West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin ripped Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee for funding the dossier on Donald Trump by a British former spy, Christopher Steele.
Manchin, a Democrat, compared the Clinton campaign’s dossier funding to reported efforts by the Trump campaign’s data firm, Cambridge Analytica, to contact WikiLeaks about Hillary Clinton’s missing emails. “Everyone around should know what the game rules. The rules are, you can’t be involved with foreign entities,” Manchin told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Thursday.
“And Christopher Steele would count as a foreign entity?” asked Tapper. “I don’t think he’s an American citizen,” Manchin answered. (RELATED: Democrats’ Russia Narrative Spiraling Out Of Control)
WATCH:
Democratic lawyer Marc Elias hired opposition research firm Fusion GPS on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC. Fusion, in turn, paid Steele to assemble the dossier.
The Campaign Legal Center, a non-partisan election watchdog, submitted a complaint to the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday, asking the FEC to investigative the Clinton campaign and DNC’s “misleading” payments to Fusion GPS for the dossier, which they classified as “legal services” instead of opposition research work.
Steele relied heavily upon Russian sources, including senior Kremlin officials, in compiling the dossier. It’s possible that Clinton campaign cash may have gone to Russian operatives in connection with the dossier. (RELATED: Here’s How Clinton Campaign Cash Could Have Ended Up In The Hands Of Russian Operatives)
WHAT NOW: CLINTON’S TIES TO FUSION GPS AND THE TRUMP DOSSIER