President Donald Trump claimed Wednesday former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign paid nearly $6 million to the firm behind an opposition research dossier alleging ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.
In an interview on Fox Business Network's "Lou Dobbs Tonight," Trump said the funding efforts by the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee were "disgraceful."
"Don't forget Hillary Clinton totally denied this," he said. "She didn't know anything. She knew nothing."
"All of a sudden they found out," he continued. "What I was amazed at, it's almost $6 million that they paid, and it's totally discredited, it's a total phony. I call it fake news. It's disgraceful. It's disgraceful."
The Washington Post reported Tuesday that both the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund the research contained in the dossier.
According to the report, the campaign paid $5.6 million to the law firm Perkins Coie from June 2015 to December 2016. Marc Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS's services in April 2016.
In his interview with Dobbs, Trump said the Clinton camp is now trying to backtrack.
"It is very interesting. She denied it," Trump said. "Her own people denied it – everybody – and now they are sort of scooting around trying to figure out what to say."
Also Wednesday, Trump said the Post story illustrated just one of many examples of how his critics contrived Russia’s election interference, The Hill reported.
"This was the Democrats coming up with an excuse for losing an election," Trump told reporters at the White House, according to The Hill.