October 25, 2017

"Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee violated campaign finance law by failing to disclose payments for a dossier on Donald Trump..."

"... according to a complaint filed Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission. The complaint from the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center said the Democrats effectively hid the payments from public scrutiny, contrary to the requirements of federal law. By law, campaign and party committees must disclose the reason money is spent and its recipient."

The Washington Times reports. 

97 comments:

Rob said...

Lock her up?

tim in vermont said...

I am not yet tired of the winning.

Original Mike said...

Not surprising. If they hadn't hid the payments they couldn't have used the dossier to initiate this year long witch hunt.

Susan said...

Well, Duh!!

It's nobody's business what we do with your money

Original Mike said...

I want to know who in the DNC is involved. DWS was the chair at the time, right? She said today she didn't know anything about the payments. When asked how that's possible, she just repeated her denial that she didn't know anything about it.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Oh well, let’s see who gets zapped for campaign finance violations, Trump or Clinton, or both.

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/341922-watchdogs-to-doj-trump-jr-meeting-broke-campaign-finance-laws

“In a complaint filed to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Justice Department, Common Cause, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 allege that accepting and attending the meeting amounted to soliciting an illegal campaign contribution from a foreign national.

The emails to Trump Jr. explicitly stated that the offer of information about Clinton, then the Democratic nominee for president, was “part of Russia and its governments’ support for Mr. Trump” and had been proffered by the “Crown prosecutor of Russia.””




Richard said...

"Blogger Original Mike said...
I want to know who in the DNC is involved. DWS was the chair at the time, right? She said today she didn't know anything about the payments. When asked how that's possible, she just repeated her denial that she didn't know anything about it."

Are you referring to Debbie Wasserman "Sgt." Schultz?

tim in vermont said...

Oh well, let’s see who gets zapped for campaign finance violations, Trump or Clinton, or both.


And yet, you have been telling us over and over again that Clinton was the clear choice! No, she wasn't. But you can't admit it, can you?

Original Mike said...

Jawohl!,Richard.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

As Iowahawk says. The media is covering this story, with a pillow until it doesn't move.

Jim at said...

Inga?

Just yell "Squirrel!!!' each and every time more layers of this rotten onion get peeled away.

It saves you keystrokes, and is actually one of your better arguments.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“And yet, you have been telling us over and over again that Clinton was the clear choice!”

I didn’t vote for Clinton, so your comment is just stupid.

Oso Negro said...

I wonder whose twisted mind thought that the golden shower tale was a winner?

tim in vermont said...

Source A—to use the careful nomenclature of his dossier—was ‘a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure.’ Source B was ‘a former top level intelligence officer still active in the Kremlin.’

But that's not as bad as taking a meeting with a con artist claiming to represent "The Crown Prosecutor of Russia" Pretty sure that guy would have been murdered during the Russian Revolution.

tim in vermont said...

I didn’t vote for Clinton, so your comment is just stupid.

That's right, none of you did. But you did assure me that Hillary was "Pollyanna" next to Trump. How is it coming figuring out Trumps most evil betrayal of his country.

Matt Sablan said...

It wasn't a con artist. It was a ÷Russian lawyer that the Obama administration had vetted and used in congressional hearings.

If she was a spy, then she fooled everyone..

Mr. Groovington said...

Top kek.

tim in vermont said...

Just wait for the "Attention must be paid to anything but this!" links that are certainly forthcoming.

Inga...Allie Oop said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ignorance is Bliss said...

Unknown said...
Oh well, let’s see who gets zapped for campaign finance violations, Trump or Clinton, or both.

If information meets the legal definition of thing of value in terms of campaign contributions, then every campaign for office higher than town dog catcher, has likely violated campaign finance law. Since this has never been suggested by the FEC, nor any watchdog regarding any other campaign, it's clear that is not a reasonable interpretation of thing of value.

tim in vermont said...

If you can't decide his most evil deed, you can just shotgun anything close, Unknown.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“But you did assure me that Hillary was "Pollyanna" next to Trump.”

Yes indeed.

Matt Sablan said...

Would the dossier be a thing of value? Asking for a friend.

tim in vermont said...

Yes indeed.

Specifics please, we keep asking for them, you keep not answering.

n.n said...

As Obama before her, the DNC needs campaign finance accountability reform (CFAR).

Darrell said...

Hillary never knows anything about anything. Plus, she often can't remember. Two good qualities in a Democrat President.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Matthew Sablan said...

Would the dossier be a thing of value?

I don't think that's relevant. The dossier was paid for. Therefore it is not a contribution, and thus it doesn't matter if it is a thing of value.

Matt Sablan said...

Does lying to reporters show intent to deceive?

Matt Sablan said...

So if the Russian lawyer put the anti Hillary info in a memo and the campaign paid her, there'd be the same situation as the dossier?

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jess said...

In the current D.C. climate, justice isn't nearly as important as waiting out the storm. That's the problem with politics, and why there is an increasing number of citizens that not only do not believe their elected officials, they perceive the media as a propaganda outlet. Their anger is reaching the point it can't be ignored.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Here's the complaint in case any of you legal types want to read an opine.

Original Mike said...

"Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee violated campaign finance law by failing to disclose payments for a dossier on Donald Trump..."

They also apparently violated laws prohibiting politicians from paying foreign nationals for campaign work.

tim maguire said...

That's like charging Al Capone with tax evasion.

Rae said...

Shocked! Shocked I am. Who would have Hillary Clinton's campaign would do something...illegal.

veni vidi vici said...

Now the fun begins.

Or, as a friend of mine is wont to say, "The worm has turned..."

tim in vermont said...

This is so much fucking fun! This is from a week ago:

Donald Trump just suggested the FBI, Democrats and Russia might all be co-conspirators
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Updated 6:57 PM ET, Thu October 19, 2017


I think "collusion" is the word you were looking for!

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Original Mike said...

They also apparently violated laws prohibiting politicians from paying foreign nationals for campaign work.

Is that illegal? Do you have a reference?

Vance said...

As Chuck and Inga and the rest of the gang will tell you, Hillary is not perfection. But next to Trump! Why, she's a veritable saint! And even when the question of which diety Hillary is a saint to comes up, like Chuck said earlier--Trump makes it all worse. Sure, Democrats lie and steal and commit treason and rape women.... but all of that is nothing compared to the horrible crime of Trump actually saying some words! I mean, really--what's most important here? Impeaching Trump is the highest goal of all, and nothing, nothing is too bad when done to further that goal! Let a thousand leftists rape, if it moves the nation closer to impeaching Trump! Sell our national secrets to the Russians, our strategic assets like Uranium; lie, lie, lie--all of it is fantastic if we can but get rid of Trump!

That's Inga and Chuck, right there!

--Vance

tim in vermont said...

In March, Washington Post used anonymous sources to report the FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to spy on U.S. citizen Carter Page, an unpaid and informal adviser to the Donald Trump campaign, as part of an investigation into links between Russia and the Trump campaign. CNN used anonymous sources to report that the infamous “golden showers” dossier was used as part of the justification to win approval to monitor the Trump associate.

A Clinton campaign opposition research operation using information or disinformation from top Russian intelligence officials was used by the FBI, these sources say, to enable spying on an opposing political party’s campaign.


Yeah, no corruption there! None of this is any worry to Chuck though, because Trump is sort of an oaf sometimes and a buffoon at others. So what?!? This stuff all would have been buried by a Hillary victory.

tim in vermont said...

When Hillary commits a burglary, it's not "third rate!" And when she deletes records, it's not a paltry 18-1/2 minutes!

tim in vermont said...

I think you need a "Nixon was a piker" tag.

Original Mike said...

"Is that illegal? Do you have a reference?

All I've got is Tucker Carlson, who just claimed "there are a number of federal laws that prohibit politicians from paying foreign nationals for campaign work.". It was in his opening remarks, not in a give and take with an interviewee, so I assume the wording was carefully considered.

tim in vermont said...

Tee hee hee!

reports in The Hill and The Daily Caller last week showing that the FBI and Justice Department had found evidence that Russia had bribed a U.S. uranium trucking firm to further Moscow's reach into the U.S. atomic energy industry.

It didn't end there, however. As The Hill reported Tuesday, "They also obtained an eyewitness account — backed by documents — indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton's charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill."


And Hillary deleted thousands of emails and records of meetings from that time! No 18-1/2 minute tape erasure for ole Hillary. I wonder if they kept that tape? I bet it could be "unearned" now. I would love to hear what was so bad, Nixon erased it!

tim in vermont said...

"un-erased" not "unearned" frickin' safari and it's hidden corrections.

Rabel said...

"Is that illegal? Do you have a reference?"

"Generally, an individual (including a foreign national) may volunteer personal services to a federal candidate or federal political committee without making a contribution. The Act provides this volunteer "exemption" as long as the individual performing the service is not compensated by anyone."

-FEC memo on foreign nationals involved in federal campaigns.

tim in vermont said...

Lock her up!

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
PB said...

The Democratic party is a crime family.

Original Mike said...

"Generally, an individual (including a foreign national) may volunteer personal services to a federal candidate or federal political committee without making a contribution. The Act provides this volunteer "exemption" as long as the individual performing the service is not compensated by anyone."

No worries. I'm sure the FBI Director will be along any minute now to say she didn't really mean it.

tim in vermont said...

"Unknown" sure lost his taste for this thread pretty quickly!

robother said...

Campaign finance laws are minor misdemeanors. Treason, which what Democrats have been saying collusion with Russian persons to generate fake news designed to affect US voters amounts to, on the other hand is a capital offense. Either way, Hillary won't be locked up.

Hagar said...

But it is absolutely forbidden to pay foreign intelligence agencies to work for your campaign.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Oh my. Everyone was just desperate to get the dirt on the other.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/25/cambridge-analytica-trump-data-firm-linked-Assange/

“The head of a data analytics firm that worked for President Trump’s 2016 campaign wanted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to help locate Hillary Clinton’s missing emails, according to a report Wednesday.

Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix reached out to Mr. Assange in an attempt to recover and release about 33,000 emails that were erased from Mrs. Clinton’s private email server from when she was secretary of state, the Daily Beast reported.

The missing emails were a frequent subject for Mr. Trump on the stump in 2016.

Contact between Mr. Nix and Mr. Assange would be the closest interaction between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, which published Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign email believed to have been hacked by Russia.”

Anonymous said...

@Ignorance is bliss fec-complaint-accuses-clinton-dnc-violations

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Did Nix pay for the Wikileaks leaks? Hmmmm. Did Nix know Assange got the info from Russia? Hmmmm. FEC violation at the very least.

Anonymous said...

@Unknown And your point is?

Nix asked the hacker for hacked e-mails from Hillary's illegal server? Assange said no. End of story.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Inga...Allie Oop said...

Khesanh,

Why are you linking to the same article that Althouse embedded in her blog post?

David Begley said...

Greg Jarrett of Fox News asserts that Hillary could be indicted for 13 federal crimes.

bgates said...

Contact between Mr. Nix and Mr. Assange
apparently did not occur, but if it had, it
would be the closest interaction between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, which published Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign email
which Mr. Assange has said he can prove he did not get from Russia, contrary to the repeated assertions in the press that the emails are
believed to have been hacked by Russia.

tim in vermont said...

Wow Unknown, so, as I said many times, we were fucked when the two nominations were decided, I was right? Is the what you are saying? The main difference, I thought would be that Trump would be entertaining, which he has been, that's for sure. I had no idea though that he would make a great president, but he has.

You keep working away to salvage the whole corrupt machine. Good luck with that. I will be working away to bring it down, root and branch.

Original Mike said...

Point of clarification: The missing 33,000 emails are "missing" because Hillary destroyed them.

Narayanan said...

Where was Bill during the golden showers? Had he picked up his check already?

Paul said...

Laws? Laws? They are for the 'little people'. Let them eat cake!

Matt Sablan said...

Unknown: So... are you saying that Mr. Nix should be tried for an act of, if Tapper or Blitzer had done, would just be an act of journalism?

tim in vermont said...

BREAKING: DOJ authorizes FBI Informant to speak with Congress concerning alleged corruption involving Clintons & Uranium One.

You're gonna need more trolls!

traditionalguy said...

There is so much at once, that the news is overlooking that the Federal Bureau (of Covering Up) Investigation also paid Steele to get a cover story for why they had the masterpiece fictional dossier. That was done because crooked Comey and friends at the FBI all along needed a ticket containing an intelligence report that they could use when they lied to the FISA Court to justify 9 months of Umasking ( wiretapping) Trump and his associates.

tim in vermont said...

With the press so corrupt, as shown by Wikileaks, as well as by the common sense of anybody paying attention, it makes one wonder if this is a media hit on Hillary to finally just do her in. She is the gift that keeps on giving for Trump.

Matt Sablan said...

Also, note that Nix trying to get destroyed files is... exactly what the FBI was trying to do. There is nothing illegal about that, or if you think there is, then pretty much every journalist that has ever gotten data from anyone but the source has committed whatever crime you think was done here.

On top of that, what Nix was doing was in no way the same as Clinton.

The Clinton campaign paid someone to contact foreign assets to create fake intelligence about her political rival. Nix... tried to get documents that should be in the public record.

Surely, you see the difference in the two.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“The attempt at collaboration raises fresh questions about the willingness of people associated with the Trump campaign to work with Wikileaks for political gain. The site, which publishes leaked documents, released hacked emails in July from the Democratic National Committee and in October from Clinton campaign chair John Podesta. US intelligence has said the Podesta emails were stolen by Russia and handed over to WikiLeaks through an intermediary.

News of the email exchange comes amid federal investigations into whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Parscale, the Trump campaign's digital director, was interviewed Tuesday by the House intelligence committee as part of that inquiry.”

tim in vermont said...

What's funny about the unmasking is that nobody knows who actually did it.

Congressional testimony by President Barack Obama’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, about the “unmasking” of U.S. citizens’ names she requested in hundreds of foreign intelligence intercepts by the National Security Agency, has raised new questions about how the sensitive information was ordered up, and subsequently handled.

Power spoke to the House Intelligence Committee on Oct. 13 behind closed doors, and what she said is still cloaked in secrecy. But on Oct. 17, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, who also sits on the Intelligence Committee, told Fox News: “Her testimony is they [the unmasking requests] may be under my name, but I did not make those requests.”


Nothing fishy about mysterious people using somebody else's name to wiretap Trump.

Original Mike said...

Hmmm...Hannity (I know, I know) says the GOP funder bowed out before Christopher Steele got involved.

tim in vermont said...

US intelligence has said the Podesta emails were stolen by Russia and handed over to WikiLeaks through an intermediary.

Who said that? Clapper? He is implicated in this whole mess.

Original Mike said...

"Also, note that Nix trying to get destroyed files is... exactly what the FBI was trying to do."

Well, what the FBI was supposed to be doing. You have to wonder how hard they were trying.

tim in vermont said...

Hmmm...Hannity (I know, I know) says the GOP funder bowed out before Christopher Steele got involved.

So did the Washington Post. In fact the Republican apparently funded a separate project.

Matt Sablan said...

Those two paragraphs have loads of problems.

1. There is nothing wrong with this. If there is, remember when Bush was president, and journalists willingly posted videos and stories from Wikileaks? Remember when Wikileaks released names of American collaborators and sources in the Middle East, and news organizations published them all? If what Trump's campaign did is a crime, then we need to round up pretty much every major news network. If you're willing to do that, let's talk.

2. "released hacked emails" is incorrect. Podesta's email was fished. No hacking was done. The DNC's files were most likely broken by someone with physical access to the server, again, not a hack. By telling people it was a hack, the story is attempting to make it sound like this was some high tech spycraft. No. It was some dude with a thumb drive and Podesta emailing his password to someone.

3. The claims that the Podesta emails were stolen and handed over to WikiLeaks is based on CrowdStrike's claims, which have been significantly walked back. By not including that, CNN is telling you an apple is a banana.

4. "News of the email exchange comes amid federal investigations into whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia." -- That's kind of deliberately ignoring the actual collusion story. But, sure, this is technically right, provided you ignore the actual collusion we learned about today.

tim in vermont said...

Funny how little the fact that Hillary destroyed records that probably contained contacts with Russian donors who gave her 145 million dollars doesn't bother Unknown even a tiny bit.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Who killed Seth Rich though. I wanted this out before Thanksgiving. Frog march some mofos.

Matt Sablan said...

"What's funny about the unmasking is that nobody knows who actually did it."

-- Which should bring every other investigation to a screeching halt, because if that person is still in the government, then our intelligence operations are compromised. This is a giant red flag. It calls into question how many OTHER requests that came from Obama administration officials were faked.

tim in vermont said...

So the only conclusion I can come to about what "Unknown" really believes is that he is upset with the Russians for collaborating with Republicans.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Anthony's wiener was hacked.

hacked!

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Nothing fishy about mysterious people using somebody else's name to wiretap Trump.

Sounds like things are moving closer to Obama as well. I wonder if he's read about this in the paper yet?

M Jordan said...

Blogger sodal ye said...
Top kek.

Kek <— — —this one
Kek
Kek
Kek
Kek
Kek
Kek

Lyle Smith said...

Go Trump, go! He's like Sherman marching through Georgia and freeing slaves. Woo!

glenn said...

The dossier issue only applies fo Republicans. Don’t you know anything?

Fritz said...

Original Mike said...
Point of clarification: The missing 33,000 emails are "missing" because Hillary destroyed them.


Like with a cloth?

sane_voter said...

I still believe the 33,000 missing emails exist somewhere. When will they get released by the Russians or the Chinese or whoever has them, who knows. Likely it will be soon if Clinton goes under indictment for one of these other crimes, since they will have lost all blackmail value at the point.

Michael K said...

News of the email exchange comes amid federal investigations into whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Inga, you need a hobby. Crossword puzzles are good and might keep you from making a fool of yourself.

cubanbob said...

sane_voter said...
I still believe the 33,000 missing emails exist somewhere. When will they get released by the Russians or the Chinese or whoever has them, who knows. Likely it will be soon if Clinton goes under indictment for one of these other crimes, since they will have lost all blackmail value at the point."

The problem with an indicted Hillary is that she rats out The Magic Negro and his Minions Of Color in order to save herself. And that Is.Not.Going.To. Happen. Besides everyone in the DoJ/FBI is corrupted as it is they won't go for the kill. A lot of embarrassments but no serious prosecutions. I hope I'm wrong and the whole hive of villainy gets prosecuted but I wouldn't bet a McDonald's lunch on that happening.

Yancey Ward said...

Tim in Vermont quoted the Samantha Power story:

"Power spoke to the House Intelligence Committee on Oct. 13 behind closed doors, and what she said is still cloaked in secrecy. But on Oct. 17, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, who also sits on the Intelligence Committee, told Fox News: “Her testimony is they [the unmasking requests] may be under my name, but I did not make those requests.”

Not that I believer her, but if she wasn't the one making the requests under her credentials, she most definitely knows who did. I doubt the committee will take that explanation with no further investigation. Even worse, though, for Power is that her statement, under oath, requires a full criminal investigation into who did the unmaskings under her name. I hope for her sake it wasn't a lie, because she will be doing time.

Daniel Jackson said...

All roads lead and all fingers point to Emperor Jones

We ALL need to be bold and call him out.

Kevin said...

Oh well, let’s see who gets zapped for campaign finance violations, Trump or Clinton, or both.

I would think the case where money was exchanged, rather than the one where money wasn't.

Kevin said...

It would seem UnknownInga was right about Russian collusion all along.

She had everything right but the party.

tim in vermont said...

Look who runs to Hillary's defense! Clapper!

Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is shrugging off news that the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee funded the research behind the dossier on Donald Trump. Clapper said the only thing that matters is whether the information is “corroborated.” “With respect to the dossier itself, the key thing is it doesn’t matter who paid for it,” Clapper told Erin Burnett on “OutFront” Wednesday night. “It’s what the dossier said and the extent to which it’s corroborated or not.”

I am trying to remember why, had the Russians hacked the DNC, which appears highly unlikely, based on Crowdstrikes own time-line of when they detected and blocked the Russian hacking attempts, and when the leaked emails were written, but had they hacked them, and nobody says that they are inauthentic, what then is the fucking crime???

Unknown said...

People probably don’t know, but when there’s a classified, even sensitive data spill, it’s often not a criminal our even witting act until discovered after the fact. Then all parties have a legal and moral obligation to both declare it and help clean it up to protect as best we can those who have been helping us. Not just warning them, but sometimes having a special team go in and extract them. Which means if you’re afraid of exposing yourself to criminal prosecution or political harm, you ask the agency who knows who all the people, countries and organizations helping us to go to court with you to appoint a special master to protect you and do the computer based analysis of everything that was spilled against the helper's list, direct and indirect, data meaning giving them all the data, unedited and unmodified, in the best form to aid this analysis.. with the special master charged to keep your secrets, perhaps with your lawyers in the room. Which means that C.’s withholding and winnowing of her email and worse, printing it out, so it could not be computer analyzed led directly to an Arabian little girl of seven being dipped in boiling tar and hung on a fence as an example to others who might help the U.S. I hope Ms. C. goes to the great beyond hearing that little girl’s screams and her mother’s attempt to jump into the tar and save her. Again, What does it Matter?, children die every day. As well as how many future disasters this caused when people who were likely to help us, said “I can’t trust you to protect me and my family, because you’ve proven you’re not trustworthy, because you have not hung the person who let this happen last time, and I know you know who too.”From a fictional account of recent tragedies using the Greek definition. “sleeping with your mother eh? This will not end well.”

Bad Lieutenant said...

Which means that C.’s withholding and winnowing of her email and worse, printing it out, so it could not be computer analyzed led directly to an Arabian little girl of seven being dipped in boiling tar and hung on a fence as an example to others who might help the U.S. I hope Ms. C. goes to the great beyond hearing that little girl’s screams and her mother’s attempt to jump into the tar and save her.


This sounds terrible! Have you got a cite?