DNC Chair Perez Plays Dumb on Payments to Fusion GPS
“the issue at hand is whether Trump campaign and Russians were conspiring”
DNC Chair Tom Perez was asked a direct question on Tuesday about how much the DNC paid to the law firm that paid Fusion GPS and who authorized the payment. Perez responded with a long rambling answer about how awful Trump is.
Jonathan Easeley writes at The Hill:
DNC chair: Rot went all the way to the top in Trump campaign
Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Tom Perez said Tuesday that special counsel Robert Mueller had discovered clear evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians and that the “rot went all the way to the top.”
Speaking at a breakfast with reporters hosted by the Christian Science Monitor, Perez, a former civil rights attorney at the Justice Department, said Mueller’s findings “cannot be overstated.”
He lashed out at “the appalling silence from Republican leaders” and said that if Clinton had won the election and had been accused of the same thing, Republicans would have impeached her immediately.
Buried about halfway down in the report, comes this:
Perez dodged, however, on the DNC’s role in an explosive opposition research dossier it helped pay for.
The law firm used by the Clinton campaign and the DNC contracted the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which hired a British spy to put the document together.
“I was unaware of Fusion GPS until 48 hours or so before it was released,” Perez said. “My number one concern is what happened during the election. Did the Russians and Trump administration collude to affect the election. That to me is the issue at hand.”
And at the very end we get this:
Perez would not say whether he had asked DNC officials to look into the matter or discuss any details about the national party’s involvement. He said that the opposition research was justified because Trump didn’t disclose his tax returns and had a “very shady relationship with Russian authorities.”
“I don’t know how much of the opposition research was Fusion, I haven not aggregated that amount,” Perez said. “But the issue at hand is whether Trump campaign and Russians were conspiring to affect this election.”
Watch Perez squirm in the video below:
Richard Pollock of the Daily Caller has more on Perez’s obfuscation:
Perez also indicated that he had not ordered an internal investigation about the DNC’s role with the firm.
The DNC chairman continued to plead ignorance over the payments, repeating a previous claim that the hiring of Fusion GPS did not occur on his watch.
“As you know I wasn’t working at the DNC the time of this contract,” he told reporters.
He also repeated the Democrats’ charge that the Russians hacked the DNC emails and the Russians were “in regular contact” with the Trump campaign.
“We know that we were hacked by the Russians at the DNC. We now know from yesterday the Trump and the Russians were in regular contact. They weren’t getting together to trade vodka recipes. They were getting together to affect the outcome of the race in 2016,” Perez said.
Let’s hope Democrats keep this up. The longer they obsess over their Russia narrative, the longer they’re not contributing any real ideas on policy. When the next elections arrive, the American people will ask the Democratic Party what they have to offer and the only response will be “Russia.”
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
Not only he is playing dumb regarding the pee-pee dossier, he is also downright lying about the Mueller investigation.
The only evidence of collusion with the Russians so far was on the Demorat side.
Watch Perez squirm in the video below…..snakes have to squirm. That’s how they get around.
DNC Chair Perez Plays Dumb on Payments to Fusion GPS
I don’t think Perez has to “play”. He’s volunteered to be an idiot by his choices.
They weren’t getting together to trade vodka recipes.
Right, they were talking about golf and the grandkids.
Yes, it’s a fun game, but it’s much too easy. Perez is a lightweight; ridiculously unsuitable for play at national level.
he needed to speak ‘Latino’ Spanglish.
remember
Prophet and Loss Statement
Rumor: President Obama said the ‘future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam’ during a speech in 2012.
CLAIM is TRUE
Why doesn’t some sharp reported ask Perez, “Well, given that you believed Trump had a very shady relationship with the Russian authorities, that they were in regular contact, and that they were working together to elect Trump President in 2016, why did the DNC and Hillary campaign think hiring a firm tied to the Kremlin to dig up dirt on Trump was a good idea?”
Pretty sad that the sanest DNC chair in recent memory was “Window Licker” Kaine.
I can’t even remember who the RNC chair is right now, they are so low key
Plays? I think this guy has shown that dumb (and dirty) is his default setting.
Take him at his word: He and the DNC have no clue where their money is spent. They are careless with their donors’ money. Perhaps that’s why the smart money left them.
Let’s talk about anything other than the Uranium deal or the pay to play games hosted by Hillary.
“I was unaware of Fusion GPS until 48 hours or so before it was released,” Perez said.
An outright lie. The press, of course, will not follow up.
The amount of money being funneled through Perkins Coie (pronounced “Coo-ee” and always stated wrong by talking heads) is remarkable. I hope a lot of detail eventually becomes public, because I want to see how well being a “dossier” writer and provider pays. Working on actual legal cases, keeping time in 6 minute increments, and billing by the hour or on a contingency basis is clearly for dummies when one can just make shit up and sell it for millions and the fools keep coming back.
When influence peddling and muck dissemination pays so much better than real, earnest work in straightforward occupations like manufacturing that actually contribute to GDP and provide middle class jobs, things have gone very badly wrong in your country.
Curiously, another DC outpost of a Seattle-based firm is in the spotlight for corrupt lobbying and “government relations” activities. The Seattle firms are fighting above their weight class in D.C. Previously, Preston, Gates & Ellis, which was the successor firm to Bogle & Gates (the gates being William Gates, Sr. and father to the MS oligarch), was dragged into the spotlight during the Jack Abramoff affair. A flashback:
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/can-seattle-firm-preston-gates-avoid-lobbying-scandal-fallout/
Has anyone filed a complaint with the FEC yet over potential election law violations by funneling the money through Perkins to Fusion GPS to circumvent reporting and transparency requirements.
Yes
https://lawnewz.com/high-profile/breaking-fec-complaint-says-clinton-campaign-dnc-violated-law-over-trump-dossier/
The Dems are scared spit-less by the current revelations concerning Fusion GPS and the Steele dossier as well as by the Podesta/Manafort revelations and the U1 scandal. The current strategy is to ignore questions on the subject and mouth the Trump/Russia Collusion dogma that has been spouted for the last year. It is best to simply ignore anything that they say which is not an admission that the DNC was involved in the Steele Dossier, etc.
What is so interesting about the Manafort indictment is that it essentially links the Democrat party to illegal foreign influence peddling. It has put most of the Congress in jeopardy, both Dems and Reps, as well as just about every influence peddler in DC. I am unclear as to why it was done in this way. The only advantage that I can see to this indictment, is that it protects Mueller’s position as SP and puts pressure on DC politicians to stop investigations into U1 and the dossier.
It will be interesting to see where this all goes.
“The only advantage that I can see to this indictment, is that it protects Mueller’s position as SP and puts pressure on DC politicians to stop investigations into U1 and the dossier.”
Particularly given Mueller’s and Rosenstein’s role quieting the original Russian spy ring issues behind the Uranium One deal. Mueller, Rosenstein and others merit an investigation for corruption charges.
Is it a coincidence that Mattis, kelly, Mueller and Alles are Marines or former marines?
I noticed early on that Trump surrounded himself with military, but this is spooky. Fro the last 70 years the Marines have been authorized by lay to go anywhere and do anything at the president’s direction, without congressional approval.
The downside, to the current Manafort indictment, is that it drags the whole foreign influence industry, in DC, into the light. This can’t be good for the professional political class. So, I’m a little confused, at this point, as to exactly what Mueller’s goal is. I guess we will have to see how things progress.
For the last 70 years the Marines have been authorized by law…
should proofread before posting.
The Clinton-Elias-Steele-Kremlin collusion is clear.
The entire Russian collusion story appears to be a smokescreen for a massive coverup including Comey, Lynch, Holder, Mueller, Rosenstein, McCabe, and probably every major intelligence agency under Obama.
We are just scratching the surface, and from what we know about Uranium One so far, Mueller has deep involvement there as then FBI Director, and he will soon become a witness in that investigation.
Attorney Gregg Jarrett at Fox news has highlighted James Comey’s likely legal jeopardy in both the dossier and Uranium One scandals.
We could be witness to unprecedented activity very shortly.
I am glad that President Trump has Marines as his closest advisors. We all know where the swamp creatures have taken him. (Reince “lather,reince, repeat” Prebius and the ilk).
If Robert Mueller has any shred of integrity he will take the investigation to its logical destination. That being the Hilary and DNC involvement with collusion.
If the FISA warrants relied upon the dossier, then the whole game has changed. While I’m not a lawyer, I can imagine surveillance being thrown out because of it.
It’s getting good boys and girls. Let’s see where it goes.