The Federal Election Commission has fined the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign over their lies about funding the bogus Russian “dossier” that launched Russiagate.
According to a scoop from Paul Bedard for the Washington Examiner, “the election agency said that Clinton and the DNC violated strict rules on describing expenditures of payments funneled to the opposition research firm Fusion GPS through their law firm.”
“A combined $1,024,407.97 was paid by the treasurers of the DNC and Clinton campaign to law firm Perkins Coie for Fusion GPS’s information, and the party and campaign hid the reason, claiming it was for legal services, not opposition research,” Bedard wrote. “Instead, the DNC’s $849,407.97 and the Clinton campaign’s $175,000 covered Fusion GPS’s opposition research on the dossier, a basis for the so-called ‘Russia hoax’ that dogged Trump’s first term.”
The DNC and Clinton’s campaign tried to argue that their “legal advice and services” description was correct since Fusion GPS was paid through the law firm Perkins Coie, but the FEC did not let them slide on the technicality.
“Solely for the purpose of settling this matter expeditiously and to avoid further legal costs, respondent[s] does not concede, but will not further contest the commission’s finding of probable cause to proceed” with the probe, the FEC’s memo states.
The discredited dossier had alleged Trump was involved in a “conspiracy of cooperation” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, based on an alleged conversation that never happened — according to an investigation by Justice Department special counsel John Durham.
Fec by Paul Bedard
The report says that the agency fined Clinton’s treasurer $8,000 and the DNC’s treasurer $105,000.
The complaint that sparked the investigation was brought on by Dan Backer of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation three years ago.
“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. 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,” Backer told Bedard.
Backer added, “Hillary Clinton and her cronies willfully engaged in the greatest political fraud in history — destroying our nation’s faith in the electoral process, and it’s high time they were held accountable. I hope this is only the beginning.”
