Potential Indictment of Jake Sullivan May Bring Durham Very Close to Hillary Clinton, Analyst Says
17:52 GMT 14.10.2021 (Updated: 12:08 GMT 06.04.2022)
© AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster
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Special Counsel John Durham, who is investigating the origins of the Russiagate probe, appears to be circling Jake Sullivan, an incumbent national security adviser to President Joe Biden, according to Jonathan Turley, a professor of public interest law at George Washington University. Who else could be caught in Durham's crosshairs?
Last month, a grand jury indicted former Perkins Coie partner Michael Sussmann, who outlined to the FBI on 19 September 2016 the now debunked story about "secret communications" between the Trump Organisation and Russia's Alfa Bank. According to the indictment, Sussmann deliberately concealed the fact that he had conducted the research on behalf of the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign.
Did Sullivan Lie to the US Congress?
"With Sussmann, Durham indicted someone who he believes intentionally hid the role of the Clinton campaign in creating and pushing the Alfa Bank scandal," wrote Jonathan Turley. "In testimony to Congress, Sullivan also insisted that he did not know the Alfa Bank scandal was the work of a Clinton lawyer and people associated with the campaign."
However, on 15 September 2016 "Campaign Lawyer-1," identified by the media as Perkins Coie lawyer Marc Elias, informed Clinton campaign officials and a foreign policy adviser about Sussmann's Trump-Alfa Bank allegations. Turley believes that the "foreign policy advisor" in question is Sullivan.
For his part, American investigative journalist Paul Sperry cites "sources close to the case" who asserted to him that the "foreign policy adviser" referenced by title is Sullivan.
"[These sources] say [Sullivan] was briefed on the development of the opposition-research materials tying Trump to Alfa Bank, and was aware of the participants in the project," Sperry wrote in his op-ed for RealClearInvestigations on 23 September 2021, adding that this included Washington-based Fusion GPS hired by Marc Elias to dig dirt on Trump.
However, when testifying under oath before the US House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence in December 2017, Sullivan said that he didn’t know that Perkins Coie, the law firm where Marc Elias and Michael Sussmann were partners, was working for the Clinton campaign until October 2017. He also said he didn't know the Trump-Alfa Bank research was being carried out by Clinton lawyer and people associated with the campaign.
"Sullivan potentially could be in the unenviable position of having to argue that he was not perjurious, just clueless, in denying knowledge of key facts to Congress," suggested Turley.
Sullivan potentially could be in the unenviable position of having to argue that he was not perjurious, just clueless, in denying knowledge of key facts to Congress. The “ignorance is bliss” defense is a favorite fallback in Washington scandals...https://t.co/zm4zomUx9a
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) October 11, 2021
Meanwhile, Sperry's sources claim that Sullivan was not just "aware" but actually "spearheaded" the project to link Trump to the Kremlin. Indeed, Clinton's foreign policy advisor appeared to be very active in peddling the Trump-Russia "collusion" narrative, according to the investigative journalist.
Sperry noted that during the July 2016 Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia, Sullivan met with a number of mainstream media producers and anchors telling a story "that Trump was conspiring with Putin to steal the election."
Around that time, the CIA intercepted Russia's "chatter" about a Clinton "foreign policy adviser" who allegedly proposed a plan to vilify Donald Trump by linking him to the Kremlin in order to distract public opinion from Hillary's emailgate scandal.
After Slate broke the Trump-Alfa Bank hoax on 31 October 2016, Sullivan was quick to release a lengthy statement claiming that the supposed "secret communications" between the Trump Organisation and Alfa Bank "could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow."
Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank. pic.twitter.com/8f8n9xMzUU
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 1, 2016
Hillary Clinton Setting up to Play Victim Card
It's very likely that Durham may be "circling" Sullivan as well as other participants of what appears to be a partisan project to smear and resist Trump, Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel notes. The indictment is unusually lengthy and provides details on how the Trump-Alfa Bank hoax was cooked up, according to him.
On paper Sullivan has an outstanding record at Yale, as a Rhodes scholar, and then at Yale Law School, Ortel remarks. However, he appeared to turn a blind eye to Hillary Clinton's email scandal and a series of controversies haunting the Clinton Foundation, according to the analyst.
"Sullivan's aggressive, partisan temperament is clearly revealed in Wikileaks emails (Podesta and State)," Ortel says. "His academic credentials are too strong for him to win against a potential prosecution, claiming he did not know what Elias, Sussman, [John] Podesta and Hillary Clinton were up to in their plot to tar and then resist Trump. Here, I would also note that Sullivan worked closely with [then-Vice President Joe] Biden and that Biden should have known about grave defects in the plot to damage Trump."
Ortel suggests that Sullivan may believe, given his wife's ties to Attorney General Merrick Garland, "that Durham will not be allowed to follow the trail he should follow, to the corrupt former presidents in both parties."
However, if Durham manages to "circle" Sullivan this will get him very close to Hillary Clinton and her alleged plan to vilify Trump described in Brennan's memo, Ortel notes. Still, he believes that prosecutors already have more than they need to attack Hillary over alleged charity frauds run through presidential foundations and apparent pay-to-play schemes.
Remarkably, following a series of articles by Turley and Sperry concerning Sussmann's indictment and Jake Sullivan's alleged perjury, Hillary Clinton highlighted on ABC News that she would "never be out of the game of politics."
NEW - Hillary Clinton says she will "never be out of the game of politics," claims "democracy is at stake" because of "disinformation" on the Internet.pic.twitter.com/lrcIWTJ0Vs
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) October 11, 2021
"Hillary and her allies in media, social media, and academia are adept at playing a gullible public that, even today, has trouble telling hoax from 'true facts,'" says Ortel. "She is likely well aware of which targets Durham has been addressing and setting up to play the victim card, yet again."
