Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped pay for political research into Donald Trump that ultimately produced a dossier of allegations about his ties to Russia.
If the special investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 president election uncovers proof Hillary’s campaign also colluded with Russian agents, it could lead to something voters have demanded for years — a Clinton indictment.
Trump has called the dossier “phony stuff,” and on Wednesday pointed out he was an aggrieved party.
The president posted a quote on Twitter that he attributed to Fox News: “Clinton campaign & DNC paid for research that led to the anti-Trump Fake News Dossier. The victim here is the President.” @FoxNews
What other connections did Hillary’s campaign have to Russia? The investigation has heated up — and is pointing right to the family of Campaign Manager John Podesta.
The FBI has worked to corroborate the document, and special counsel Robert Mueller’s team questioned Christopher Steele, the former British spy who helped compile the claims in the dossier, weeks ago.
The dossier circulated in Washington last year and was turned over to the FBI for its review. It contends that Russia was engaged in a long-standing effort to aid Trump and had amassed compromising information about the Republican. Trump has repeatedly dismissed the document as false and in recent days has questioned whether Democrats or the FBI had helped fund it.
A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential client matters, said the funding arrangement was brokered by Marc Elias, a lawyer for the Clinton campaign and the DNC, and his law firm of Perkins Coie.
Perkins Coie engaged Fusion GPS in April 2016 “to perform a variety of research services during the 2016 election cycle,” according to the letter.
The dossier created a political firestorm in January when it was revealed that then-FBI Director James Comey had alerted Trump to the existence of allegations about him and Russia. Since then, Trump has repeatedly attacked it and Republicans in Congress have worked to discredit it, even issuing a subpoena to force the disclosure of Fusion GPS’s bank records.
The letter, sent Tuesday by the law firm’s general counsel to a lawyer for Fusion GPS, was intended to release the research firm from its obligation to keep confidential the identity of its client.