CNN justice correspondent Evan Perez falsely told his network’s viewers on Tuesday that anti-Trump Republicans first funded the infamous Trump-Russia dossier, much of which remains unverified.
Perez was responding to a tweet from President Donald Trump, who called the dossier a “pile of garbage.” Perez has close ties to the cofounders of Fusion GPS, the firm behind the dossier, which CNN failed to disclose.
“Look, the fact is that the dossier was compiled as part of opposition research, first paid for by Republicans who were opposed to Donald Trump and then later on by Democrats and the Clinton camp, people associated with the Clinton campaign who wanted to try to bring him down,” Perez said.
That “fact” cited by Perez — that anti-Trump Republicans originally funded the dossier — has been ruled “false” by fact-checkers.