Hillary Clinton campaign and DNC agree to pay fine over notorious Steele dossier

Washington DC – The Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee (DNC) have agreed to pay $113,000 to settle a case concerning the funding of the notorious Steele dossier.

Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee agreed to settle a case and pay a fine over alleged campaign finance violations related to the funding of the Steele dossier.
Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee agreed to settle a case and pay a fine over alleged campaign finance violations related to the funding of the Steele dossier.  © IMAGO / ZUMA Wire

The two parties chose to settle the Federal Election Commission (FEC) investigation into possible a campaign finance violation over spending reports from Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, the Associated Press reported.

The Clinton campaign had financed an investigation into Donald Trump's connections to Russia, first hiring the law firm Perkins Coie, which then hired the intelligence firm Fusion GPS.

That eventually led to the publication of the Steele dossier, put together by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. The report, which detailed Trump's alleged collusion with Russia to win the 2016 election and other shady dealings in the country, turned out to be largely based on rumors and unreliable sources.

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Though the funding was going toward the investigation which led to the dossier, the Clinton campaign stated in campaign finance reports that the money was for legal services, without further specification.

A complaint filed in 2018 accused the Clinton campaign and DNC of "intentionally obscuring their payments through Perkins Coie," allowing them "to avoid publicly reporting on their statutorily required FEC disclosure forms the fact that they were paying Fusion GPS to perform opposition research on Trump with the intent of influencing the outcome of the 2016 presidential election."

Clinton and the DNC have stated that their reports were filed correctly, but to avoid further legal fees, they agreed to pay the fine.

Trump celebrated the announcement by calling the Steele dossier "a Hoax funded by the DNC and the Clinton Campaign."

Cover photo: IMAGO / ZUMA Wire

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