Professor explains difference between collusion and opposition research, following Russian dossier

Joshua Ceballos/ Assistant News Director

Recent information has come to light connecting the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Convention to a dossier of allegations against President Donald Trump.

The dossier, written by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, was released during the presidential campaign season in 2016 and accused Trump of allegedly working with the Russian government and getting their support for his election, according to the New York Times.

Trump’s campaign denied the allegations and said that the dossier was funded by his opposition. In a recent story broken by the Washington Post, it was revealed that the firm that did the majority of the research that went into the dossier was hired by an associate of the DNC and the Clinton campaign.

“Marc E. Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS, a Washington firm, to conduct the research,” wrote the Post. “After that, Fusion GPS hired dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with ties to the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community, according to those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.”

It is unconfirmed at this point how much of the dossier is true, however the FBI has been doing an ongoing investigation into the credibility of the allegations.

Two phrases often used in news relating to the issue of this dossier are “collusion” and “opposition research,” though it is often unclear as to how these two terms differ from one another.

Mohammad Homayounvash, adjunct professor of politics and international relations at FIU, said it’s hard to tell the difference between collusion and opposition research, though the primary difference is legality.

Opposition research, he said, is “fair game” and includes getting information on the opposing party in order to gain some advantage in campaigning.

But collusion, he said, is unconstitutional.

“Collusion is illegal. You can’t use foreign power in order to gain political position in the United States,” said Homayounvash.

The issue, according to him, is that on paper, it is easier to separate the two practices from one another, but in practice there is overlap between the two.

“Maybe gaining quality opposition research at some point requires some type of collusion with a foreign actor,” he said.

Both Democrats and Republicans, Homayounvash said, have engaged in getting dirt on their opposition, even if it means resorting to unorthodox means.

And as for the allegations against Trump that are proposed in the dossier, Homayounvash is unsure about how much to believe.

“The way in which this dossier has been collected and gathered throws some doubt about the authenticity of the information,” he said. “Who knows the sources and the methods [Christopher Steele] has used to put that thing together.”

In a day and age where information and misinformation is often intertwined, Homayounvash said it’s important to broaden your perspective to find the truth and to better understand current political events.

“Try and draw your information from a very diverse set of sources so you don’t get that tunnel vision,” he said. “You need to be more broad based, and read from different ideological perspectives and political affiliations… I don’t have a magic bullet or a magic solution unfortunately.”