NEWSLINK: “Former Clinton, DNC aides largely silent on funding of Trump-Russia dossier” – Washington Post/ Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman, Adam Entous, Devlin Barrett, Matt Zapotosky
“Hillary Clinton and top officials of her presidential campaign were largely silent Wednesday in response to the revelation that the campaign and the Democratic National Committee had paid for research that resulted in a dossier alleging Russian interference on behalf of Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Neither Clinton nor her campaign manager, Robby Mook, responded …. Campaign chair John Podesta declined to comment beyond referring reporters to a statement … by the campaign’s law firm …. Trump, meanwhile, [said] … the involvement of the DNC and the Clinton campaign was ‘a very sad commentary on politics in this country. … I think it is a disgrace.’ … Federal Election Commission records show … the Clinton campaign paid … Perkins Coie … $5.6 million in legal fees from June 2015 to December 2016 … and the DNC paid the firm $3.6 million in ‘legal and compliance consulting’ since November 2015. Some of those … fees were apparently paid to Fusion GPS [a research firm that generated reports alleging Trump had ties to Russia and was benefiting from Kremlin interest in the election.]”