WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump suggested on Thursday that the Democratic Party, the FBI or the Kremlin could be the financial backer for a dossier of salacious but unverified information alleging ties between him, his presidential campaign and the Russian government.
“Workers of firm involved with the discredited and Fake Dossier take the 5th. Who paid for it, Russia, the FBI or the Dems (or all)?” Trump wrote on Twitter Thursday. He did not offer any evidence to support his suggestion that Russia, the FBI or the Democratic Party funded the dossier.
Two officials from the firm behind the dossier, Fusion GPS, appeared before the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg, but refused to answer questions, instead invoking their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. The Washington Post reported last February that the FBI had reached an agreement just before last year’s election with the dossier’s author, a former British intelligence agent, for him to continue his work.
Payments to the dossier author from the bureau never materialized once the dossier itself was published shortly before Trump’s inauguration in January. While the information remains unverified publicly, both Trump and then-President Barack Obama were briefed on the dossier’s contents by intelligence officials in the days leading up to Trump’s inauguration.
Politico
