Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee reportedly hired the firm that assembled the infamous dossier that included salacious allegations about now-President Trump.
A lawyer who represented the campaign retained the Washington research firm Fusion GPS, which then hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to dig up the unconfirmed dirt on Trump, according to the Washington Post.
The firm Fusion GPS had originally been funded by a still-unknown GOP consultant firm during the combative 2016 GOP primary.
Clinton lawyer Marc E. Elias retained the firm in April 2016 and continued to fund the work until just days before the presidential election, the paper said.
The dossier includes explosive allegations about Trump’s behavior and his connections to businessmen in Moscow.
A spokesperson for the DNC said the organization had nothing to do with research being conducted by the firm.
“Tom Perez and the new leadership of the DNC were not involved in any decision-making regarding Fusion GPS,” DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa said.
“But let’s be clear, there is a serious federal investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, and the American public deserves to know what happened.”
Clinton’s former press secretary during the 2016 presidential campaign joked on Twitter that he would have dropped everything to help Steele’s investigation.
“I regret I didnt know about Christopher Steele’s hiring pre-election,” Brian Fallon tweeted.
“If I had, I would have volunteered to go to Europe and try to help him.”