DNC, Clinton campaign paid for research that resulted in Trump dossier: Report

Last Updated Oct 24, 2017 7:51 PM EDT

Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee contributed funding for research that culminated in the infamous dossier alleging Donald Trump's connections to Russia, according to a Washington Post report citing people familiar with the matter.

According to the report, lawyer Marc E. Elias, who represented both Clinton's campaign and the DNC, and his law firm Perkins Coie retained the firm Fusion GPS in April 2016 to investigate any connections, according to the Post. Before then, a still-unknown Republican client funded Fusion GPS' research during the Republican primaries. Fusion had hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to conduct the research.

The DNC and Clinton campaign-funded research continued through the end of October 2016, according to the Post's report.

It's unclear how much the DNC and Clinton's campaign paid toward the research. According to campaign finance records obtained by The Washington Post, Clinton's campaign paid Perkins Coie $5.6 million in legal fees from June 2015 to December 2016. But it's impossible to say how much of that related to research for the dossier, and how much related to other work. The DNC also paid the firm $3.6 million in "legal and compliance consulting" fees from November 2015 onwards, but the same question of how much related to Fusion GPS applies.

The people the Post spoke with said at no point did the Clinton campaign or DNC direct Steele's probe.

Buzzfeed published the dossier in January of this year.

The report gives some weight to the Republican focus on Fusion GPS.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has made Fusion GPS a focal point in its Russia-related queries — the committee interviewed the co-founder of Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson in the summer. House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes signed off on a subpoena to Fusion GPS after he had recused himself from the Russia probe, and without telling Democrats, sources have told CBS News.

This is a developing story.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dnc-cli...ossier-report/