Trump denounces dossier funding
He calls reported Democratic campaign link a ‘disgrace’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump latched onto revelations tying Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign to a dossier of unsubstantiated allegations about his ties to Russia, saying Wednesday that it was a “disgrace” that Democrats had helped pay for research that produced the document.
“They’re embarrassed by it, but I think it’s a disgrace,” Trump told reporters, a 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. “It’s a very sad commentary on politics in this country.”
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 flash point. 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 exspy who helped assemble the document, Christopher Steele, has been questioned as part of an ongoing probe of possible coordination between Russia and the Trump camp.
Trump has derided the document as “phony stuff”
and “fake news” and portrayed himself Wednesday as an aggrieved party, posting on Twitter a quote he said was from Fox News that referred to him as “the victim.”
“Well, I think it’s very sad what they’ve done with this fake dossier,” Trump said Wednesday, adding without elaboration that “they paid a tremendous amount of money.” He contended that Democrats had initially denied any connection to the document, but now “they admitted it, and they’re embarrassed by it.”
Two people familiar with the newly disclosed dossier matter, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential client matters, said Tuesday that the funding arrangement was brokered in the spring of 2016 by a law firm representing the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee and that it lasted until right before Election Day.
In March of that year, the person said, the law firm of Perkins Coie was approached by Fusion GPS, a political research firm behind the dossier that had already been doing research work on Trump on behalf of an unidentified client during the GOP primary. Fusion GPS expressed interest in continuing to create opposition research on Trump, and Perkins Coie then engaged it in April 2016 “to perform a variety of research services during the 2016 election cycle,” according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.
The identity of the original client has not been revealed, though Trump hinted Wednesday that it could eventually become public.
“I have one name in mind,” the president said.
It’s unclear what Fusion GPS had dug up by the time the law firm hired it, or how much money was involved in the transaction. The attorney who helped create the arrangement, Marc Elias, did not immediately return an email seeking comment, and representatives of Fusion GPS declined to comment. The Washington Post first reported the funding deal.
The new disclosure placed fresh attention on the world of opposition research and the techniques political campaigns employ. Trump Jr.’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., received scrutiny when it was revealed in July that he had met a year earlier with Russians at Trump Tower after being told that he would be receiving damaging information on Clinton. In that case, publicly released emails show that Trump Jr. had been told the information was part of a Russian government effort to aid his father.
That meeting is being investigated by Robert Mueller, the Justice Department’s special counsel leading an investigation into whether Trump campaign aides coordinated with Russia to influence the outcome of the election.
In a statement, a Democratic National Committee spokesman said that Tom Perez, who took over as party chairman earlier this year, was not part of the decision-making and was unaware that Perkins Coie was working with Fusion GPS.
“But let’s be clear, there is a serious federal investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, and the American public deserves to know what happened,” the statement said.
Former Clinton campaign spokesman 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,” he wrote in another tweet.