https://www.yahoo.com/news/election-wat ... 20527.htmlElection watchdog charges Clinton campaign filed 'false' reports on Trump dossier funding
Michael Isikoff 13 hours ago
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Hillary Clinton and Christopher Steele. with text from the Federal Election Commission complaint. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Matt Rourke/AP, Victoria Jones/PA via AP)
An independent campaign watchdog group Wednesday filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee filed “false” campaign disclosure reports that concealed payments to the private investigative firm that commissioned the controversial “dossier” on then candidate Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.
The complaint by the Campaign Legal Center — a nonpartisan group with no ties to any political party — came shortly after President Trump, in an impromptu press conference on the White House lawn, called it a “disgrace” that Clinton’s campaign and the DNC paid for what he termed the “fake” dossier. He claimed the disclosure has “turned around” the multiple, ongoing investigations into possible links between his campaign and Moscow.
“So they made up the whole Russia hoax,” said Trump when asked about the disclosure about the Clinton campaign’s involvement in the dossier, which was first reported by the Washington Post. “Now … the hoax has turned around.”
The nine-page complaint by the campaign watchdog group says nothing about the veracity of the allegations in the dossier, a subject that is still being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller and three congressional committees.
Instead, it focuses on how the dossier was paid for — through a prominent law firm, Perkins Coie, which hired the private investigative firm, Fusion GPS — and the failure of either the Clinton campaign or the DNC to report the actual purpose of these payments on their legally mandated campaign expenditure reports.
“The DNC and Hillary for America reported dozens of payments totaling millions of dollars to the law firm Perkins Cole with the purpose described as ‘Legal Services’ or ‘Legal and Compliance Consulting,’ when, in reality, at least some of those payments were earmarked for the firm Fusion GPS, with the purpose of conducting opposition research on Donald Trump,” the complaint by the Campaign Legal Center states. The complaint notes that the Clinton campaign made 37 payments to Perkins Cole totaling $5.6 million, and the DNC made 345 payments totaling $6.7 million.
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“By failing to file accurate reports, the DNC and Hillary for America undermined the vital public information role that reporting is intended to serve,” the complaint states.
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