Trump on the attack over dossier
Says Clinton team funding for potentially damaging Russia information is ‘a disgrace’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and fellow Republicans latched onto revelations tying Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign to a dossier of allegations about his ties to Russia, saying Wednesday that it was a “disgrace” that Democrats had helped pay for research that produced the document.
“It’s just really — it’s a very sad commentary on politics in this country,” Trump said in addressing reporters one day after news reports revealed that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, for several months last year, helped fund research that ultimately ended up in the dossier.
The document, compiled by a former British spy and alleging a compromised relationship between Trump and the Kremlin, has emerged this year as a political flashpoint. Law enforcement officials have worked to corroborate its claims. James Comey, FBI director at the time, advised Trump about the existence of the allegations, and the ex-spy who helped assemble the document, Christopher Steele, has been questioned as part of an ongoing probe of possible co-ordination between Russia and the Trump camp,
Trump has derided the document as “phoney stuff ” and “fake news” and portrayed himself Wednesday as an aggrieved party. The new disclosure about the dossier’s origins is likely to fuel complaints by Trump and his supporters that the document is merely a collection of salacious and uncorroborated claims.
A person familiar with the newly disclosed dossier matter, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the funding arrangement was brokered in the spring of 2016 by a law firm representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC and that it lasted until right before Election Day.
The identity of the original client, believed to be a contestant in the republican nomination, has not been revealed.
Former Clinton campaign spokesperson Brian Fallon said on Twitter that he regretted not knowing about Steele’s hiring before the election, and that had he known, “I would have volunteered to go to Europe and try to help him.”
“I have no idea what Fusion or Steele were paid, but if even a shred of that dossier ends up helping Mueller, it will prove money well spent.”