On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that the Democrats and failed Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton funded the now-debunked Trump Dossier that has allegations of collusion between now-President Donald Trump and Russia.
Today, the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) that claims Hillary’s campaign and the DNC violated campaign finance law over payments for the Trump Dossier.
From LawNewz:
According to a recent reports in the media, Marc Elias, who also served as the Clinton campaign lawyer, paid opposition research firm Fusion GPS to produce the dossier which exposed alleged connection between Donald Trump and Russia government. It also contained salacious allegations about Trump’s personal escapades. According to reports, the Hillary for America campaign paid for the research but routed the payments through Elias’ law firm Perkins Coie and described the purpose of the money as “legal services” on their FEC disclosures. The DNC and the Clinton campaign reported dozens of payments totaling more that $12 million dollars to Perkins Coie over the course of the campaign.
“By filing misleading reports, the DNC and Clinton campaign undermined the vital public information role of campaign disclosures,” said Adav Noti, with the Campaign Legal Center in a statement obtained by LawNewz. Noti previously served as the FEC’s Associate General Counsel for Policy. “Voters need campaign disclosure laws to be enforced so they can hold candidates accountable for how they raise and spend money. The FEC must investigate this apparent violation and take appropriate action.”
Elias continued to pay for the dossier after a Republican donor decided to stop payments.
The complaint states that “Clinton’s campaign committee reported 37 payments to Perkins Coie over the 2016 election cycle totaling $5,631,421” labeled as “Legal Services.” The next item says that the DNC forked over $6,726,407 to Perkins Coie for Legal and Compliance Consulting, Administrative Fees, Travel, Data Services Subscription, and Research Consulting.
The Post’s report says that Hillary’s campaign and the DNC shared the costs of the dossier from “Fusion GPS through Perkins Coie to conduct opposition research on Donald Trump.” The complaint concludes that “the purpose of at least some portion of the payments to Perkins Coie was not for legal services; instead, those payments were intended to fund opposition research.
LawNewz points out that a campaign has the ability to hire an opposition research company “to dig up dirt” on opponents. The law does not allow campaigns “to pay a law firm who then hires other [sic] to perform campaign related activities without reporting the purpose of the expenditures.”
Hillary’s campaign and the DNC face fines if violations are found. Those fines will go higher if the FEC determines they purposely mislead the American people.
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Comments
Fines?… wake me when they perp walk her on CNN.
I agree. There’s nothing to be gleeful about in all of this — it’s just politicos playing “Gotcha!” while the country goes down the toilet and serious problems/threats go unattended. I want to see the Rule of Law restored, and that means people being indicted, put on trial, and imprisoned.
This will make absolutely no difference to her sycophants. It’s always permissible to break the law or lie or cheat or steal or commit acts of violence—so long as the victim is a someone who doesn’t agree with them.
She could run for mayor or governor (or Hell, even POTUS again) and the same prog libs would line up to vote for her. After bussing in illegal immigrants to shift the balance, of course.
She’ll walk. If she so much as goes to any sort of trial I will be surprised.
Hillary talks of a “vast right wing conspiracy”. I would bet that is overshadowed by the vast capability of those supporting the Clintons and the like to eliminate, neutralize and/or dissuade anyone that stands in their way at a face to face level. Depending on power and protection, this threat level can be expanded but then requires governmental manipulation.. now seen to be fraught with some weakness. The Left now says that anything done is of no value… “she lost” … so all must be forgotten/forgiven.
This corruption – and its coverup – is by far the biggest scandal of its type in American history. More felonies have been committed by more people in furtherance of a common goal on a scale that is unimaginable.
After 8 years of obama/jarrett/clinton/GOPe, America has become the most corrupt free nation on earth, if not in modern history.
The undertaking required to ferret all the criminals infesting our government and its related institutions will be Herculean.
In this historic, critical time, the time – and the reason – for Sessions to recuse himself is over. Either he does his duty, or he should immediately resign. Or Trump should fire him.
Let’s get going here.
“The undertaking required to ferret all the criminals infesting our government and its related institutions will be Herculean.”
In fact, it will be impossible. If we take the same approach to eliminating corruption as was taken to installing it, we will never finish.
The only way to win this game is to drastically downsize government.
True. But part of the swamp-draining, isn’t it?
This is very weak stuff.
Hillary’s campaign and the DNC face fines if violations are found. Those fines will go higher if the FEC determines … [the]
But the FEC isn’t even looking at this yet. These aren’t FEC charges being discussed here, they’re a suit by a party which has no connection to law enforcement, or indeed any government agency. This feeble “If … if …” amounts to little of consequence.
It’s better than nothing since it keeps the crimes in the news … or it would if the MSM wasn’t totally in the bag for the criminals.
Actually … this is even weirder than it looks.
The CLC isn’t “non-partisan” to any useful degree. Its founder and president is one of those types driven to near hysteria by Citizens United. Its “Senior Director, Ethics” was an Obama appointee to the Office of Government Ethics who launched a barrage of pettifogging potshots at President-Elect Trump before resigning and scuttling over to CLC. Etc, etc. Despite their superficial generic blandness—i.e., all middle-aged white guys—the key personnel at CLC are career Progressives who were working to pervert the FEC and the OGE in the same Obamesque manner that Holder and Lynch perverted their higher-profile positions.
So this is an assault on Hillary from the left. And it comes at the same time that Congress appears ready to hear eyewitness testimony re Clinton and Obama bribery and collusion with the Russians … yes, those pesky Russians the Dems themselves have been hysterically demonizing for the past year.
The Dems have been acting like they’re terrified that something will blow up yuugely … and maybe this is it. The fallout from Uranium 1 may poison them all. Look for them to splinter while some try to cut loose and retreat from Hillary to what they think is a safe distance. They’ll probably try to distance themselves from Obama as well.
If an assault against the Clintons is coming from the left you KNOW the scandal is deeper than revealed.
There is some talk of the fact that foreign nationals were contracted to compile Trump opposition data which has been stated by some that the use of foreign nationals is illegal. Then you have the issue of the purposeful layers of lawyers utilized to give plausible deniability.
I ain’t convinced she is caught. It takes a lot to catch a greased pig, especially one as long in the tooth and wily as Hillary. Also you can’t forget that 100s of millions in Pay-to-Play dollars tucked away in slush funds buys a lot of grease.
She has so many sins, and so much has and is being exposed, the only thing the Dem party and the MSM can do is totally throw her under the bus in order to save some semblance of credibility. I’m cynical about actual justice being done, but there’s talk of appointing a Special Investigator/Prosecutor, after which all bets are off.
She claims she knew nothing about funding the “dossier.” If true, then at a minimum she’s a grossly incompetent manager, since the funding ran into many millions of dollars.
HRC & Billy boy, are so ” Bullet-Proof,” that no matter what is ” Dug Up,” about them, it won’t stick. ” Corrupt,” money covers up a lot of sins. The ” Left,” is in so much ” Denial,” that no matter what comes to light, they won’t believe it. ” Boy,” Did the Country dodge a silver bullet by not electing her. I’m glad people ” Woke Up,” and voted !
Burn the bitch. And when McStain is identified as the mystery Republican, burn his ass too.
I remember a couple of years ago, O’bama being interviewed by Bill Reilly. O’bama, with as straight a face as he could muster, claimed that there was “not a smidgen of corruption” in his administration. I marveled then at the man’s ability to be able to tell an obvious lie like that with a fairly straight face.
If Hillary had won, the US would quickly have deteriorated into a swamp of depravity of unimaginable dimensions.
(now, you NEVER TRUMPERS: Will you give Trump credit for causing us to dodge that firebomb?)
LOCK THEM UP!
routed the payments through Elias’ law firm Perkins Coie and described the purpose of the money as “legal services” on their FEC disclosures
Woo Hoo! Seattle, home of Perkins Coie, has made the Big Time in political corruption supporting services!