done a business deal there. And I found that mysterious.
And so I had the perfect person to go see if they could figure out what was going on there. And so that's how I decided to ask Chris if he could look into it for me. And I had -- the initial engagement with Chris was much like we do. I didn't hire him for a long-term engagement. I said, take 30 days, 20 or 30 days, and we'll pay you a set amount of money, and see if you can figure out what Trump's been up to over there, because he's gone over a bunch of times, he said some weird things about Putin, but doesn't seem to have gotten any business deals.
So that was the initial assignment. I didn't say, find me this or get me that. It was pretty open-ended. I just said, see if you can figure out what's going on over there.
MR. GOWDY: And how much did you pay Chris Steele?
MR. SIMPSON: I think what we've told the committee from the bank records is that it was ultimately $160,000. That sounds right to me. I think probably the initial engagement was for 20 or 30 thousand dollars. There's, you know, currency differences between pounds and dollars, so I don't remember how it was denominated or exactly how it was priced.
MR. GOWDY: Now, help me understand this. Would that payment for Steele have been expensed to the law firm, or would Fusion have paid that out of its own money that it received from the law firm?
MR. SIMPSON: I believe, at least if things were running the way I hope they ran, it was expensed to the law firm.
MR. GOWDY: So Perkins Coie paid Chris Steele?
MR. SIMPSON: I think it was -- I mean, I think we billed them for it.
MR. GOWDY: Okay.
UNCLASSIFIED, COMMITTEE SENSITIVE
