However, the DNC's infamous law firm Perkins Coie supposedly hired Fusion GPS on behalf of the DNC in April of 2016, after Paul Manafort was hired by candidate Trump –

So when the Trump campaign named Paul Manafort as its campaign convention manager on March 28, 2016, you can bet that Simpson and Jacoby's eyes lit up. And as it happened, at the exact same time that Trump hired Manafort, Fusion GPS was in negotiations with Perkins Coie, the law firm representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, to see if there was interest in the firm continuing the opposition research on the Trump campaign they had started for the Washington Free Beacon. In addition to whatever sales pitch Simpson might have offered about Manafort, the Clinton campaign had independent reason to believe that research into Manafort's connections might pay some real political dividends: A Democratic consultant and Ukrainian-American activist named Alexandra Chalupa, told the Clinton campaign about Manafort's work for Yanukovich. "I flagged for the DNC the significance of his hire," Chalupa told CNN in July of this year.

Perhaps it was this alignment of the stars that clinched the deal. According to an Oct. 24, 2017, letterfrom Perkins Coie, the firm hired Fusion GPS to continue its research in April, shortly after Manafort was hired by Trump.