![]() ![]() The Dossier gave never-Trumpers the tantalizing excuse that Trump’s collusion with the Kremlin caused the unlikely defeat of Hillary Clinton. On January 11, 2017, BuzzFeed, a frequently contentious media platform, published a confidential report, titled “Republican candidate Donald Trump's Activities in Russia and Compromising Relationship with the Kremlin.” Purportedly gathered by former MI-6 agent, Christopher Steele, from high-level informants from within Vladimir Putin’s (and Trump’s) inner circles, Steele claimed, in effect, that Trump, was an agent of Putin’s Kremlin. Let’s go back to the beginning and my own small role in the matter: We’ll find proof if we follow the clues that Steele has given us. It suggests, yes, there must be something to the charge that Trump colluded with an enemy power. The widespread use of the term “roadmap” is telling. Let’s review the story of the Steele Dossier and ask whether clear-thinking unbiased persons in media or government would have taken the charges in the Dossier so seriously as to use it as the roadmap to Russian government officials’ purported alliance with Trump employees and campaign aides to help his election. ![]() The only “verified” information that Horowitz found was available from public sources. He found that the Dossier was compiled from hearsay and third-hand gossip from two low-level sources and that they denied the testimony attributed to them. Inspector General Michael Horowitz drove the final stake through its heart. We now know that the Steele Dossier is bogus. They were a knowing and willing part of the Democratic and media smear of a presidential contender, and then president, that paralyzed U.S. That our most sophisticated government officials acted as if the Dossier were legitimate leads to only one conclusion. Any residual doubt would have vanished after learning that its author, Christopher Steele, was an opposition researcher paid by the Democrats to dig up dirt on Trump. But describing payments for opposition research as ‘legal services’ is entirely misleading and subverts the reporting requirements.A cursory examination of the Steele Dossier should have convinced the CIA or the FBI that it was fake news. “Payments by a campaign or party committee to an opposition research firm are legal, as long as those payments are accurately disclosed. “Questions about who paid for this dossier are the subject of intense public interest, and this is precisely the information that FEC reports are supposed to provide,” said Brendan Fischer, director, federal and FEC reform at CLC. The FEC must investigate this apparent violation and take appropriate action.” “Voters need campaign disclosure laws to be enforced so they can hold candidates accountable for how they raise and spend money. “By filing misleading reports, the DNC and Clinton campaign undermined the vital public information role of campaign disclosures,” said Adav Noti, senior director, trial litigation and strategy at CLC, who previously served as the FEC’s Associate General Counsel for Policy. ![]() By law, campaign and party committees must disclose the reason money is spent and its recipient. On October 24, The Washington Post revealed that the DNC and Hillary for America paid opposition research firm Fusion GPS to dig into Trump’s Russia ties, but routed the money through the law firm Perkins Coie and described the purpose as “legal services” on their FEC reports rather than research. They failed to accurately disclose the purpose and recipient of payments for the dossier of research alleging connections between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russia, effectively hiding these payments from public scrutiny, contrary to the requirements of federal law. WASHINGTON – Today, Campaign Legal Center (CLC) filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign committee violated campaign finance law. Campaign, Democrats undermine voters right to know, FEC must investigate ![]()
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