Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez falsely asserted Tuesday that the "Russia dossier" produced by the research firm Fusion GPS was commissioned by the Washington Free Beacon.

Perez was coy about the DNC's role in the dossier's creation on Tuesday, according to The Daily Caller, declining to say how much the DNC paid Fusion GPS or who authorized the payments.

Perez went on to say Trump "has a very shady relationship with Russian authorities," according to the report, and then falsely claimed the dossier was merely the DNC continuing earlier work commissioned by the Free Beacon:

Trump "has a very shady relationship with Russian authorities," according to Perez. "What we know from the research, the Trump campaign and the Russians were talking to each other," he added. He also pointed a finger at the Washington Free Beacon’s financier Paul Singer, who retained Fusion GPS before the dossier was compiled, claiming the DNC merely "continued" the project. "When their work was done, it was continued by the Democrats," Perez said.

In fact, 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 any payment for any work performed by Christopher Steele.

Hillary Clinton's campaign and the DNC funded research by Fusion that led to the explosive and unverified allegations about Trump and Russia.

The Washington Free Beacon was once a client of Fusion GPS. All of the work Fusion GPS performed for the Free Beacon was based on public sources, and none of the work product appeared in the Steele dossier. For more information, see here.