The conspiracy grows
Former president Barack Obama’s official campaign organization has directed nearly a million dollars to the same law firm that funneled money to Fusion GPS, the firm behind the infamous Steele dossier. Since April of 2016, Obama For America (OFA) has paid over $972,000 to Perkins Coie, records filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show.
The Washington Post reported last week that Perkins Coie, an international law firm, was directed by both the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton’s campaign to retain Fusion GPS in April of 2016 to dig up dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump. Fusion GPS then hired Christopher Steele, a former British spy, to compile a dossier of allegations that Trump and his campaign actively colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 election. Though many of the claims in the dossier have been directly refuted, none of the dossier’s allegations of collusion have been independently verified. Lawyers for Steele admitted in court filings last April that his work was not verified and was never meant to be made public.
OFA, Obama’s official campaign arm in 2016, paid nearly $800,000 to Perkins Coie in 2016 alone, according to FEC records. The first 2016 payments to Perkins Coie, classified only as “Legal Services,” were made April 25-26, 2016, and totaled $98,047. A second batch of payments, also classified as “Legal Services,” were disbursed to the law firm on September 29, 2016, and totaled exactly $700,000. Payments from OFA to Perkins Coie in 2017 totaled $174,725 through August 22, 2017.
FEC records as well as federal court records show that Marc Elias, the Perkins Coie lawyer whom the Washington Post reported was responsible for the payments to Fusion GPS on behalf of Clinton’s campaign and the DNC, also previously served as a counsel for OFA. In Shamblin v. Obama for America, a 2013 case in federal court in Florida, federal court records list Elias as simultaneously serving as lead attorney for both OFA and the DNC.
More at the Federalist
They are all swimming in the same cesspool and all interconnected. They’ve made a grave strategic error in harping on the imaginary Trump and the Russians fantasy, apparently having counted on it running Trump out of office long before now. They rely heavily on liberal media shielding and the ignorance of their following, but I don’t think they understand how sick and tired the majority of American people (those not residing on the coasts) are of the total disregard liberals have for truth, laws and America.
Whoever funded the Steele investigation was performing a public service. The GOP should have vetted Trump. Instead, they ignored every red flag and every blinking warning light. Now they’re up to their ears in investigations. There’s so much potentially wrong with this guy occupying the White House and the way that he got there that it’s hard to know where to begin.
@Greg: Yeah, paying for lies when the truth does you no good is a real public service, isn’t it?
They guy has been in public life for decades. Perhaps there simply was no dirt to dig up? Perhaps that’s why Obama and Hillary paid for lies instead of accepting the truth.
Investigations that have been ongoing for well over a year and has found… what? Well, has found NOTHING. They are investigations for the sake of investigating, which you seem to place a lot of importance on.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Obama, Holder and Hillary sold our uranium to the Russians, gave Iran an open road to nuclear weapons, gave ISIS an clear path to regional domination and paid Russia to interfere in our elections.
It is Obama that should have been vetted; a disaster could have been averted.
Well, just make something up. Oh… you’ve already tried that.
Ooooh I just cant wait to see who is charged with what by Mueller.
What will the witness reveal on uranium one deal?
Will the TeaParty be revitalized with the 3.5 million dollar IRS settlement?
@kitt: $3.5 million is more that an smidgen, isn’t it? Why doesn’t Obama and Lerner have to pay that instead of the American taxpayer?
@Greg:
What did they get, Greg? A lot of nonsense from Putin? That’s a service?
How does it feel to on the side as the Russians?
Manafort surrendered the charges.
He worked for a pro-Kremlin political party in Ukraine, for which the government alleges they were paid tens of millions of dollars that they then laundered “in order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities. Did they donate it to a self run slush fund foundation that only uses 6% of the money for charity ?
Not as shady as selling our uranuim reserves, but how did this affect the election? And what work did they do for the Podesta brothers while in this same business?
https://www.justice.gov/file/1007271/download
@DrJohn: Gee, when they accuse Trump of collusion, it’s “treason”. When it is confirmed that Hillary and Obama committed collusion and used lies BOUGHT from Russians to illegally spy on American citizens, from which NO EVIDENCE OF WRONG DOING HAS BEEN FOUND, it’s a “public service”. So goes liberal-think. So goes hypocrisy.
Apparently, making up lies to try and destroy a political foe when there is no REAL wrong doing to use is a public service. I bet Obama and Holder running guns to Mexico in order to gin up a false case against the 2nd Amendment was a “public service”. Using the IRS to try and destroy political opposition has “public service” written all over it. Lying to the American people so that a health care bill can be passed with the purpose of taking $250 billion in before tax health care premiums away from the American people is a “public service”. I would think a true “public service” would benefit the PUBLIC… not just high ranking Democrats.
@kitt: Nothing to do with Trump. Merely hoping to get them to spill something. In other words, after way over a year of intense investigations and accusations, the whiners STILL HAVE NOTHING TO BASE THEIR ACCUSATIONS ON. All that we have learned is how deep into the Democrats the REAL Russian collusion went. “Public service”, as Greg terms it.
@Bill… Deplorable Me: Manafort should have reported the income and paid the tax as Hillary should have reported the foreign brib er donations to her foundation.
@kitt: No, no, no, wrong, wrong, wrong. Liberals don’t have to abide by laws. Liberals don’t have to follow rules. It’s OK for liberals to collude with the Russians and sell them uranium for bribes and kick-backs.
If there is nothing the Democrats are ashamed of, why does a liberal, Obama-appointed judge seal Fusion GPS’s records? I guess transparency and honesty are just words. I guess Chutkin is just providing a “public service”.
@Bill… Deplorable Me: Wawawait more sealed Obama records? No waaaay
Manafort worked for the Trump Campaign from March to August 2016. in that time he turned 3 blue states red. The Red Menace repelling from black helicopters into those states hacking into our facebook and twitter accounts using quantum mind control software developed by the kremlin. The hardcore Hillary voters remain unaffected as they like the scarecrow followed the yellow brick road.
Has anyone noticed that when conservatives are asked questions, they answer, when they are asked for documents they turn them over and when they have charges brought, they turn themselves in? Yet, when liberals are asked, they plead the 5th or lie, when asked for documents, they erased them or get one of their puppet judges to seal them and don’t really have to worry about charges because the DOJ has been liberalized, politicized and weaponized against conservatives and Republicans. Now, who appears to be the more honest and truthful?
What is the lesson the treatment of Paul Manafort has taught us? Cooperation, honesty and openness will get you NOTHING. Better to Bleachbit everything, plea the 5th and lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. This is what liberals have done to our Justice system.
Politico and Axios are each working overtime to rehabilitate Fusion GPS.
Hillary really did meet w/ Russians (thru family and campaign leadership.)
Trump did not.
But somehow Trump’s invitations to meet w/ Russians is a bigger crime than Hillary’s $150 Million in bribes from Russia as well as $9 million in payments for the oppo research via Fusion GPS.
Even Morgan Freeman is saying PUT HILLARY IN JAIL ALREADY.
@Bill… Deplorable Me:
Only Hillary can hand top secret government files to an attorney with no security clearance to read and choose which are suitable for evidence. Destroy those not suitable then wipe the server with, like a cloth.
Any one else might get charged with destruction of evidence, now that Obama has dragged himself into the fray I am sure many more laws will be re-interpreted.
Te rest of us get the house broken into in the middle of the night every crack searched even your clothing photographed, Doesn’t really matter cause they have been spying on you and your wife for months they have already seen you naked, and listened in on all your intimate moments.
The charges brought have nothing to do with the investigation, but a good prosecutor it is said with the entire US code at his disposal can prosecute a ham sandwich that Hillary didnt make.
The $12,000,000 that Donald Trump claimed was paid for the “fake dossier” on Twitter a couple of days ago has turned out to be a slight exaggeration.
Fusion GPS has disclosed the six-figure amount it gave an ex-British spy to compile the Trump dossier
No doubt he’ll post a correction shortly.
@Greg: Hillary and the DNC paid (con)Fusion GPS $12 million (in addition to Obama’s million… or, the taxpayers, rather) to go to the Russians and dig up (or invent) dirt on Trump. Seems it was so hard to find, they had to pay millions to dredge it up. How the real colluders dispersed it is immaterial.
@Bill… Deplorable Me: Just a deflection to confuse the easily distracted perhaps 6 to 12 million to attorneys who took a cut they then pay Fusion who takes their cut and the spy gets his cut. therefore total amount paid was only what the spy got, thats how they can twist things to say Trump lied.
Much like saying the bag of chips only costs what the farmer got paid for a potato.
@Bill… Deplorable Me, #16:
No, they did not.
$12 million is what Trump claimed on Twitter, which does not make it true. No one seems to have a clue where he got that ridiculous number.
@Greg: Um… not Trump. The NYT.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/us/politics/clinton-dnc-russia-dossier.html
@Bill… Deplorable Me, #19:
No, your New York Times article DOES NOT say that $12 million was spent on the dossier or the related investigation. What it says is:
That was for all campaign related legal consultations and services provided throughout the entire course of the 2016 presidential campaign.
$1.2 million was paid by Perkins Cole to Fusion GPS for conducting opposition research.
Fusion GPS, in turn, paid only $168,000 to Orbis Business Intelligence for the investigation conducted by Christopher Steele. The dossier relates only to that contracted investigation.
Trump is attributing the Clinton presidential campaign’s total legal services budget for the entire campaign to Steele’s report.
I suppose we could call it an honest mistake, though I suspect Donald probably does have a very sharp eye for accurate figures when they’re preceded by a dollar sign.
@Greg: He spent less to sit in the oval office than she did to sit in a Cosco signing books
I don’t care what it cost him. What I care about is what he’s going to cost all of us by the time he’s done.
@Greg: Oh, well when you get the liberal judge to UN-seal the (con)Fusion GPS records they sealed, we can tell how MUCH of the $12 million (and Obama’s million) was actually used to dig up Hillary’s phony dirt. Till then, it must be assumed it was $12 million. See, if only the left would make a little more effort at being honest, such confusion could be avoided.
Why do Republicans cooperate in investigations while Democrats seal records, stonewall, lie and plead the 5th? Is there an explanation aside from the obvious?
Maybe Donnie Boy could set an example by unsealing his tax returns as he promised to do before the election, so we can all rest assured that there’s no Russian money involved, nor any other serious conflicts of interest. Think that will happen anytime soon?
@Greg: You’ve had two of his returns made public, plus his financial disclosure. You just want to fish.
So, you think if the Russians paid Trump off (like, say, they paid off the Clinton’s after they handed off our uranium), it would be claimed on a tax return? Go back to your famous “dossier”. Perhaps they included some tax returns in that. After all, you paid PLENTY for it.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha… totally DUPED again! All that AND Brazille admitting Hillary had full control of the DNC BEFORE she was the candidate and rigged the entire process. You proud of that? Proud you supported the most corrupt candidate ever? (“supported”….. STILL SUPPORT)
No, no, wait… I have it. Trump DELETED the tax returns because they had deductions for YOGA LESSONS on them! There, that should make it easily acceptable to you. You LOVE to believe that shit.
Hillary pays for the dossier, has it shopped around liberal media, then repeats the lies after the media reports them.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/nov/2/hillary-clinton-defends-trump-dossier-opposition-r/
Then, of course, she lies about it.
I think if “Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets,” which is the same as saying Russian investors have a disproportionate influence over the Trump family’s personal fortunes, the extent of that will become clear if the tax returns are examined.
Which is why he hasn’t actually released squat.
What do you think he’s hiding? Hey, maybe there’s another reasonable explanation. Maybe he doesn’t want anyone calculating precisely how much the GOP’s tax reform provisions will directly benefit Donald Trump & Co. As compared with, say, the other 95 percent of the population. Or the average Trump voter.
@Greg: A persons tax returns are his own personal business, if your fancy hound dog cant pick up a Russian trail in Trumps dealings but can find foreign bank accounts ect in Manaforts, even with the advantage of spying there is no evidence.
All your hopes lie in Mueller sweating lies out of puffed up charges on anyone who associated with him, good luck on that.
@kitt, #27:
Al Capone would have applauded that statement.
When you occupy the most powerful office in the land, your personal financial business necessarily becomes public. That’s because the people have every right to know in whose interest you’re actually working. If someone doesn’t accept that arrangement, they shouldn’t be in the office to begin with.
These guys know their boy has something serious to hide. They’re not working in the interest of the people. They’re trying to run interference for Donald Trump.
GOP Reps. Gaetz, Gohmert, Biggs push for Mueller resignation in new resolution
@Greg:
I am surprised that, suddenly, you believe just because someone won’t release something that they are hiding something when devices being destroyed, information deleted and erased or someone pleading the 5th doesn’t seem to arouse your suspicions.
You’ve had some of Trump’s returns released. That will have to suffice.
No, actually they don’t. However, when you decide to violate regulation and put all of the State Department’s business on a secret, private, unsecured server, ALL the emails become the State Department’s and, thus, the PEOPLE’s property and you don’t get to erase the bulk of them the moment you get wind that they are going to be perused by the government, as regulations require. Yet, you have no problem with Hillary doing precisely that. Your outrage is a little too selective to be taken seriously.
@Greg: Wrong again nosey boy, Every citizen is entitiled to privacy, wasnt Madcows big scoop good enough for you?
Yes there are a few in our government are sick of paying for his groundless charade of an investigation. Mueller should go back into the hole he slithered out of off to cover up more Russian bribes to the Clintons.
@kitt: Apparently Greg’s rule doesn’t apply to Fusion GPS. They get to seal their financial records, even when it is SHOWN they were, with Hillary, colluding with the Russians to try and falsely impact an election.
@kitt, #30:
You mean like the inviolable privacy that should exist between a woman and her healthcare provider regarding her most personal reproductive decisions?
Try to take down the Mueller investigation, and see what happens. There’s a reason this guy is the most unpopular U.S. president of the modern era.
@Greg:
There sure is. Because 95% of the media is liberal and corrupt (excuse the redundancy) and push the liberal agenda and their coverage of the administration is 92% negative. THAT’S the reason.
@Bill… Deplorable Me, #33:
Or maybe they just listen closely to the words that come out of Donald Trump’s own mouth, and read his Twitter posts. They don’t need to be told what they’re hearing with their own ears.
The latest Trump Twitter pronouncement:
Uh, no it isn’t. It was Bergdahl who just received a Dishonorable Discharge—not our military or country. And then there’s this:
Having learned zip, Trump has since moved on to running his mouth and very likely providing a similar point of legal defense to Sayfullo Saipov. He’s the gift that keeps on giving—in the sense of a Christmas puppy that keeps on urinating on the valuable Persian carpet.
@Greg:
I would not make abortion illegal, that decision is between a woman and her creator. Should she decide to murder her unborn I shouldnt have to pay for any part of it. I shouldnt have to pay for your viagra or her BC either.
Is personal responsibility so hard to understand?
Now stay on subject.
Seems the entire last administration was corrupt and anti American, had no interest in making things better for anyone but themselves and their big fat bank accounts.
Bowe Bergdahl offers tearful apology to soldiers who searched for him
So, he’ll carry this realization and the Dishonorable Discharge he earned around with him for the rest of his days. He’ll never be free of it. This, I think, will suffice.
@Greg:
How happily and blithely you ignore the Obama administration declaring he served “honorably” and “with distinction”. But, you leftists are pretty good at ignoring facts and celebrating your own hypocrisy.
Bergdahl’s sentence (or lack of one) IS a disgrace and an embarrassment for the entire country, not to mention the military. People were wounded and died trying to find and rescue that treacherous piece of trash and then, to heap insult onto injury, Obama trades 5 terrorist leaders for this turd. THEN he gets a pass, free to make hundreds of thousands of dollars on the liberal media circuits where he will, no doubt, be received as a liberal icon and hero.
I realize the concept of “innocent until proven guilty” is totally lost on many on the right. The presumption of innocence is a fundamental principle that our nation’s entire legal system is based upon. That presumption of innocence must be overcome by evidence of guilt presented at a trial. In Bergdahl’s case, that only recently happened.
Corker knocks Trump over ‘totally inappropriate’ Justice Department remarks
@Greg:
OK, I had to re-read that a few times to make sure I saw it correctly. If that was meant as sarcasm, I apologize for not getting the joke and taking it seriously because, IF sarcasm, that’s a GOOD one.
“innocent until proven guilty” Now, I won’t go as far back as George Zimmerman because that really isn’t necessary; there are simply SO MANY examples as to the total nuclear hypocrisy of your remark. I’ll simply use the example of the left’s accusation of Trump’s Russian collusion where there has been not a speck of evidence to support it or even any evidence to initiate the accusation. Yet, you and the rest of the sore loser left have convicted, impeached and executed the President without even a thought of that noble concept you cited. Come on, Greg. You constantly criticize Trump for poorly-thought out messages. Really? “innocent until proven guilty”? Since when?
But, be that as it may, it has not been questioned that Bergdahl deserted his post. All that was questioned was which, if any, of his weak, lame excuses was going to be applied. However, Obama and Rice trying to influence the populace with lies about his “honorable” and “distinctive” service is no less influential than Trump pointing out what the penalty for treason is.
The attitude of his comrades is pretty clear.
Exchanging 3 wounded and 6 dead American soldiers and 5 deadly terrorists for a traitor, then releasing him is a travesty. Yet, this is just the kind of outcome liberals celebrate.
Now, you go back to that “presumption of innocence” and think about it seriously. Do your best to practice what you preach. You’ll be the better for it.
@Greg:
Now, that’s the funniest thing you have ever posted
While you whine about Trump’s tax returns, how about providing a link to Obama’s campaign finance reports where DoDad Pro donated to him? Or maybe that shows how he accepted money from Mickey Mouse?
Obama was the most secretive president we have ever had, but that seemed to be OK with you.
You are still an idiot.
Donnie Boy says the U.S. justice system is “a laughingstock,” after picking up his Presidential Twitter Box and handing Sayfullo Saipov a prejudicial statement that any competent defense attorney can use to make a death sentence virtually impossible. And you think I’m an idiot?
The man is a complete nincompoop. He doesn’t seem to have a frickin’ clue how the justice system works. He doesn’t seem to understand how the government works. Nor does he seem to understand that running his mouth without engaging his brain can have serious consequences.
Just listen to this guy. Do you understand the implications of words coming out of his mouth?
@Greg:
Don’t ask questions you aren’t going to like the answer to.
Well, it’s not supposed to work by FBI directors determining the target of an investigation is innocent BEFORE the investigation begins. It’s not supposed to be driven by inaccurate leaks of FBI information by the director. It’s not supposed to generate investigations based on unconfirmed dossiers that are funded by political operatives. It’s not supposed to turn a blind eye to government representatives signing off on selling US uranium to a strategic opponent while pursuing investigations that are based on hateful wishful thinking. That much is pretty clear.
Since Obama, Holder and Lynch thoroughly politicized the DOJ and made it more applicable to a third world banana republic that for the most free, most fair, most just nation on earth, our justice system has been an embarrassment. It seems about as difficult to turn around as the Hindenburg in a hurricane. But turned around it must be.