Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Despite acquittal, Durham trial of Sussmann added to evidence Clinton campaign plotted to tie Trump to Russia

0 views
Skip to first unread message

Leroy N. Soetoro

unread,
Sep 18, 2022, 2:36:32 PM9/18/22
to
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/despite-acquittal-durham-trial-of-
sussmann-added-to-evidence-clinton-campaign-plotted-to-tie-trump-to-russia

Former officials now question why Special Counsel Robert Mueller did not
report the Clinton campaign link

WASHINGTON – Key allegations that tied then-candidate Donald Trump to
Russia and led to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller
originated with individuals linked to Hillary Clinton and her presidential
campaign, with former officials now questioning why Mueller’s team of
seasoned prosecutors didn't report those connections as part of their
years-long probe.

During the trial of Michael Sussmann — the first trial stemming from
Special Counsel John Durham’s years-long investigation into the origins of
the Trump-Russia probe — Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook testified
that Hillary Clinton herself approved the dissemination of unproven and
subsequently debunked information to the media alleging a covert
communications channel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa
Bank.

Those allegations fell at the center of the Sussmann trial, as Sussmann
had been charged with making a false statement to the FBI when he brought
that information to FBI General Counsel James Baker on Sept. 19, 2016, and
allegedly claimed he was not doing work on behalf of any client, but
rather bringing the data as a citizen concerned with national security.
Sussmann Monday was found not guilty by a jury.

Durham’s team alleged that Sussmann was, in fact, doing work for two
clients: the Hillary Clinton campaign and a technology executive, Rodney
Joffe. Following the meeting with Baker, Durham claimed Sussmann billed
the Hillary Clinton campaign for his work.

The FBI ultimately opened an investigation into that information, and,
according to Baker’s testimony last week, the FBI found that, after weeks
of investigating, "there was nothing there."

Other FBI agents and officials testified that they were "unable to
substantiate any of the allegations."

But the debunked Trump-Alfa Bank allegations aren’t the only claims that
originated with individuals related to the Clinton campaign.

The FBI on July 31, 2016, opened a counterintelligence investigation into
whether candidate Donald Trump and members of his campaign were colluding
or coordinating with Russia to influence the 2016 campaign. That
investigation was referred to inside the bureau as "Crossfire Hurricane."

FLASHBACK: DNI DECLASSIFIES BRENNAN NOTES, CIA MEMO ON HILLARY CLINTON
'STIRRING UP' SCANDAL BETWEEN TRUMP, RUSSIA

But on July 28, 2016, then-CIA Director John Brennan briefed then-
President Obama purported proposal from one of Hillary Clinton's campaign
foreign policy advisers "to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal
claiming interference by the Russian security service."

DECLASSIFIED by DNI Ratcliffe on 6
October 2020

<https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/05/ENCLOSURE_
1__Brennan_Notes__U-1.pdf>

Fox News first obtained and reported on Brennan’s handwritten notes
memorializing that briefing.

"They are investigating an alleged Russian connection with Trump, and just
weeks before the investigation began, the President and the Vice
President, the FBI leadership and Strzok had been put on notice by the CIA
of the fact that Hillary was going to implement a false flag operation
that specifically focused on Trump and Russia," Ty Cobb, former White
House Special Counsel responsible for the Trump White House’s response to
the Mueller investigation, told Fox News. "The Strzok link to the Clinton
intel is undeniable, and requires further investigation which Special
Counsel Durham is likely pursuing. Perhaps the DOJ IG, Mr. Horowitz, who
like Durham is someone I respect greatly, is as well."

He added: "The country certainly deserves answers."

Cobb noted that the "plan" was "so serious that Brennan briefed the
president and national security advisor." Then-National Security Advisor
Susan Rice is said to have been in that July 2016 briefing.

"That is much more unusual than merely referring the matter to the FBI,"
Cobb said.

But it was just ten days before Sussmann visited Baker at the FBI with the
Trump-Alfa Bank allegations, on Sept. 9, 2016, that the CIA properly
forwarded that information through a Counterintelligence Operational Lead
(CIOL) to then-FBI Director James Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director
of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok, with the subject line: "Crossfire
Hurricane."

Fox News first obtained and reported on the CIOL, which stated: "The
following information is provided for the exclusive use of your bureau for
background investigative action or lead purposes as appropriate."

DECLASSIFIED by DNI Ratcliffe on 6
October 2020

<https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2022/05/ENCLOSURE_
2__DCIA_Memo_09-07-16__U-1.pdf>

"Per FBI verbal request, CIA provides the below examples of information
the CROSSFIRE HURRICANE fusion cell has gleaned to date," the memo
continued. "An exchange [REDACTED] discussing US presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton’s approval of a plan concerning US presidential candidate
Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering US elections as a means of
distracting the public from her use of a private email server."

The memo was heavily redacted.

"The memo regarding Clinton’s false Trump/Russia scheme goes to the FBI,
goes specifically to Comey and Strzok — Strzok became the lead
investigator for first the DOJ and later the Mueller team and hand-picked
many of the other investigators," Cobb told Fox News. "It is certain he
knew, and, because he knew, it is stunning that the investigation didn’t
wrap up sooner and that the final report doesn’t mention the actual
undeniable genesis of the original DOJ investigation that morphed into the
Mueller effort."

"If Strzok had shared that information with Mueller, which I suspect he
did not, it would have taken the investigation in a different direction
and spared the nation two-plus years of press-fueled divisiveness and
lies," Cobb continued.

SUSSMANN-DURHAM TRIAL: MARC ELIAS SAYS HE BRIEFED CLINTON CAMPAIGN
OFFICIALS ON FUSION GPS OPPO AGAINST TRUMP

Strzok did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias testified as part of the
Sussmann trial that he personally hired Fusion GPS— the opposition
research firm that commissioned the now-infamous anti-Trump dossier.

FLASHBACK: NEWLY DECLASSIFIED INTEL DOCUMENT NOTED STEELE DOSSIER CLAIMS
HAD 'LIMITED CORROBORATION'

The dossier contained allegations of purported coordination between Trump
and the Russian government. It was authored by Christopher Steele, an ex-
British intelligence officer.

The Clinton campaign and the DNC funded the dossier through the law firm
Perkins Coie, where both Elias and Sussmann were employed at the time.

The Justice Department inspector general revealed that the unverified
anti-Trump dossier helped serve as the basis for controversial Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants obtained against former
Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

And the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) on Russian election
interference revealed that the dossier had, at the time, only "limited
corroboration." CIA officials at the time pushed back, arguing the dossier
should not be included in the assessment, casting it as simply "internet
rumor."

TRUMP REACTS TO TESTIMONY THAT CLINTON SPREAD RUSSIA ALLEGATIONS: 'WHERE
DO I GET MY REPUTATION BACK?'

The FBI’s investigation was handed off to Special Counsel Robert Mueller
after Trump was elected. Mueller was appointed on May 17, 2017.

But Mueller’s team did not appear to focus on the allegations being linked
to Clinton-affiliated individuals.

Former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker told Fox News that the
Mueller team could "suggest that it was outside their scope to look at the
origins of the Russian collusion story."

"However, by not highlighting that the story was created by the Clinton
campaign and prompted by the Clinton campaign, it calls into question
their entire investigation," Whitaker said.

Prosecutors on Mueller’s team had come under fire from then-President
Donald Trump, who repeatedly referred to them as "angry Democrats."

"As a former DOJ prosecutor myself, it is clear they lost their
impartiality and violated the oath we all take as prosecutors," former
chief investigator for the House Intelligence Committee's Trump-Russia
probe Kash Patel told Fox News. "Not to mention, Andrew Weismann was the
general counsel at the FBI. He knows how to investigate, obtain FISAs, and
check the credibility of witnesses if he wanted to. He never wanted to,
and hid behind the fake news media wall, who all covered for Mueller."

He added: "They didn’t even need to dig, they just needed to abide by
their oaths of office."

Of the original 15 attorneys on Mueller's staff, at least seven had
donated to Democratic candidates and campaigns, including Hillary Clinton.
Among these, James Quarles donated $2,700 to Clinton’s 2016 campaign,
Jeannie Rhee donated a total of $5,400 to Clinton’s 2016 campaign, and
Elizabeth Prelogar and Rush Atkinson donated smaller amounts. Mueller top
prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, Andrew Goldstein, and Brandon Van Grack also
contributed to Democrats.

FLASHBACK: MUELLER PROBE: MEET THE LAWYERS WHO GAVE $$ TO HILLARY, NOW
INVESTIGATING TEAM TRUMP

"Because of what appeared to be political biases, they should have had a
more fulsome description as to how this investigation even came out,"
Whitaker said. "And so, it would’ve been smart on their part to cover
their bases on that, but they left the door open and, rightfully, should
be criticized for not fully explaining this."

"I just think it is really disappointing that the FBI had rejected these
stories—whether it is Alfa Bank and the secret server with the Trump
Organization, or the dossier that the FBI reviewed and rejected as
legitimate, and somehow found a home as it traveled up the hierarchy at
the FBI and ultimately led to the appointment of Mueller," Whitaker told
Fox News.

"It is extraordinarily disappointing, and it shouldn’t happen like this,"
Whitaker said.


After nearly two years, Mueller’s more-than $30 million investigation
yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or coordination between the
Trump campaign and Russian officials during the 2016 presidential
election.

"The country has a right to know the answer to this question, ‘How is it
that after $30 million, the fact that the Clinton campaign falsely
initiated the investigation was omitted from their report?’" Cobb asked.
"The simple, but incomplete, answer is Peter Strzok who didn’t share the
information with his FBI colleagues on the investigation he initiated and
approved."

Cobb said that the "complete answer" refers back to the July 2016 briefing
for Obama and top Obama officials.

"You don’t have to be partisan to find that scary," Cobb said. "This needs
to be pursued so a soft coup of this type can never happen again under any
future administrations."

"It’s just not going to age well," Whitaker said.

But these Trump-Russia allegations did not only spur federal law
enforcement investigations, but also congressional ones.

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate
Intelligence Committee opened investigations into whether Trump and
members of his campaign colluded with Russia to influence the 2016
presidential race.

HOUSE INTEL TRANSCRIPTS SHOW TOP OBAMA OFFICIALS HAD 'NO EMPIRICAL
EVIDENCE' OF TRUMP-RUSSIA COLLUSION

Upon declassification of thousands of pages of transcripts from House
Intelligence Committee interviews, Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., under
pressure from Grenell and House Republicans, ultimately released them. The
transcripts revealed, among other things, that top Obama officials
acknowledged they had no "empirical evidence" of collusion or a conspiracy
between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election. Fox News first
reported on the transcripts.

Neither the House nor Senate investigation found evidence of collusion
between Trump and Russia.

SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE FINDS NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION BETWEEN
RUSSIA AND THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN

The first two years of former President Trump's presidency was covered by
the "Russia" cloud and, after bombshell testimony from Clinton's campaign
manager last week, he is looking for vindication.

"This is one of the greatest political scandals in history," Trump told
Fox News. "For three years, I had to fight her off, and fight those
crooked people off, and you’ll never get your reputation fully back."

"Where do I get my reputation back?" Trump said again.


Durham was tapped in 2019, shortly after Mueller announced his findings,
by Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate the origins of the FBI’s
original investigation into the Trump campaign, which led to the
appointment of Mueller as special counsel.

At the time, Durham was serving as U.S. attorney for Connecticut.

Mueller's investigation yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or
coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials during the
2016 presidential election.

In October 2020, Barr appointed Durham as special counsel to ensure that
he would be able to continue his investigative work — regardless of the
outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Durham has indicted three people as part of his investigation: Sussmann in
September 2021, Igor Danchenko in November 2021 and Kevin Clinesmith in
August 2020.



--
"LOCKDOWN", left-wing COVID fearmongering. 95% of COVID infections
recover with no after effects.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Donald J. Trump, cheated out of a second term by fraudulent "mail-in"
ballots. Report voter fraud: sf.n...@mail.house.gov

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden
fiasco, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp. Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.

David Hartung

unread,
Sep 18, 2022, 3:13:00 PM9/18/22
to
On 9/18/2022 11:36 AM, Leroy N. Soetoro wrote:
> https://www.foxnews.com/

Lie site lies not read.


0 new messages