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According to a report by The Associated Press, failed 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was fined by the Federal Election Commission following an investigation that shows she and the Democratic National Committee “misreported payments made to a law firm during the 2016 campaign to obscure the spending.”
The law firm in question was Perkins Coie, which contracted with research firm Fusion GPS to create false evidence, compiled in the Steele Dossier. Congress subsequently employed the document during then-President Donald Trump’s first impeachment proceeding.
Clinton’s campaign categorized these expenses paid to Perkins Coie for opposition research as “legal services,” and as a result of this misrepresentation, Clinton was required to pay a fine of $113,000.
Now, however, “Trump is facing potential felony indictment over recording payments made to his attorney, which were then paid out to porn star Stormy Daniels in alleged hush money, as legal fees,” The Post Millennial reported on Saturday.
The outlet continued:
Clinton was given a $113,000 fine, Trump is looking at the possibility of handcuffs, for the same charges—mischaracterizing payments to lawyers as legal fees when those lawyers were passing on the money for another purpose.
Only Trump sought to keep quiet a relationship he did not want made public, while Clinton and her campaign paid for the creation of false information that was then used in an attempt to unseat the president from the White House.
The outlet noted further that Alvin Bragg, Manhattan’s district attorney, requested last week that fTrump appear before a grand jury, which he declined to do. The move implies that an indictment may be forthcoming, as Bragg is reportedly elevating the misdemeanor charge of false reporting to a felony. He aims to demonstrate that Trump intentionally committed a second crime, which is likely to be related to election fraud, The Post Millennial noted.
“By intentionally obscuring their payments through Perkins Coie and failing to publicly disclose the true purpose of those payments,” the Clinton campaign and DNC “were able to avoid publicly reporting on their statutorily required FEC disclosure forms the fact that they were paying Fusion GPS to perform opposition research on Trump with the intent of influencing the outcome of the 2016 presidential election,” the FEC noted, per the AP.
Clinton paid a civil penalty of $8,000, while the DNC paid the remaining $105,000.
Reports over the weekend indicated that Trump is likely to be indicted this week, though a spokesman for the former president pushed back both on Bragg and Democrats.
Michael Cohen, a former attorney for Trump who testified before the grand jury in the investigation earlier this week, admitted guilt in 2018 to various offenses, including violating campaign finance laws by paying $130,000 to Daniels. Cohen, who was incarcerated for over a year, claims that he made the payment at Trump’s behest, The Hill noted.
Daniels, meanwhile, met with Manhattan prosecutors who are leading the probe on Wednesday, the outlet continued.
Trump acknowledged reimbursing Cohen for the payment, but insisted that it was not associated with his campaign funds. The Trump Organization classified the payment reimbursing Cohen as a legitimate expenditure. Others have noted as well that Trump self-funded his first campaign.
In response to the news, a spokesperson for Trump, Steven Cheung, issued a statement to Fox News Digital criticizing Bragg, calling his investigation a “witch hunt” and alleging that Bragg was under the influence of President Biden and “radical Democrats.”
“President Donald J. Trump is completely innocent, he did nothing wrong, and even the biggest, most Radical Left Democrats are making that clear,” Cheung said. “From Russia, Russia, Russia, to the Mueller Hoax, to Impeachment Hoaxes 1 and 2, and even the Unlawful Mar-a-Lago Raid, Democrats have investigated and attacked President Trump since before he was elected – and they’ve failed every time.
“Now Democrats are at it again, pushing the ‘Nuclear Button’ and attacking a President because of a disgraced extortionist,” he added. “This is happening because President Trump is leading in the polls by a large margin against both Democrats and Republicans, and there’s never been anything so blatant in American political history.”
Cheung continued: “Everyone knows it’s a sham. In fact, the Department of Justice stocked the DA’s office with top people from DC to help ‘Get Trump’ at a local level. Americans will not tolerate Radical Left Democrats turning our justice system into an injustice system to influence a presidential election, which is all they want to do. Our Country is not going to let this happen. This will backfire massively for the Democrat Party, and end in disgrace for our Nation.”
