paid for opposition research on Donald Trump performed by Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS is run by former Wall Street Journal reporters Glenn Simpson, Thomas Catan and Peter Fritsch. Funding for the Washington Free Beacon's hiring of FusionGPS was provided by Paul Singer, who has been a major player in Republican politics in recent years and maintains ties to Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and several powerful Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan. Singer is active in Republican Party politics and collectively, Singer and others affiliated with Elliott Management are "the top source of contributions" to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.