House Intelligence Committee and Fusion GPS reach settlement over bank records

— -- The House Intelligence Committee and research firm Fusion GPS have reached a confidential agreement regarding the panel's subpoena of the firm's bank records, following new revelations about the origins of the controversial dossier of unverified allegations against President Trump produced by the organization.

The committee, one of several investigating Russian efforts to influence the election and allegations of collusion, subpoenaed Fusion GPS and the firm's bank on Oct. 4.

"The emergency legal action taken last week by Fusion GPS helped the company honor its legal obligations and protect its First Amendment rights," Fusion GPS lawyer Joshua Levy said in a statement. "Today's result required the involvement of the Court to strike the balance between Congress' right to information and our client's privileges and legal obligations."

The committee issued a statement confirming a deal.

"The parties have reached an agreement related to the House Intelligence Committee's subpoena for Fusion GPS's bank records that will secure the Committee's access to the records necessary for its investigation," the committee statement said.

Revelations about the funding of the research into Trump's business, which the House committee was hoping to reveal via subpoena, answered one of the biggest mysteries of the 2016 presidential campaign.

On Friday, representatives of The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website, informed the committee that it first hired Fusion GPS during the 2016 Republican presidential primary to conduct opposition research on Trump and several GOP presidential candidates.

"The Free Beacon had no knowledge of or connection to the Steele dossier, did not pay for the dossier, and never had contact with, knowledge of, or provided payment for any work performed by Christopher Steele," the Beacon editors said in a statement.

The research effort expanded in March 2016 under financing from Democrats. The Washington Post first reported Tuesday that the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign later retained Fusion GPS to conduct research.

"To assist in its representation of the DNC and Hillary for America, Perkins Coie engaged Fusion GPS in April of 2016, to perform a variety of research services during the 2016 election cycle," a spokesman for Perkins Coie, a law firm retained by the Clinton campaign and the DNC, wrote in a letter obtained by ABC News. "By its terms, the engagement concluded prior to the November 2016 Presidential election."

ABC News reported in August that Fusion GPS was paid during the GOP primaries by a Republican and later by Democrats to dig up dirt on Trump and plant negative news stories.