DNC 'Hack,' Hillary's Skeletons & FBI's Secrets: Three Possible Directions of Durham's Probe
© AP Photo / Andrew Harnik
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On 25 January, Special Counsel John Durham gave an update on the case of Michael Sussmann, a lawyer from a firm linked to the Hillary Clinton campaign. The document says that the special counsel secured a grand jury testimony from yet another Clinton campaign lawyer, Marc Elias, adding to the debate over Durham's investigative objectives.
In September 2021, former Perkins Coie partner Michael Sussmann was charged with lying to then-FBI General Counsel James Baker and concealing the fact that he had conducted research into Trump-Russia ties on behalf of the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign. The new court document says that the DoJ maintains "an active, ongoing criminal investigation" into Sussmann’s conduct. The former Perkins Coie lawyer previously pleaded not guilty. Durham has been looking into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe since April 2019.
Did Perkins Coie Fabricate "Russian Hacking" of DNC?
Durham's probe has triggered a lively debate among American investigative reporters, lawyers, and bloggers. Commenting on the latest court file, Techno Fog, a nom de plume for an American lawyer, writer and blogger, suggested that Sussmann's case could be bigger than just providing a false statement to the FBI.
New Durham revelations:
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) January 25, 2022
DNC/Hillary lawyer Marc Elias testified before a grand jury.
He has obtained more records from Perkins Coie, the Clinton Campaign, and Fusion GPS.
This includes 396 e-mails between the FBI and Perkins Coie from 2016-2017 https://t.co/uLTJJA6Kt0
The blogger does not rule out that Durham could be also focused on the claim of Russian hacking, given that it was Sussmann who requested CrowdStrike's help in investigating the alleged DNC hack in 2016. Earlier, Politico revealed In late April 2016, after the DNC noticed some suspicious cyber activities, it reached out to Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Sussmann, who called Shawn Henry, the president of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, to secure his company's help. Subsequently, CrowdStrike blamed the "breach" on supposed "Russian hackers."
In September 2021, The New York Times noted that "some of the questions that Mr. Durham’s team has been asking in recent months… suggest he has been pursuing a theory that the Clinton campaign used Perkins Coie to submit dubious information to the FBI about Russia and Mr. Trump in an effort to gin up investigative activity to hurt his 2016 campaign."
"Consider the possibility that evidence of 'Russian hacking' was placed by the DNC, Perkins Coie, et al. for Crowdstrike to conveniently 'find,'" Techno Fog writes.
Indeed, the official "Russian hack" story has a lot of gaps. Firstly, CrowdStrike President Shawn Henry admitted under oath in 2017 that the company does not have "concrete evidence" that the alleged "Russian hackers" exfiltrated any data from the servers. Secondly, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), a group of former US intelligence officers, concluded that the alleged "hack" was nothing but an inside job.
'Hillary Had a Motive to Ruin Trump'
Special Counsel Durham could also be digging deeper into Hillary Clinton's motivation for peddling or, potentially, cooking the Trump-Russia story up, according to Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel, who has been conducting a private investigation into the Clinton Foundation's alleged fraud for several years.
Hillary Clinton has quite a few skeletons in her closet, including the mishandling of classified government emails, allegedly implementing "pay-to-play" schemes during her secretary of state tenure, and the Clinton charities' supposed financial machinations, according to Ortel.
"During his 2016 campaign Trump singled out 'crooked' Hillary Clinton and her network of 'charities' in scathing criticism that resonated not only with conservatives but with Bernie Sanders supporters. Team Clinton certainly knew well before November 2016 that real investigations into 'Bill, Hillary, and the Chelsea Clinton Foundation', its affiliates and their foreign donors would likely yield prosecutions, even jail for many Clintons. And so Donald needed to be stopped, then hobbled while in office and now to be intimidated from running again," says the Wall Street analyst.
The New York Times broke in September 2020 that Durham had widened his inquiry scope and also sought information about the FBI's Clinton Foundation investigation. Ortel does not rule out that the Durham team has found "compelling evidence" as to why Hillary Clinton and her Democratic allies were and are so fearful of an empowered Trump administration.
Furthermore, in October 2021, Clinton Foundation whistleblowers Lawrence W. Doyle and John F. Moynihan revealed that they had been interviewed by Durham. Earlier, in December 2018, Doyle and Moynihan testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, alleging that the Clinton Foundation owes the US government between $400 million and $2.5 billion in taxes.
"So John Durham has been patiently building his cases, likely already working with some who were in on these charity, corruption and money-laundering scams who seek leniency for themselves," Ortel says.
21 December 2021, 13:16 GMT
Was FBI's Crossfire Hurricane Op Well Predicated?
Durham's latest court document reveals that the FBI’s Inspection Division is investigating FBI personnel's performance amid the bureau's Crossfire Hurricane probe into alleged Trump-Russia collusion. The special counsel has requested information from the division overlapping with his investigation.
The special counsel appears to be interested in disclosing how the FBI's Russiagate probe was launched and on what particular basis, writes investigative journalist Aaron Mate in his op-ed for RealClearInvestigations.
In 2019, Durham expressed his dissent with regard to Inspector General Michael Horowitz's conclusion that the FBI's Operation Crossfire Hurricane into alleged Trump-Russia collusion was well predicated. Durham announced that his office had "advised the Inspector General that we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened." He explained that, unlike Horowitz, his "investigation is not limited to developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department" and has instead obtained "information from other persons and entities, both in the US and outside of the US."
"If Durham does unearth additional evidence that the FBI did not launch the Trump-Russia probe in the way that it claims, then that would be yet another devastating revelation for a bureau that has already been caught relying on Clinton-funded disinformation and lying about it," writes Mate.
10 November 2021, 19:29 GMT
According to the official narrative, the FBI kicked off Crossfire Hurricane of Trump's alleged ties to Russia after receiving a "tip" from Alexander Downer, the Australian diplomat. In 2016, Downer talked to Trump campaign volunteer George Papadopoulos at a London bar. Papadopoulos allegedly told him about Russia's "hacking operation" against the DNC and reportedly had "advance knowledge of the Russian plan to use that information to hurt Clinton’s campaign," as ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok recalled in his memoir. However, according to Mate, the FBI Electronic Communication (EC) files say nothing of the kind.
"The FBI’s tip from Downer contained no mention of the DNC hacking, a Russian interference campaign, or even the stolen emails handed to WikiLeaks," the investigative journalist notes. "Nor did they even have any trace to suggest that a Russian intermediary had made an overture." Instead, the EC describes some vague and unclear "suggestion" of "suggestion from Russia," Mate writes.
The investigative journalist also cites the FBI's overreliance on the uncorroborated Steele dossier and the bureau's long efforts to conceal this. On top of this, the bureau made 17 "factual misstatements and omissions" to the FISA court while seeking surveillance warrants on Trump aide Carter Page, according to the IG Horowitz report.
"Given how hard the FBI and Democratic Party allies have fought to shield this conduct from scrutiny, Durham's probe could become a major political flashpoint as his probe reaches its final months and hones in on its final targets," Mate concludes.
