Clinton campaign, DNC fined over improper spending disclosure tied to Steele dossier, conservative group says
NBCDec 23, 2021
FEC Fines DNC, Clinton Campaign Over Steele Dossier Disclosure
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Image copyright: Getty Images [via CNN]
The Facts
The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has fined the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign approx. $113k for violating disclosure rules related to the funding of the Steele Dossier.
In response to a 2018 complaint from the conservative Coolidge Reagan Foundation, the FEC found that the campaign and DNC misrepresented the $1M it paid to law firm Perkins Coie as being for legal services instead of opposition research.
The Spin
Right narrative
Conservatives were right about the "Russia hoax" all along. It's now part of the public record that perennial liar Clinton was doing everything she could to discredit Trump in her attempt to win the White House.
Left narrative
A 1,000-paged report by the bipartisan, Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that there were extensive ties between the Trump Campaign and Kremlin-connected operatives. To this day, with war raging in Ukraine, Trump can't stop praising Russian president Putin.
Cynical narrative
How is it possible that the FEC - which has been mired in partisan gridlock for years and couldn't manage to sanction Trump once out of 43 complaints - somehow managed to find fault with the DNC and HRC for conducting run-of-the-mill opposition research?
