Republicans seem to want to distract us from Russian assistance to the Trump campaign, and possible coordination between the campaign and Russian actors, by saying, “But Clinton….” The key element of their attempted distraction is that after the opposition research effort was dropped by Anti-Trump forces within the Republican Party they were hired by the Clinton campaign and/or the DNC. There is a lot of background in this NPR story.
Simpson and Fusion GPS were hired in 2016 to do opposition research on Trump, first by a conservative donor and later by Hillary Clinton's campaign. One way Fusion GPS did that was by hiring a former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, to run the traps among his contacts inside Russia and find out what he could about Trump.
There is a point I do not hear members of Congress and the media making about these two efforts. The key word in the excerpt above is “hired.” Even if some of the nefarious accusations against Christopher Steele and Fusion GPS are true, their work is not illegal because the Clinton campaign/DNC paid them. Their work was not a contribution to the campaign.
The Russian work on behalf of candidate Trump, on the other hand, was not paid for. Therefore it amounted to a contribution to an American presidential campaign by foreign nationals, which is illegal. The law against that is spelled out here.
The Act and Commission regulations include a broad prohibition on foreign national activity in connection with elections in the United States. 52 U.S.C. § 30121 and generally, 11 CFR 110.20. In general, foreign nationals are prohibited from the following activities:
- Making any contribution or donation of money or other thing of value, or making any expenditure, independent expenditure, or disbursement in connection with any federal, state or local election in the United States;
- Making any contribution or donation to any committee or organization of any national, state, district, or local political party (including donations to a party nonfederal account or office building account);
- Making any disbursement for an electioneering communication;
- Making any donation to a presidential inaugural committee.
Persons who knowingly and willfully engage in these activities may be subject to an FEC enforcement action, criminal prosecution, or both.
The defense of Trump’s acceptance of foreign assistance by saying “Clinton did it too” is patently false. Clinton paid for a service, just like airplane tickets, catered food, hotel rooms, etc.
Am I missing something?