Federal election officials fined Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee earlier this month for failing to properly disclose the funds spent on the contentious opposition research that resulted in the infamous Trump-Russia dossier.
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The FEC fined both of the organisations after some now-years-old complaints — one from the Campaign Legal Center and another from the conservative Coolidge Reagan Foundation — allegedly accused that the party and campaign reported payments to the powerhouse Democratic law firm Perkins Coie as legal expenses, while some of the money was actually earmarked for “paying Fusion GPS through Perkins Coie to conduct opposition research on Donald Trump,” as stated by the Campaign Legal Center’s original complaint.
According to the letter sent by the Federal Election Commission to a conservative group that requested an investigation, the DNC was fined $105,000 and the Clinton campaign was fined $8,000 for their actions.
Political candidates and groups must publicly disclose their spending to the FEC, and they must explain the purpose of any expenditure exceeding $200. The FEC concluded that the Clinton campaign and DNC misrepresented the funding for the dossier, labelling it as “legal services” and “legal and compliance consulting” rather than opposition research.
DNC and Clinton agree to pay fine
According to separate conciliation agreements reached by the agency with both parties, the DNC and the Clinton campaign agreed to pay a total of $113,000 in fines. The DNC will pay $105,000, while the Clinton campaign will pay $8,000.
A spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, Daniel Wessel, said in a statement that “we settled ageing and silly complaints from the 2016 election about ‘purpose descriptions’ in our FEC report,” while a spokesperson for Clinton’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump says FEC’s ruling confirmed his belief of Clinton staging a hoax to sabotage his campaign
Former President Donald Trump said that the FEC’s decision to fine the DNC and Clinton confirmed his belief that the 2016 Democratic candidate staged a major hoax against his campaign, in a statement released.
“Wow! Just out that the 2016 Clinton Campaign and the DNC paid the FEC today for violating the law by failing to disclose that their payments for ‘legal advice and services to law firm Perkins Coie was, in fact, a guise to hire numerous companies, all of whom are now named Defendants in my lawsuit, to try and take down and illegally destroy your favourite President, me,” the former president said in the statement.
“This was done to create, as I have stated many times, and is now confirmed, a Hoax funded by the DNC and the Clinton Campaign. This corruption is only beginning to be revealed, is un-American, and must never be allowed to happen again. Where do I go to get my reputation back?” -he added.
Dan Backer, a member of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation said that he was proud to have “forced the FEC to do their job for once” in a statement.
“This may well be the first time that Hillary Clinton — one of the most evidently corrupt politicians in American history — has actually been held legally accountable, and I’m proud to have forced the FEC to do their job for once,” Dan Backer said. “The Coolidge Reagan Foundation proved that with pluck and grit, Americans who stand with integrity can stand up to the Clinton machine and other corrupt political elites.” -he added.
What exactly is the Trump-Russia dossier?
The Steele dossier, also known as the Trump–Russia dossier, is a contentious political opposition research report written from June to December 2016 that alleges misconduct, conspiracy, and collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government prior to and during the 2016 election campaign.
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It has been called “largely discredited,” “deeply flawed,” and an “explosive dossier of unsubstantiated and salacious information about President Trump’s alleged ties with Russia.” By 2022, The Washington Post had retracted several news stories based on the dossier, calling it “largely unverified.” Some aspects of the dossier, however, have been confirmed, including the fact that Putin and Russia actively favoured Trump over Clinton and that many Trump campaign officials and associates had multiple secret contacts with Russia.
The dossier, which was leaked without the author’s permission by BuzzFeed News in January 2017, is an unfinished 35-page compilation of raw intelligence based on information from anonymous sources known to the author, counterintelligence specialist Christopher Steele.
Steele, a former head of British intelligence’s (MI6) Russia Desk, was writing the report for Fusion GPS, a private investigative firm paid by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The dossier’s 17 reports allege that Trump campaign members and Russian operatives conspired to help Trump by cooperating in Russia’s election interference. It also claims that Russia attempted to harm Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. The decision by BuzzFeed to publish the reports without verifying their allegations was criticised by journalists but upheld by a court ruling.
Igor Danchenko, a Russian analyst who was also working on the dossier, was arrested last year in November for lying to the FBI about his involvement with the dossier.
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