BREAKING: DNC, Hillary Campaign Paid To Compile Trump-Russia Dossier, Clinton Lawyer Allegedly Lied About It
Earlier this year, BuzzFeed News broke a shocking story: the FBI had reported an intelligence dossier making its way around Washington, D.C. to President Trump. That dossier contained allegations ranging from the credible to the wild — the wildest, of course, being the accusation that Trump had hired prostitutes while in Moscow to urinate on a bed slept on by the Obamas. The dossier itself, compiled by one British spy named Christopher Steele, had been commissioned by a Democratic firm called Fusion GPS.
Now we learn from The Washington Post that the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee were behind funding the dossier:
Clinton campaign lawyer Elias allegedly denied for a year that he had anything to do with the dossier. That appeared to be a lie, according to Maggie Haberman of The New York Times:
[twitter] https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/922962880206647297 [/twitter]
REPORT: Hillary Clinton’s Campaign, DNC Funded Trump Dossier. Here’s What You Need To Know.
The bombshell report from The Washington Post comes just days after Clinton told C-SPAN that President Trump and Fox News were trying to distract the nation from the “real Russian ties between Trump associates and real Russians,” and that the real story was how “nervous” the Trump administration was becoming.
In that vein, here is what you need to know from The Washington Post’s report:
DNC Head Denies Involvement In Trump-Russia Dossier, But There's One Thing He's Not Saying.
"Tom Perez and the new leadership of the DNC were not involved in any decision-making regarding Fusion GPS ..."
"Tom Perez and the new leadership of the DNC were not involved in any decision-making regarding Fusion GPS, nor were they aware that Perkins Coie was working with the organization," reads the carefully phrased statement issued by DNC Communications Director Xochital Hinojosa Tuesday evening.
"But let's be clear, there is a serious federal investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, and the American public deserves to know what happened," the statement concludes in an overt attempt to redirect focus back to the Trump-Russia "collusion" narrative. Here's the complete statement:
The circumspect phrasing of the statement makes clear that neither Perez, who was elected to the position in late February 2017, nor the DNC's "new leadership" are willing to deny what the former leadership did or didn't do regarding the dossier. The DNC's overt attempt to distance itself from the actions of the former leadership only underscores that Democrats fully understand that connection to the aptly nicknamed "dirty dossier" is politically damaging.
Earlier this year, BuzzFeed News broke a shocking story: the FBI had reported an intelligence dossier making its way around Washington, D.C. to President Trump. That dossier contained allegations ranging from the credible to the wild — the wildest, of course, being the accusation that Trump had hired prostitutes while in Moscow to urinate on a bed slept on by the Obamas. The dossier itself, compiled by one British spy named Christopher Steele, had been commissioned by a Democratic firm called Fusion GPS.
Now we learn from The Washington Post that the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee were behind funding the dossier:
The Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund research that resulted in a now-famous dossier containing allegations about President Trump’s connections to Russia and possible coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin, people familiar with the matter said. Marc E. Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS, a Washington firm, to conduct the research. After that, Fusion GPS hired dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with ties to the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community, according to those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Clinton campaign lawyer Elias allegedly denied for a year that he had anything to do with the dossier. That appeared to be a lie, according to Maggie Haberman of The New York Times:
[twitter] https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/922962880206647297 [/twitter]
REPORT: Hillary Clinton’s Campaign, DNC Funded Trump Dossier. Here’s What You Need To Know.
The bombshell report from The Washington Post comes just days after Clinton told C-SPAN that President Trump and Fox News were trying to distract the nation from the “real Russian ties between Trump associates and real Russians,” and that the real story was how “nervous” the Trump administration was becoming.
In that vein, here is what you need to know from The Washington Post’s report:
- Marc E. Elias, an attorney who represented Clinton’s campaign and the DNC, used Fusion GPS to conduct “research” on then-candidate Donald Trump.
- According to sources, Fusion GPS hired former British intelligence official Christopher Steele to compile the dossier.
- Elias reportedly retained Fusion GPS starting in April 2016 “on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC” — right before Trump became the GOP presumptive nominee — all the way until the end of October 2016.
- Prior to working for the Clinton campaign and the DNC, Fusion GPS began researching Trump and was funded by “a still unknown Republican client.”
- While it is still unknown how much was paid for the dossier, the Post alleges that the Clinton campaign and the DNC paid Elias’ law firm, Perkins Coie, a total of $9.2 million from June 2015 through December 2016.
- The Post claims that neither the Clinton campaign nor the DNC directed Steele’s activities who then shared some of his findings with officials at the FBI.
- “After the election, the FBI agreed to pay Steele to continue gathering intelligence about Trump and Russia, but the bureau pulled out of the arrangement after Steele was publicly identified in news reports,” the Post reports.
DNC Head Denies Involvement In Trump-Russia Dossier, But There's One Thing He's Not Saying.
"Tom Perez and the new leadership of the DNC were not involved in any decision-making regarding Fusion GPS ..."
"Tom Perez and the new leadership of the DNC were not involved in any decision-making regarding Fusion GPS, nor were they aware that Perkins Coie was working with the organization," reads the carefully phrased statement issued by DNC Communications Director Xochital Hinojosa Tuesday evening.
"But let's be clear, there is a serious federal investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, and the American public deserves to know what happened," the statement concludes in an overt attempt to redirect focus back to the Trump-Russia "collusion" narrative. Here's the complete statement:
Tom Perez and the new leadership of the DNC were not involved in any decision-making regarding Fusion GPS, nor were they aware that Perkins Coie was working with the organization.
But let's be clear, there is a serious federal investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, and the American public deserves to know what happened.
But let's be clear, there is a serious federal investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, and the American public deserves to know what happened.
The circumspect phrasing of the statement makes clear that neither Perez, who was elected to the position in late February 2017, nor the DNC's "new leadership" are willing to deny what the former leadership did or didn't do regarding the dossier. The DNC's overt attempt to distance itself from the actions of the former leadership only underscores that Democrats fully understand that connection to the aptly nicknamed "dirty dossier" is politically damaging.