Former Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and former DNC chairwoman Debbie Wassermann Schultz denied knowledge of funding for the Trump dossier, according to a Thursday CNN report.
Three sources familiar with the matter told CNN that in closed door meetings with the Senate Intelligence Committee, Podesta and Wassermann Schultz said they did not know who was paying Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that hired Christopher Steele to compile the dossier linking Trump to Russia. (RELATED: Former Clinton Spox: Hillary ‘May Have Known’ About Dossier Funding)
The interviews supposedly took place before The Washington Post revealed that the DNC and the Clinton campaign were funding Fusion GPS, and, as CNN notes, it would be illegal for Podesta and Wassermann Schultz to make false statements to Congress.
“I didn’t have any awareness of the arrangement at all,” Wassermann Schultz told CNN when they asked about the meeting. “I’m certainly not going to discuss with you what I talked to any committee about.”
Multiple sources also told CNN that Marc Elias, who works for the law firm that retained Fusion GPS, was sitting with Podesta at the meeting, although he was apparently only there in his capacity as Podesta’s lawyer. (RELATED: NYT Reporter: Clinton Campaign Lawyer ‘Vigorously’ Denied Being Behind Dossier)
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