You are never going to believe this.
The Washington Examiner reports that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has decided to fine both Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) for lying about the funds that they provided for the infamous dossier that furthered the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.
Background
Over three years ago now, in 2018, the Coolidge Reagan Foundation filed a complaint with the FEC alleging misconduct concerning the Clinton campaign’s and the DNC’s funding of the now-discredited Steele Dossier.
To refresh your memory, During the 2016 presidential election, Clinton’s campaign and the DNC paid the law firm Perkins Coie a sum of $1,024,407.97. $849,407.97 came from the DNC, while $175,000 came from Clinton’s campaign.
Perkins Coie then used the money to pay Fusion GPS, which used the money to pay ex-British spy Christopher Steele to put together the fake dossier linking then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia.
To most people, it is fairly obvious that the Clinton campaign and the DNC spent money for information on Trump. But, both, in their FEC filings, tried to claim that the money was merely for legal services.
Since campaign finance laws require truthful descriptions of the payments provided by organizations to vendors, the Coolidge Reagan Foundation decided to file an FEC complaint.
The latest
This week, the FEC found that there is “probable cause” to believe that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC, in their FEC filings, failed to “make the purpose of the disbursement[s] [to Perkins Coie] clear.”
Accordingly, the FEC has fined Clinton’s treasurer $8,000, and it has fined the DNC’s treasurer $105,000.
Nonetheless, the FEC states that neither the DNC nor Clinton’s campaign has conceded to lying about the purpose of the funds. They maintain that because they gave the money to Perkins Coie and not to Fusion GPS describing the purpose of the disbursement as legal services is accurate.
Despite this point of disagreement, though, the FEC says both Clinton and the DNC have made it clear that, although they do not concede, they ” will not further contest the commission’s finding of probable cause to proceed.”
The Coolidge Reagan Foundation’s Dan Backer hailed the FEC’s ruling as, perhaps, “the first time that Hillary Clinton — one of the most evidently corrupt politicians in American history — has actually been held legally accountable.”
