The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has agreed to issue a more than $100,000 fine against the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign over an investigation into alleged misreporting of spending related to the infamous Steele dossier.
The FEC fined both organizations after the discovery of a pair of now-years-old complaints, one of which from the Campaign Legal Center and another from the conservative Coolidge Reagan Foundation. The documents alleged that the party and campaign reported payments to Perkins Coie, a powerhouse Democratic law firm, as legal expenses.
Federal Complaint on Clinton and DNC
However, it was found that some of the transactions' funds were earmarked for "paying Fusion GPS through Perkins Coie to conduct opposition research on Donald Trump." It was the statement written in the complaint by the Campaign Legal Center.
The two organizations included in the complaints have collectively agreed to pay $113,000 in fines. According to separate conciliation agreements the agency made with both parties, the DNC will be responsible for $105,000 while Clinton's 2016 campaign will pay the remaining $8,000, as per Politico.
Under American law, political candidates and groups are required to publicly disclose their spending to the FEC. In the documents, they must explain the purpose of any specific expenditure that is valued at more than $200. The FEC previously concluded that Clinton's campaign and the DNC misreported the money that funded the dossier.
British spy Christopher Steele was responsible for compiling the dossier related to the complaint against the DNC and the Clinton campaign. The document contained unverified and salacious allegations about former United States President Donald Trump, including claims that the Republican businessman's campaign colluded with the Kremlin to win the 2016 election.
According to CNN, for years, the money trail behind the Steele dossier has been the subject of intense political scrutiny. It found that the Clinton campaign and the DNC paid more than $1 million to Perkins Coie. Fusion GPS later fired Steele and asked him to take advantage of his overseas contacts to get dirt about Trump's alleged ties to Russia.
$113,000 Fine
While the FEC has not yet made public the findings of its investigations on the DNC and Clinton's campaign, it sent a letter about the inquiry and its resolution to Dan Backer. He is a conservative lawyer and is the one responsible for filing the complaint on behalf of the Coolidge Reagan Foundation.
Backer later posted the resolution to his group's website, which shows that the commission has agreed the two parties have probably violated campaign finance law. Backer said that the group he represented was thrilled to have gotten some modicum of accountability against Clinton and the DNC.
A lawyer representing both the campaign and the DNC in the case, Graham Wilson, did not respond to a request for comment regarding the issue. On the other hand, a DNC spokesman, Daniel Wessel, said in a released statement that the party has settled aging and silly complaints from the 2016 election about "purpose descriptions," the New York Times reported.
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