Remember the unverified anti-Trump dossier that Buzzfeed published after the election? It was quickly discredited, but questions remained as to who paid for the document.
Well, we no longer have to wonder. The Washington Post had a bombshell scoop last night, reporting that the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund the now-infamous dossier containing debunked allegations about Donald Trump’s connections to Russia. Fusion GPS was the firm responsible for decimating the document, and Clinton lawyer Marc E. Elias kept the firm on retainer from April 2016 through Election Day.
Fusion GPS, upon being funded by the Cilntons, paid Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer, to compile the dossier. Steele had, according to the Daily Beast, “connections in Russia and Eastern Europe,” who helped him compile the damning information. The final document made several lurid allegations about sexual activity in Russia by Trump colleagues, which have since been debunked. But the allegations about Russian connections stuck, and continue to be investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
Now that one of the sources of the payments for the research has been revealed to be Clinton and Democrats, pressure will likely build on Mueller to conclude his investigation, which sources say has thus far found nothing to support allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Fusion GPS has fought to keep the source of its research funding private, and declined to comment on the Washington Post report. Spokespersons for the Clinton campaign and the DNC also had no immediate comment.
Nevertheless, this is an earth-shaking revelation. Elias and the Clinton campaign denied they had anything to do with the dossier for months:
Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year https://t.co/vXKRV1wRJc
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 24, 2017
And, crazy as all of this is, this isn’t even the most startling news from the report. On Saturday, Trump tweeted out the following:
Workers of firm involved with the discredited and Fake Dossier take the 5th. Who paid for it, Russia, the FBI or the Dems (or all)?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2017
Trump was lambasted for suggesting the FBI helped pay for the dossier. But look at this from the Washington Post report: “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.”
Here’s the new question: What did James Comey, then-FBI director, know and when did he know it? Why was he paying for a discredited source to gather damning information on Trump? Who else paid for the dossier?
Hard 2read this w/o concluding Clinton campaign colluded w Russia 2interfere in US election. https://t.co/lH5wNiUlzT pic.twitter.com/fy5aycEbzT
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) October 25, 2017
Let’s hope we get all of these questions answered soon, and end the ridiculous Trump-Russia collusion investigation. We now know who really colluded with the Russians: Hillary Clinton.
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