This week, the news broke that Marc Elias, general counsel to Hillary for America and a partner at the law firm Perkins Coie, hired the research firm Fusion GPS to commission the infamous Steele Dossier on President Trump.

It is now clear that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC paid for it, although no one is acknowledging why it was done, how it was executed and what use the dossier was made for. More important: The latest communication from Clinton officials is tantalizing only in that it suggests Hillary herself likely knew about it.

When asked if Hillary Clinton was aware of the dossier and its financing, former campaign spokesman Brian Fallon told CNN, “She may have known, but the degree of exactly what she knew is beyond my knowledge.”

When asked to clarify, Fallon waffled, saying that Clinton “may or may not have been aware.”

Former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said she, too, was “not aware of anything related to this research arrangement.”

Yet it’s clear that the senior-most officials in the Clinton campaign and the DNC were aware of the dossier. After all, public FEC filings show that the Clinton campaign and the DNC paid Perkins Coie a combined $12.4 million.

What in God’s name was this money for?

One of us served as a campaign strategist and advisor for as many as four decades, and the other served as an elected official for 25 years.

With both of us having extensive experience in campaign budgetary decision making, the suggestion that top officials in the Clinton campaign, including Clinton herself, and the DNC weren’t fully aware of the research that their general counsel was commissioning strains credulity.

With more than 380 payments from the Clinton campaign and the DNC being made to Perkins Coie, it is seemingly impossible that the candidate herself would not have direct knowledge of the purpose of those payments or any earmarks being made, especially those for Fusion GPS.

Again, we have both operated in campaign settings of this nature before as strategists and as candidates, and for this significant amount of money, the candidate would fully understand its use and must authorize its purpose.

As if these revelations about Hillary Clinton’s culpability in the Steele Dossier weren’t enough, there are more troubling developments concerning deals she struck on behalf of our country as secretary of state.

This week, an FBI informant with additional and critical information on Russia’s potential influence campaign in the Clinton State Department was cleared by the Department of Justice to testify before Congress.

The informant’s lawyer told The Hill that he was released from his NDA so that he can discuss, “uncovering the Russian nuclear bribery case and the efforts he witnessed by Moscow to gain influence with (former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) in hopes of winning favorable uranium decisions from the Obama administration.”

Secretary Clinton did not raise a finger to protest the uranium deal between 2009-2013 that allowed Russia to acquire about 20 percent of America’s uranium.

Prior to the deal’s finalization, the FBI informant acquired documents and eyewitness accounts indicating that Russian officials involved in the deal donated millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative.

In addition to the investigation of President Trump, then, we need a special prosecutor to investigate this whole matter, someone not at all connected to former FBI director’s James Comey or Robert Mueller.

The American people deserve the truth and the leaders we trusted must be held publicly accountable for their actions.



Andrew Stein is a former president of New York City Council. Doug Schoen served as a political adviser and pollster for President Bill Clinton.