FEC fines Hillary Clinton campaign, DNC for saying the Steele Dossier was ‘legal’ work, not opposition research

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When the Hillary Clinton for President campaign did opposition research in 2016, it logged it in as “legal” expenses.

Now, six years after the failed 2016 campaign paid for lies to be promulgated against Donald Trump, linking him to Russians in what became known as the Steele Dossier, the Federal Election Commission has given the Clinton campaign a hand-slap fine of $8,000 for lying about the work the campaign was actually doing. The FEC also fined the Democratic National Committee $105,000 for categorizing the opposition research as legal work.

The work in the Steele Dossier was enough in 2016 for the politically motivated FBI to open up an investigation into the Trump campaign. The dossier contains explosive and salacious claims about Trump’s sexual preferences, and indicates the Russians were out to get Clinton.

The Steele Dossier was originally leaked by BuzzFeed, a gossip and click-bait website, in January 2017, and then reported by mainstream media across the country. The report was made up of raw claims and unsubstantiated intelligence compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British spy. Steele was contracted by Fusion GPS, and Fusion GPS was paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

There was also a link to Marc Elias, a partner at the Seattle-based Perkins Coie law firm who works on behalf of the Democratic Party. Elias actually hired Fusion GPS to do the work, which is how it came to be logged as “legal” work. The research tab was then picked up by Clinton and the DNC. Elias left Perkins Coie in 2021.

“What is being called the dossier was actually a series of single-source intelligence reports over a period of time, if you like, almost a running commentary on the election campaign and Russia’s perspective on it — and it comes from the Russian perspective of the telescope, if you like,” Steele told a reporter, in explaining the report. “The sources were Russian, they were reporting on how Russia saw it, and of course, that may in some cases be rather different than how it was viewed in America at the other end of the telescope.” 

Former FBI director Robert Mueller was brought on as special counsel to investigate the origins of the dossier. In a 448-page report, he officially debunked the entire Steele Dossier and other non-dossier conspiracy charges that Democrats and the corporate media — from the Washington Post to every newspaper in America — had spun up against Trump in 2016.

In November, Department of Justice special counsel John Durham won an indictment against one of the main actors – a Russian spy — for lying to the FBI about sources he used in the conspiracy dossier.

According to that indictment, on July 31, 2016, the FBI, using the Steele Dossier as its shield, opened up an investigation it called “Crossfire Hurricane” to determine if the Trump campaign was coordinating with the Russian government. The investigation was exclusively based on the now-discredited opposition research produced by Clinton’s campaign law firm and a research group called Fusion GPS, all funded with millions of dollars from both the Clinton Campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

The indictment against Russian operative Igor Danchenko described that Clinton’s campaign was fully responsible for the ginned-up lies against Trump:

“Earlier that year, a U.S.-based international law firm (“Law Firm-1”) acting as counsel to the Hillary Clinton Presidential campaign (the “Clinton Campaign” ), had retained a U.S.-based investigative firm (U.S. Investigative Firm – 1”) to conduct research on Trump and his associates. In or about June 2016 , (“U.S. Investigative Firm – 1)”, in turn , retained U.K. Person-1, a former officer in a friendly foreign intelligence service (“Foreign Intelligence Service – 1 ), and his U.K-.based firm to investigate Trump’s purported ties to Russia,” the grand jury charged. 

“During the U.S. presidential election season and afterwards, U.K. Person-1 and employees of U.S. Investigative Firm -1 provided the Company Reports to multiple media outlets and to U.S. government personnel,” the grand jury indictment said 

20 COMMENTS

  1. Unfolding the truth about the Steele Dossier is relatively speedy work by the authorities against the Clinton Crime Network. I’m still waiting to see when the authorities will investigate and figure out how Hillary removed Vince Foster’s body from the West Wing and transported it to Fort Marcy Park, and had the Park Police figure out that a suicide includes a double-tap to the back of the head.

  2. Astonishingly, to this day even right wing pundits such as Sean Hannity continue to promulgate the BS narrative that the Steele Dossier was “Russian lies” even after Igor Danchenko, a Ukrainian, was indicted over the Steele Dossier by Federal authorities. The Steele Dossier was a product of English, Ukrainian, Italian, Australian & American intelligence agencies pure and simple. The fact that Clinton gets a slap on the wrist over her sedition proves the “Deep State” is still alive and well!

    • The Steele Dossier was a FAKE document designed to obtain a FISA warrant. This is a ruse to acquire court action, something that would constitute jail time and disbarment. How does Hillary Clinton get away with all of this crap?
      .
      Answer: The Democrat Party and the mainstream press. The first spins and lies about the Truth.
      The second provides cover so the Truth won’t be revealed. When are Americans going to wake up?

      • Impossible to wake-up when you’ve already been thoroughly brainwashed. Maybe as much as 1/2 the country is in this condition.

  3. What happened here took far to long to come fully to light and that still may not be the case….Our congressional delegation surely knew all this long ago and had a hand in keeping it all covered up….Lisa did everything she could every chance she got to push it in her efforts to damage Trump in any way she could. Lisa backed legislation to protect Bob Mueller ( who certainly knew about all this) there is no question this is all part of and lead to the election being rigged and the mess we are currently facing…

  4. $8,000 equates to how many hours of Taxpayers’ funds wasted on Rep. Adam Shiff’s pajama party. How many months of salaries paid to do absolutely nothing but prolong obstruction.

  5. Mayor Bronson sir. Thank you for showing us integrity guts and real leadership I can imagine it must feel awesome standing oath integrity’s ground like you do my man thank you. Let’s get our mayor oath integrity team members to help him out. You cowards on the assembly are shameless good by to you all. Come on voters oath integrity needs you now.

  6. Her lips are moving so she is lying still and again. Anybody rooting for her is wasting air by breathing. She has caused a lot of problems for the everyday Americans.

  7. What difference, at this point, does it make? Whitewater, Tyson, Cattle Futures, Rose Hill, FBI Files, Travelgate, Closet Server, Libya, Uranium One, Clinton Global Initative, blah, blah, blah.

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