New York Post: Complaint claims Clinton, DNC broke the law by hiding dossier payments
Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee both broke the law by hiding payments to unearth dirt on Donald Trump, according to a complaint filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission.
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Campaign Legal Center, the nonprofit that filed the documents with the FEC, claims this is a direct violation of campaign finance law, which requires campaign and party committees to report all their spending.
“The DNC and Hillary for America reported dozens of payments totaling millions of dollars to the law firm Perkins Coie with the purpose described as ‘Legal Services’ or ‘Legal and Compliance Consulting,’ when in reality, at least some of those payments were earmarked for the firm Fusion GPS, with the purpose of conducting opposition research on Donald Trump,” the complaint says.
“By failing to file accurate reports, the DNC and Hillary for America undermined the vital public information role that reporting is intended to serve.”
According to FEC records, the Clinton campaign and DNC reported a total of 382 payments to Perkins Coie throughout the election cycle.
While it’s legal to pay a company to do opposition research, it’s against the law to hide the true purpose.
“By filing misleading reports, the DNC and Clinton campaign undermined the vital public information role of campaign disclosures,” Adav Noti, senior director of trial litigation and strategy at CLC and a former FEC official, explained in a statement.