Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic party paid for research that led to Trump 'dirty dossier'

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Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign helped fund
research that led to the now-infamous dossier of
explosive allegations against Donald Trump , it
emerged last night.
Marc Elias, campaign lawyer for Clinton and the
Democratic National Committee , hired a research
firm last year to probe allegations of Trump's ties to
Russia.
According to the Washington Post , intelligence firm
Fusion GPS then hired former British spy Christopher
Steele to dig up the unconfirmed dirt on Trump.
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A source close to Perkins Coie, Elias' law firm,
confirmed to CNN that it retained Fusion GPS and
entered "into an engagement for research services
that began in April 2016 and concluded before the
election in early November."
The research was initially funded by an unnamed anti-
Trump Republican donor but the Clinton campaign
paid for it to be finished, the newspaper reported.
It is not known how much Fusion GPS was paid for
the research but the campaign and DNC reportedly
shared the cost.
Earlier this month, it emerged that ex-MI6 agent
Steele met with investigators working for special
counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe.
The former intelligence officer prepared the so-called
'dirty' dossier which made a string of claims about
ties between Trump and Russia, including that it had
compromising information about the business mogul.
Steele was forced into hiding after the dossier's
existence came to light and the allegations - some of
which were unsubstantiated - were posted on the
internet in full shortly after the election last
November.
The dossier, published online in January, was
dismissed as "fake news" by the President and his
supporters.
But on Thursday, sources familiar with Mueller's probe
and a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into
suspected Russian meddling in the election said
investigators have not dismissed it.
Russia has repeatedly denied any interference in last
November's election, which saw Republican Trump
beat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton .
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr
said on Wednesday that his panel had made several
attempts to contact Steele and to meet him and
"those offers have gone unaccepted."
"The committee cannot really decide the credibility of
the dossier without understanding things like who paid
for it, who are your sources and sub-sources," Burr
said.
Reuters reported that Mueller's team had taken over
multiple strands of FBI investigations related to
possible financial and personal links between Trump,
his associates and Russia.
Steele met with FBI representatives before the
election to discuss his findings on Trump and Russia.
He had been investigating Trump's alleged ties to
Russia for a research firm that had been hired by
supporters of Clinton.
The dossier made a string of lurid claims about
Trump’s activities during a past trip to Moscow and
claimed he was vulnerable to blackmail.
It alleged that Russia held evidence of Trump hiring
prostitutes during a visit to Moscow to urinate on a
hotel bed which he believed to have previously been
slept in by former President Barack Obama and
former first lady Michelle Obama.

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