whatever. no, i hear it. >> reporter: once trump appeared to clinch the nomination, the initial conservative funders at the free beacon lost interest in the trump project. soon new clients agreed to pay for fusion's research. the democratic national committee and the hillary clinton campaign. >> friends don't let friends vote for trump. >> reporter: at first, fusion concentrated on trump's business career, his casinos, his multiple business bankruptcies. >> i've used the laws of the country to make good deals for myself. >> reporter: but they soon noticed that trump's organizations seemed to do a lot of business with russians, particularly at times when trump's businesses might have been strapped for cash. >> trump is experiencing extreme financial difficulties, june 2008. >> james henry is an economist, lawyer and investigative journalist who's written extensively about post soviet russia and donald trump's russian connections. >> the only way that he survives is by calling on new sources of