The Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC have been tied to the bogus report on Trump’s “deep, compromising ties to Russia,” which even former FBI Director James Comey called “salacious and unverified,” that was released before the presidential election and is still being trumpeted by the corporate press and Republicans like Sen. John McCain as “evidence” the president has been influenced—or even blackmailed—by the Russian government. On the contrary, claims President Trump, “This was the Democrats coming up with an excuse for losing an election.”
By John Friend
Throughout the 2016 presidential election, and even following Donald Trump’s electoral victory, Democrat strategists, Hillary Clinton and her top aides and supporters, and much of the corporate-owned mass media have attempted to discredit and marginalize Trump by alleging he has ties to and has been influenced by the Russian government.
Purported “Russian meddling” in the 2016 election has been a major talking point for Democrats, who have relentlessly attempted to tie Trump and his closest associates—including his son, Donald Trump Jr.—to the Russian government. Democrat partisans and anti-Trump members of the GOP, such as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other Republican leaders, continue to peddle the largely discredited theory that Russia “interfered” in the heated 2016 election in order to help Trump triumph in the heated presidential election.
Now it has been revealed that the Clinton campaign, working in conjunction with the Democratic National Committee (DNC), funded research that ultimately resulted in the much ballyhooed “Russian dossier,” which was leaked to the mass media and has been used to promote the largely discredited notion that Trump has deep, compromising ties to Russia, and that the Russians interfered in the election.
Early last week, The Washington Post published a detailed report alleging that Marc E. Elias, a top lawyer for the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained and financed a Washington-based company called Fusion GPS to conduct the research and amass the dossier. Elias used his law firm, Perkins Coie, to retain Fusion GPS and to pay for its research activities.
Elias and DNC officials all have lied, claiming that they did not know who paid for the dossier.
The funders were only discovered thanks to a lawsuit brought by a technology mogul who was smeared in the document. The billionaire had sued Fusion GPS along with a mainstream media outlet that posted the entire document to its website for everyone to read. In his suit, he gained access to Fusion GPS’s bank accounts and discovered who had paid for the research.
Prior to the Clinton campaign and DNC contracting Fusion GPS to conduct the research, The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news outlet, contracted Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research on then-candidate Trump and many of the other top GOP contenders at the time. Elias, working on behalf of the Clinton campaign and DNC, eventually contracted Fusion GPS to engage in similar research, which was used to buttress Democrat talking points designed to discredit Trump by portraying him as a Russian puppet who was potentially being blackmailed by the Kremlin.
ENTER THE BRITISH SPY
Fusion GPS then hired Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence official who has close ties to both the FBI and the broader U.S. intelligence community, to put together the dossier, which alleges, among other things, that Russia has been “cultivating, supporting, and assisting Trump for at least five years,” The Hill reports. The dossier, entitled, “U.S. presidential election: Republican candidate Donald Trump’s activities in Russia and compromising relationship with the Kremlin,” also alleges that Trump and his top aides “accepted a regular flow of intelligence from the Kremlin” about Mrs. Clinton.
In the dossier, Steele further contends that Trump has deep financial ties to Russia.
Additionally, a number of lewd allegations were made about Trump in the dossier, allegations which have been met with skepticism and doubt. Trump has denied all of the charges contained in the dossier, calling it a “fake dossier” that was “made up” by disingenuous and dishonest individuals seeking to tarnish his image and reputation in the minds of the American public.
Trump has regularly attacked and criticized allegations of “Russian meddling” in the election, and has denied having close, compromising ties to Russia, describing the allegations as a “hoax.”
“I have to say, the whole Russian thing is what it’s turned out to be,” Trump explained to reporters following reports demonstrating the “Russia dossier” report was financed and compiled largely at the behest of the Clinton campaign and DNC. “This was the Democrats coming up with an excuse for losing an election.”
The dossier is a collection of 17 memos authored by Steele between June 20 and Dec. 13, 2016. In the memos, Steele cites conversations he had with unnamed Russian sources, many of whom he paid for their “information.”
Former FBI Director James Comey briefed Trump and former President Barack Obama on the dossier prior to the election. Comey described it as “salacious and unverified” in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Many of the claims made in the dossier have been debunked, and many others have not been verified and likely never will be.
Several DNC leaders and many former Clinton campaign officials have denied involvement or knowledge about the “Russian dossier” and Fusion GPS’s role in compiling it.
DNC Chairman Tom Perez and top DNC leaders “were not involved in any decision-making regarding Fusion GPS, nor were they aware that Perkins Coie was working with the organization,” a DNC spokeswoman recently told The Washington Post.
John Friend is a freelance writer who lives in California.
