The Democratic National Committee is cutting ties with lawyer Marc Elias, who heavily pushed the discredited Steele dossier that sought to link the former president to Russia falsely.
Elias, who has represented the DNC since 2009, has had several disagreements with the committee, according to sources who spoke with PunchBowl News. Elias Law Group, his firm founded in 2021, works on behalf of many Democratic lawmakers and entities, such as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, records show.
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“The DNC works with a number of law firms on voting rights litigation, compliance, contracting, and more,” said Ammar Moussa, a DNC spokesman. “The DNC is appreciative of Elias Law Group’s years of work in service of the values we share.”
Between November 2021 and February 2023, the DNC paid Elias Law Group over $2 million, according to campaign finance disclosures. And since October 2021, the firm has pulled in over $34 million from campaigns and committees, including those linked to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) — solidifying itself as a Democratic legal powerhouse.
Elias was general counsel for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and commissioned the Trump-Russia dossier. The lawyer hired the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which, in turn, brought on British ex-spy Christopher Steele in 2016. Steele was offered “up to $1 million” in the run-up to the 2016 election by the FBI to prove the dossier’s allegations against Trump but did not get the money due to lack of evidence, FBI supervisory analyst Brian Auten testified in October 2022.
The following month, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent several written questions to the FBI in the wake of “bogus information” being received from informants, including Steele, the Washington Examiner first reported. Then-prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis for John Durham, who was appointed as special counsel to investigate the FBI’s 2016 Russia election interference inquiry, grilled Elias in May 2022 over his role in pushing the collusion narrative.
“Elias Law Group is proud of the work it has done for the DNC,” a spokesperson for Elias Law Group said. “We look forward to continuing to represent the Democratic Party as well as helping citizens vote, and progressives make change.”
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The DNC and Elias Law Group did not reply to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.
