The Federal Election Commission has imposed punishment on the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee over the ‘Russia Dossier’ hoax used to entangle incoming President Donald Trump.
The Washington Examiner reports that the FEC fined both the DNC and the Clinton campaign for lying about funding the unproven dossier, which was used to smear Trump ahead of the 2016 election while hampering his presidency after his shock victory.
The Examiner notes:
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.
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 memo said that the Clinton campaign and DNC argued that they were correct in describing their payment as for “legal advice and services” because it was Perkins Coie that hired Fusion GPS. But the agency said the law is clear and was violated.
It added that neither the campaign nor the party conceded to lying but won’t contest the finding.
“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 noted.
In a memo to the Coolidge Reagan Foundation, which filed the complaint over three years ago, the FEC said it fined Clinton’s treasurer $8,000 and the DNC’s treasurer $105,000.
The memo is expected to be made public in a month, the Examiner added.
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