In October of 2017, Sean Davis of The Federalist revealed that former President Obama’s campaign organization paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS, the same organization behind the dirty Steele Dossier that was used to spy on the Trump campaign in 2016.

Since April of 2016, Obama For America (OFA) has paid over $972,000 to Perkins Coie, records filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) show.

The Washington Post reported last week that Perkins Coie, an international law firm, was directed by both the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton’s campaign to retain Fusion GPS in April of 2016 to dig up dirt on then-candidate Donald Trump. Fusion GPS then hired Christopher Steele, a former British spy, to compile a dossier of allegations that Trump and his campaign actively colluded with the Russian government during the 2016 election. Though many of the claims in the dossier have been directly refuted, none of the dossier’s allegations of collusion have been independently verified. Lawyers for Steele admitted in court filings last April that his work was not verified and was never meant to be made public.

FEC records as well as federal court records show that Marc Elias, the Perkins Coie lawyer whom the Washington Post reported was responsible for the payments to Fusion GPS on behalf of Clinton’s campaign and the DNC, also previously served as a counsel for OFA. In Shamblin v. Obama for America, a 2013 case in federal court in Florida, federal court records list Elias as simultaneously serving as lead attorney for both OFA and the DNC.

Now, Barack Obama’s former Deputy National Security Advisor, Ben Rhodes is attempting to convince this Nicholas Ballasy of PJ Media that neither he nor Barack Obama had any knowledge of the Russia investigation or the phony dossier.

Here’s a portion of the transcript of the interview:

Ballasy: The DOJ is going to investigate, they’re already investigating the origins of the Russia probe during the Obama years. Do you think they’re going to find anything in their investigation?

No, no, no. Look, I cannot be clear [stutter] enough about this.

[Stuttering] Wouldn’t you know if there was an FBI investigation of Trump? I didn’t. President Obama didn’t. Like, we don’t— we actually abided by the firewalls between…

If there were any investigations that took place, those decisions took place in the Justice Department, in the FBI, not in the White House.

They will find nothing that suggests that there was any political White House involvement in any of that.

Literally, I learned about the investigation of Trump as a private citizen in the fricken Washington Post. Like, so, like, this—you have to understand that we abided by [laughs nervously] the longstanding practice of the White House not getting involved in that kind of stuff.

Ballasy: Mmmhmm…The Republicans in the Hill seem to be focusing the dossier.

We had nothing to do with it.

Ballasy: Yeah, so you never had seen it when you were in the White House?

No. I saw it. I heard about it in the very end, in January of two thousand, um, 2017—like, I, we weren’t involved in commissioning the dossier—like, that’s crazy. You know, um—We learned about it when it was in the report, that was um—uh—that was appended to the report that went to Congress at the end of the administration.

Ballasy: Yeah, the Republicans are saying it was circulating, likely circulating in the government, through the White House, and that they’re going to look into that specifically. The dossier, circulating.

I have been investigated [laughs nervously] by these commissions. And, I’m telling you, they didn’t find it.

Like, no, we had nothing to do with the dossier. I mean, like, literally—like nothing to do with this dossier.

Ballasy: When you had seen it, did you believe anything that was in it, or do you believe the FBI should’ve taken it seriously?

Look, I’m not an investigator. [laughs] Like, I haven’t even read the whole dossier. Like, you guys are all fixated on this. Like, have fun. Have your witch hunt. Like, we did not initiate this. Like, we did not…you know this to be true, so I don’t know why you’re asking me these questions. 

For the remainder of the video, Ben Rhodes attempts to convince the interviewer that Trump is guilty of collusion with Russians, as he infers that Mueller is crooked, calling him “a Republican” that was “appointed by George Bush.” Rhodes blames George Papadopoulos’s contacts in London for the initiation of the investigation.

We’ll see about that Ben. Tick…tock.

Watch:

This wasn’t the first time former President Barack Obama’s Deputy National Security Advisor was stumbling to articulate his thoughts. Remember when a stunned Ben Rhodes, was seen on an HBO documentary, “The Final Year,” sitting outside by himself, after discovering Hillary Clinton had lost the Presidential election to Donald Trump?

A clip from the documentary shows a devastated Rhodes sitting outdoors after discovering his liberal world has been shattered. His shock is so extreme that he is actually struck dumb and is unable to form any coherent words. It was a sharp contrast to his smug certainty of Hillary Clinton’s victory expressed several times during the documentary.

Why was Ben Rhodes so stunned over Hillary’s loss? Why were Rhodes and other Democrats in Obama and Hillary’s inner circle so sure she was going to win?