Fmr. Clinton Spox on Dossier Funding: ‘Opposition Research Happens All the Time’
Brian Fallon appeared on CNN today to defend Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for reportedly working with the DNC to fund that infamous dossier on President Trump’s Russian links.
On Tuesday, Fallon reacted to the report by insisting he was unaware of the Clinton campaign picking up the bill for Christopher Steele’s research last year. Fallon defended the move by saying it “would have been campaign malpractice” not to buy opposition research on Trump, and that the dossier will be worth it if it reveals anything for the special counsel investigation on Russia.
When asked about all of this on CNN, Fallon supposed that Steele’s hiring was kept secret due to the sensitive nature of his work as a former MI6 agent. As the former spokesman spoke about how the dossier’s unverified findings came up from a period of dormancy, he was pressed on why Clinton and her campaign staff didn’t know about their connection to Fusion GPS.
Fallon said he couldn’t speak for how much Clinton knew about her campaign’s dealings with Steele, but he noted that “opposition research happens all the time” during elections, and the dossier was already commissioned ahead of time. CNN’s John Berman questioned the pursuit of opposition research rationale by noting how that was supposedly the same reason why Donald Trump Jr. met with various Russian officials last year.
Fallon argued that the difference was the Clinton campaign hired services from an independent research organization, whereas Trump Jr.’s meeting invites questions about how connected his father’s campaign was to Russian interference efforts during the election.
Watch above, via CNN.
[Image via screengrab]
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