Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton makes a concession speech after being defeated by Republican president-elect Donald Trump in New York on Nov. 9, 2016. (JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)

The Tables Have Turned on the Russia Conspiracy

News Analysis

For nearly a year the airwaves have been filled with unproven claims that Donald Trump and his campaign colluded with the Russian government.

But despite tens of millions spent on congressional and FBI investigations, no evidence has emerged that such collusion existed.

What has become clear, however, is that the source of the Russia conspiracy theories is little more than a sketchy dossier paid for by the Clinton campaign and the DNC.

The actual contents of the dossier, including the so-called “golden shower” affair, have not been corroborated, and many of its outrageous claims have been debunked.

The company behind the dossier, Fusion GPS, had hired former British MI6 spy Christopher Steele to write the dossier. Steele, who was deployed for years to Russia by MI6, used unverified claims from a Russian government official and a Russian spy—who he never spoke with directly—to write the report.

Law professor Ronald Rychlak, a leading expert on Russian disinformation operations, told The Epoch Times earlier this year the Trump dossier had all the hallmarks of a classic Russian disinformation campaign.

“It does seem to fit with some of the crazy ideas that have come from the high levels within the Russian government,” said Rychlak.

In other words, the Clinton Campaign and DNC paid for Russian disinformation, which it then used against a political opponent.

According to a Washington Post article published on Oct. 24, the payments for the dossier were hidden by the Clinton campaign, which routed them through a law-firm and reported the expense as “legal services” to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).

According to the Post, the payments to the law firm Perkins Coie totaled $5.6 million, and payments by the DNC totaled $3.6 million. It is unclear how much of that money was used to finance the dossier.

A legal complaint has since been filed by a nonpartisan watchdog group, The Campaign Legal Center, with the FEC claiming that by not disclosing payments to create the dossier Clinton broke campaign finance laws.

The dossier was also actively spread among major media organizations, politicians, and a copy was even provided to the FBI by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

Congressional investigations are currently probing whether the dossier was used by the Obama administration to obtain permission to spy on the Trump campaign and members of his transition team.

Meanwhile, a real story of collusion between U.S. officials and the Russian government—one that puts our national security at risk—has developed.

The Hill reported on Oct. 17 that Russia used a sophisticated bribery campaign to secure a nuclear deal that required approval by the Obama administration. The deal gave Russia control over some 20 percent of America’s mineable uranium deposits.

The deal was being negotiated while Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, during which time the Clinton Foundation received over $10 million in donations from Uranium One and other investors with a stake in the deal. Former President Bill Clinton also received $500,000 for a speech he gave in Moscow from a Russian investment bank with links to the Kremlin that was pushing for the deal.

The Hill reported that the Obama administration was well aware of Russia using “bribery, kickbacks, extortion, and money laundering” before it signed off on the deal.

The FBI, which had uncovered the Russian plot, did not intervene. Instead, then-FBI Director Robert Mueller, flew to Moscow himself in 2009 to provide Russia with a sample of 10 grams of highly enriched uranium (HEU).

Mueller is now the special council investigating the alleged ties between Trump and Russia.

The uranium deal has limited the access of the United States to its own critical resources used for nuclear energy and weapons. It has also given Russia greater leverage over the U.S. energy sector and made it more susceptible to price increases on uranium.

A key FBI witness, who has knowledge of the Russian bribery efforts, had been silenced by the Department of Justice under the Obama administration. The witness was forced to sign a non-disclosure agreement and prevented from speaking to Congress.

That gag order was lifted on Oct. 26 by the Department of Justice, and the FBI witness is now set to testify before Congress about the Obama-era uranium deal.

Slowly, but surely, Americans and the world are learning that there was in fact collusion with Russia, but that it wasn’t the Trump campaign.

The tables indeed have turned.