On Wednesday’s “MSNBC Live,” New York Times reporter and MSNBC contributor Nick Confessore stated that the DNC and Clinton campaign helping with the funding of the research that resulted in the Steele dossier is “kind of a mirror image” of Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer, but the dossier funding revelation doesn’t alter the “basic outlines” of the Russia probe.
Confessore began by noting that there are “a ton of facts on the ground right now, concerning Russia and President Trump and his business ties there and meetings between people with connections to the Kremlin and the Trump campaign, that are far beyond the dossier, that don’t depend on the dossier, and the Mueller investigation is not going to rest on the dossier.”
He added that Republicans are “trying to create a distraction around this. … It’s important news. It doesn’t change the basic outlines of the Russia investigation, which center on what ties that the president and his people had to the Kremlin and to Russian intelligence and Russian business and if those ties produced some kind of collaboration with the campaign. The ties actually exist, and the collaboration or collusion question is the one that hasn’t been proven yet.”
Anchor Craig Melvin asked Nick Confessore how the dossier funding is different from Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting.
Confessore answered, “It’s kind of a mirror image. And look, you know, parties engage in opposition research all the time. Admittedly, this is an extreme example to hire a former intelligence agency. But these firms like Fusion GPS are there because there’s a market for them. Companies and trade associations pay them for this research. Sometimes, campaigns perform this kind of research on their own. I’ve gotten plenty of research documents from the RNC under President Trump, and I’ve gotten research documents from the DNC under Tom Perez. It’s a common part of politics. What’s more exotic this time, is that the kinds of things that are being tracked down, the dossier and the reports, are partly unconfirmed and of course, taking place in a foreign country.”
Confessore also noted that certain parts of the dossier aren’t verified, but other parts have been confirmed by the FBI and the media. He added, “Look, the president did have ties to Russia. And Russia was looking for ways to get involved in the campaign. And Russia was looking for ways to help Trump. And that’s why they sent — or some Russians appeared at any rate, at Trump Tower in 2016 to present some research on Hillary Clinton. So, we know parts of the dossier are true.”
(h/t Daily Caller)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.