Reports that former President Barack Obama's campaign organization, Obama for America, paid almost $1 million to a law firm paying money to Fusion GPS, the firm behind a salacious dossier about then-GOP nominee Donald Trump, raise many questions, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said Monday.
"President Obama had it in for President Trump, then, at the time, the candidate," Fitton told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program.
"He campaigned so close, so much for Hillary Clinton that it hadn't been done like that in 100 years. Then you had the dossier being used by the Obama FBI, the Obama Justice Department, maybe the Obama CIA to target team Trump."
According to The Federalist, quoting records filed with the Federal Election Commission, Obama for America (OFA) paid more than $972,000 to Perkins Cole, the international law firm that directed by both the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign to retain Fusion GPS in April of 2016 to research Trump.
Fitton said his watchdog group wants to know why OFA was paying Perkins Cole, and why a "$700,000 chunk went over there around the time Fusion GPS began working for Hillary Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee to find dirt on President Trump, or President-elect Trump, or candidate Trump, by traveling to Russia and colluding with the Russians."
There also are questions about whether Obama, as a politician, knew about the payments, and what he knew about them as president, said Fitton.
"It's a question we need answered because if the dossier, which is a political document created to destroy President Trump or the candidate Trump, was used by his FBI and CIA, did they know that this was nothing but a political attack on Trump? And they shouldn't really have anything to do with it?"
There are also questions about who used the dossier to justify their actions, said Fitton, including by the CIA, the FBI, and the National Security Agency to spy on team Trump.
"That's the most disconcerting thing," he said. "Of course, the unmasking came . . . thirdly, are we in the midst of a major criminal investigation against the president of the United States as a result of this dodgy dossier which was a political hit job on Mr. Trump?"