Trump demands Justice Department say who paid for salacious dossier

Let me understand this - A public (as in open to the public) political research firm (pay for hire research company) was taken into a closed-door session? I could understand if it was a government agency and would divulge methods, but a private/public company has no such right unless it is a trade secret, but buying information and fabricating information is not a trade secret. So what is up? Unless they have done wrong, they should not be pleading the fifth, unless they are afraid of being brought up on charges for having actually done something wrong.

By appearances they have committed a crime, to me that means that whomever hired them originally and then whomever eventually paid for the 'dossier' should be disclosed and it should be determined if they committed a crime also.

It started with (R) oppo research. I don't know what candidate, or maybe heard and don't remember.

"The story began in September 2015, when a wealthy Republican donor who strongly opposed Mr. Trump put up the money to hire a Washington research firm run by former journalists, Fusion GPS, to compile a dossier about the real estate magnate’s past scandals and weaknesses, according to a person familiar with the effort."

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/us/politics/donald-trump-russia-intelligence.html

They made their reasons for taking the fifth public. They thought the house was conducting a politically motivated investigation and that anything they said in such a setting, no matter what it was, would be used against them. From another source:

Fusion GPS partners Peter Fritsch and Thomas Catan invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, said their lawyer, Joshua Levy. He said they would cooperate with "serious" investigations and also claimed that a "Trump cabal has carried out a campaign to demonize our client for having been tied to the Trump dossier."

"We endeavor to work with all serious investigators who are going to be striking the balance between Congress’s right to information and our client’s privileges and legal obligations," Levy said. "We’ve done that with other committees, and will continue to do so."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-18/executives-of-firm-tied-to-trump-dossier-won-t-answer-queries?cmpId=wsdemand