In the letter announcing the fines, the FEC also revealed that it dismissed related complaints against Steele, Perkins Coie and Fusion GPS, which have all previously denied wrongdoing.
WHO PAID FOR TRUMP DOSSIER SERIES
Over the years, a series of investigations and lawsuits have discredited many of Steele’s central allegations about collusion and exposed the unreliability of Steele’s sourcing. But his memos were leaked in January 2017, weeks before Trump took office. Steele has maintained that his research was unverified, required further investigation and was not meant for public disclosure. That company later hired Steele and asked him to use his overseas contacts to dig up dirt about Trump’s ties to Russia. More than $1 million flowed from the Clinton campaign and DNC to the law firm Perkins Coie, which then hired the opposition research company Fusion GPS. The money trail behind the Steele dossier has been a subject of intense political scrutiny for years. Trump’s campaign had numerous contacts with Russian agents, and embraced Russian help, but no one was ever formally accused of conspiring with Russia.
It contained unverified and salacious allegations about Donald Trump, including claims that his campaign colluded with the Kremlin to win the 2016 election. The dossier was compiled by retired British spy Christopher Steele. The FEC concluded that the Clinton campaign and DNC misreported the money that funded the dossier, masking it as “legal services” and “legal and compliance consulting” instead of opposition research. Political candidates and groups are required to publicly disclose their spending to the FEC, and they must explain the purpose of any specific expenditure more than $200. Trump brazenly asks Putin to release dirt about Biden's family (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) Evan Vucci/AP Mark Pomerantz, a prosecutor who had been leading a criminal investigation into Donald Trump before quitting last month, said in his resignation letter that he believes the former president is "guilty of numerous felony violations" and he disagreed with the Manhattan district attorney's decision not to seek an indictment. Who paid for it, Russia, the FBI or the Dems (or all)?" the president wrote.FILE - President Donald Trump arrives at the White House in Washington, on Dec. "Workers of firm involved with the discredited and Fake Dossier take the 5th.
Two days earlier, he mused publicly on Twitter that Democrats may have funded the research. On Saturday, Trump tweeted that the Justice Department and FBI "should immediately release who paid for it." Trump has branded the dossier - which contains salacious, and partially unconfirmed, political, financial and sexual allegations - as "fake news." The 35-page political research dossier, prepared by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, has become central to congressional probes into Russian interference in the 2016 US elections. That Republican's identity is not yet known.įusion GPS has asked that a federal judge to block a House Intelligence Committee request to gain access to the company's bank records, saying it would violate its constitutional rights. The payments continued until just days before the November 2016 election.Įven before that deal, Fusion GPS's research into Trump was funded by a rival in the Republican presidential primary election. In April 2016, lawyer Marc Elias, working on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Washington firm Fusion GPS to examine Trump's Russia links, according to the report. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped pay for research that went into a salacious dossier on Donald Trump's alleged campaign ties to Russia, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
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