A notorious document cited extensively in the FBI probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia has led to some startling new connections.
According to recent reports, one source for ex-British spy Christopher Steele’s widely discredited dossier was a close ally of 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Clinton ties revealed
As Fox News explained, Charles Dolan was not only a volunteer on Clinton’s campaign but contributed thousands of dollars to her and the Democratic Party.
Special counsel John Durham, who has been conducting a probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, recently outed Dolan as a key player in peddling disinformation about Trump on Clinton’s behalf.
According to Durham’s office, “PR-executive 1” — an individual subsequently identified as Dolan — was a critical source for the Steele dossier.
That connection prompted Fox News to dig into Federal Election Commission records, which revealed that Dolan has a long history with the Clinton family and has been a loyal Democratic donor.
In fact, he reportedly contributed about $60,000 to Democratic causes and funds — including the 2o16 Clinton campaign. It might have been his contributions to the Steele dossier that made the biggest impact in Democratic Party politics, however.
Durham probe continues
Trump’s critics spent most of his term in office attempting to smear him with speculation and rumors regarding his campaign’s supposed connection to shady Russian entities.
As it turns out, Dolan met with Igor Danchenko, a Russian analyst who served as one of Steele’s sub-sources, in Moscow at some point in 2016. He reportedly stayed at the Ritz Carlton hotel where Trump allegedly engaged in debaucherous behavior with Russian prostitutes.
Of course, that and other claims included in the Steele dossier have been vehemently denied by Trump and his allies. Nevertheless, the document was integral in the FBI’s effort to spy on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
While the Durham investigation has served to shed some light on the origins of the Trump-Russia narrative, critics say there has not yet been an appropriate reckoning for the FBI officials and others who appeared to have abused their authority to target a presidential candidate.
One exception appears to be ex-FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who was sentenced to probation after his conviction for hiding exculpatory evidence used as the basis for surveilling Page. Former Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann has also been charged with lying to the FBI when he attempted to link Trump to a Russian bank.
The post Durham probe leads to discovery of troubling new link to Clinton campaign first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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