An explosive new report on the infamous “Trump dossier” asserted three times that the tawdry files that were used by Democrats to try to take down Donald Trump started out as opposition research funded by an unnamed Republican donor.
But no media outlet has been able to confirm the identity of the supposed donor, or if he or she even exists.
The new report, published Tuesday night by the Washington Post, focuses on funding for the dossier from the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, which was not previously known. Information in the article is attributed anonymously to “people familiar with the matter” and nothing more.
The first mention of the GOP donor appears in the third paragraph. Clinton and DNC lawyer Marc E. Elias “and his law firm, Perkins Coie, retained [Democratic research firm Fusion GPS] in April 2016 on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC,” the story says. “Before that agreement, Fusion GPS’s research into Trump was funded by an unknown Republican client during the GOP primary.”
Elsewhere in the story, the alleged anonymous donor is referenced again as someone who paid Fusion GPS “to investigate the real estate magnate’s background” during the Republican primaries.
A third reference to the alleged donor said that once he stopped paying for the research, “Elias, acting on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the DNC, agreed to pay for the work to continue,” which resulted in the Trump dossier.
Reports that there is an anonymous donor have never been confirmed, though many accept as fact that there was one. Democrats and some in the press are clinging to that assertion even more in the wake of the report that said it was Democrats that shaped the initial work into the dossier.
Trump said Wednesday on Twitter, “Clinton campaign & DNC paid for research that led to the anti-Trump Fake News Dossier. The victim here is the President.”
Christina Ginn, a producer for MSNBC, replied to his tweet, in part asserting that, “Republicans first funded the dossier.”
Brian Fallon, a CNN political commentator and former spokesman for Clinton, tweeted, “Some of the Republicans pouncing on dossier story tonight are surely in for a self-own when we learn who funded project during GOP primary.”
Stories about an anonymous donor date back to a New York Times story in January, headlined, “How a sensational, unverified dossier became a crisis for Donald Trump.”
Similar to the Post’s story, the Times said there was a mysterious GOP donor who initiated the opposition research on Trump, “according to a person familiar with the effort.”
The Times story said that “the identity of the donor is unclear,” but described him or her as “a wealthy Republican donor who strongly opposed Mr. Trump” and “put up the money to hire a Washington research firm … to compile a dossier about the real estate magnate’s past scandals and weaknesses.”
The donor’s “interest in financing the effort ended,” according to the story, during the spring of 2016 when Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee.
From there, according to the Post piece, the Clinton campaign and the DNC picked up the effort.
“I don’t think the GOP funder has ever been identified, but I think there is one,” one national politics reporter told the Washington Examiner.
Others doubt that there is in fact a GOP donor.
Journalists, including Byron York, chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner, and Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller have attempted to track down the identity of the supposed donor, if he or she exists. Those attempts, however, have not led to a name. That has some thinking the donor is a fabrication.
“I don’t believe the mad Republican donor theory,” Mike Murphy, a veteran GOP strategist who ran Jeb Bush’s Super PAC, told York in August. “They all talk to each other, and I think I would have heard about it. And I didn’t.”
Warren Tompkins, who chaired a pro-Marco Rubio PAC, told Ross of the Caller in August that he didn’t have a clue either.
“I was not aware of this activity and frankly we had our hands full attempting to fend off the millions that Jeb’s PAC dumped on Marco to be concerned with anything but that,” he said.
Republican operatives supporting Ted Cruz and John Kasich said similar things.
The dossier has become a key focus of congressional investigations into Russia’s interference in the election and allegations that the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin to influence the race.
Trump has repeatedly denied the accusations and on Oct. 19, before boarding Marine One in Washington, D.C., called the matter a “Russia hoax” created by Democrats as an “excuse” for losing the election.
Asked about the alleged Republican donor, he seemed to suggest he doesn’t fully believe one exists but said he might have a guess.
“Well they say it began with the Republicans. I think I would know but I won’t say. It’ll be determined.” He added, “Yes, it might’ve started with the Republicans early on in the primaries. I think I would know, but let’s find out who it is. I’m sure that will come out. If I were to guess, I have one name in mind. It’ll probably be revealed.”
