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There is a long game and a short game going on in special counsel John Durham’s indictment of Democratic Party lawyer Michael Sussmann on a false-statements count. The short of it is this: A false statement was allegedly made by Sussmann to the FBI’s then-general counsel, James Baker, on September 19, 2016. In federal law, the false-statement crime has a five-year statute of limitations, meaning it had to be charged by this Sunday (September 19, 2021). Consequently, even if Durham would probably have preferred to wait until his full investigation was concluded before filing indictments, by delaying beyond Sunday, he...

The trial of Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann is coming to an end [ZH: has now ended with Sussman’s acquittal] but rather than provide definitive answers to the origins of the Russiagate hoax, the trial has thrown up many new mysteries and unanswered questions.Special Counsel John Durham arrives at federal court in Washington on May 16, 2022. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo)Durham’s overarching trial narrative was that the FBI was duped by Sussmann when he presented them with data purportedly tying Trump to the Kremlin via the Russian Alfa Bank. It may have been Durham’s only viable strategy given the fact he...

WASHINGTON—Testimony that suggested the Donald Trump-Russia claims given to the FBI by a Hillary Clinton lawyer may have been fabricated will be struck from the record, along with mention of the email that triggered the testimony, a judge has ruled. On Tuesday, FBI agent Curtis Heide was presented with an email sent by Rodney Joffe to researchers with the Georgia Institute of Technology dated Sept. 14, 2016. Joffe discussed one of the white papers Michael Sussmann, a lawyer representing both Joffe and the Clinton campaign, later handed over to the FBI alleging a secret link between Trump and a Russian...

Tech executive Rodney Joffe fed the Alfa Bank hoax to the FBI via two distinct routes, testimony from yesterday’s proceedings in the Michael Sussmann criminal case indicates. This apparent circular reporting further cements Special Counsel John Durham’s Section 1001 false statement case against Sussmann by highlighting the significance of Sussmann’s alleged lie to former FBI General Counsel James Baker. Sussmann, who is in the middle of week two of his trial in a D.C. federal court, was charged last fall in a one-count indictment with lying to Baker when he provided Baker two flash drives and several “white papers” purporting...

Today we saw some important testimony in the Michael Sussmann case. First, Rodney Joffe, an FBI confidential human source, went around his FBI handler to relay dubious Alfa Bank information to a friend at the FBI. Second, there were indications that Joffe previously worked on Russia cyber security matters. This leads us to ask whether Joffe was in some way involved in the Trump/Russia investigation. More on that below. The testimony of retired FBI Agent Tom Grasso. Grasso, a witness for Sussmann, was a Special Agent with the FBI whose “primary responsibility involved investigating cyber crimes.” He was part of...

Newly released notes taken by high-level Department of Justice (DOJ) officials during a March 6, 2017, meeting with FBI leadership expose some of the lengths the FBI engaged in to cover up its spying on the 2016 campaign of President Donald Trump. The notes were released on May 8 by lawyers representing former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann as part of an effort to clear him on charges of having lied to the FBI. The notes, in reality, appear to do little to exonerate Sussmann but do provide quite a bit of information on the FBI. The meeting at...

Today starts week two in United States v. Sussmann, Special Counsel John Durham’s false statement case against Michael Sussmann. Today starts week two in United States v. Sussmann, Special Counsel John Durham’s false statement case against Michael Sussmann. According to the grand jury indictment, Sussmann lied to former FBI General Counsel James Baker when he told Baker he was not acting on behalf of any client when he provided Baker with data supposedly establishing an Alfa Bank-Trump connection, when in fact Sussmann represented both the Hillary Clinton campaign and Rodney Joffe. After a brief interlude on Friday to accommodate the...

Bombshell testimony that Hillary Clinton personally authorized giving a reporter since-debunked data about Donald Trump and Russia was part of a chess-like maneuver to “protect the queen,” a former US Justice Department official told The Post. Jim Trusty said former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook’s revelation Friday, which he quickly tried to walk back, actually meshed with other testimony in which Mook and former campaign general counsel Marc Elias both said they were unaware campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann planned to also provide the information to the FBI. Both men said they would have objected to the move if they’d known....

On Tuesday, trial in United States v. Sussmann began. Michael Sussmann’s theory of defense has major factual holes.The Hillary Clinton campaign did not want its attorney, Michael Sussmann, to share the Alfa Bank data with the FBI, jurors were told yesterday during the defense’s opening arguments in the special counsel’s criminal case against Sussmann. But the information known to date, as well as the modus operandi of the Spygate players throughout the years they peddled the Russia-collusion hoax, render this argument laughable. On Tuesday, trial in United States v. Sussmann began in earnest following a day of jury selection. At...

Listen to this article 0:00 / 4:37 1X BeyondWords Special Counsel John Durham on Thursday requested controversial former New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau should be forced to answer all questions posed to him during the trial of former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann despite the journalist’s request to limit the scope of queries. "If Lichtblau takes the witness stand at trial, the Court should require him to answer all relevant questions posed to him that fall within the scope of his direct testimony, the criminal charge, or his credibility and reliability," Durham wrote in a response to Lichtblau’s...

This spring, a group of computer scientists set out to determine whether hackers were interfering with the Trump campaign. They found something they weren’t expecting. ...snip In late July, one of these scientists—who asked to be referred to as Tea Leaves, a pseudonym that would protect his relationship with the networks and banks that employ him to sift their data—found what looked like malware emanating from Russia. The destination domain had Trump in its name, which of course attracted Tea Leaves’ attention. But his discovery of the data was pure happenstance—a surprising needle in a large haystack of DNS lookups...

Obama’s Deep State FBI obtained a FISA warrant to spy on Trump Tower based on information that Russian Alfa Bank was interacting with candidate Trump. However, we now know the corrupt FBI knew the entire story was a lie and yet they withheld this information from the court. As we reported in April 2019, the Alfa Bank hoax all started in June, 2016. After news broke that the Democratic National Committee had been hacked, a group of prominent computer scientists went on attack. The group of individuals, led by a Hillary supporter whom the Obama Administration had provided a grant,...

Day 2 of the Michael Sussmann trial started with some housekeeping. Here are the rulings of note: Robby Mook, who has a scheduled vacation in Spain, will testify on Friday. He’s a defense witness. Evidence of Steele’s meetings with Sussmann and Fusion GPS in July 2016, and his tasking to conduct research on Alfa Bank, according to the judge, “can come in.” The judge observed they are “relevant to Mr. Sussmann’s activities for the campaign and his attorney-client relationship, as far as it went, with the campaign as it relates to Alfa-Bank.” Onto the witnesses. We start with the short...

Remember the Durham probe? It’s a criminal investigation that was launched by then-Attorney General William Barr. It was supposed to get to the origins of the Russian collusion probe. As with any government investigation, it takes time, a lot of time. It also splinters into various off-shoots—which again increases the length of time of the probe. The amount of time has outlasted the Trump administration. To protect the effort and to ensure it would continue after the Trump White House, AG Barr gave former U.S Attorney John Durham special counsel status. It’s been under the radar for months. Now, we...

John Haughey of The Epoch Times twitter feed with live updates John Haughey @JFHaughey58 · 1h Deliberations begin Tuesday morning at the E. Barnett Prettyman U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in Michael #Sussmann's trial for allegedly lying to the FBI about the #Trump Organization's purported ties to a Russian BankThere will actually be 16 jurors seated during the trial with four not knowing that they are alternates and will not be "in the room" when the case goes to the jury for a verdict.Lengthy discussion regarding the infamous #SteeleDossier ...former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele cannot be compelled to...

An FBI agent told jurors Tuesday that Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann‘s purported evidence tying former President Trump to Russia’s Alfa Bank strained credibility because there was no effort to hide what Mr. Sussmann claimed was secret back-channel communications. Special Agent Scott Hellman was a prosecution witness in the case of Mr. Sussmann, who is on trial for lying to the FBI. Prosecutors say he concealed his ties to the Clinton campaign when he presented an FBI lawyer with now-debunked evidence claiming covert internet communication between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank. Mr. Hellman, who oversees a team of cyber...

Despite machinations attempting to hide the full truth of how Spygate conspiracies to entrap Donald Trump were spun, lots will come out into the open.Subpoenaed Fusion GPS employee Laura Seago is likely to stay mum during questioning at the criminal trial of Michael Sussmann that starts this week. Her silence will be yet further evidence that the Hillary Clinton campaign financed and seeded the Russia collusion hoax to both the press and U.S. intelligence agencies. Jury selection is scheduled to begin this morning in a D.C. federal court in the criminal case against former Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann. While...

Given that Marc Elias maintained all the emails were protected by attorney-client privilege, the court’s unquestioningly accepting his word seems strange.Tech executive Rodney Joffe may assert attorney-client privilege for communications he had with employees of Fusion GPS because those communications furthered Joffe and the Clinton campaign’s common interest, a federal judge presiding over the criminal case against Michael Sussmann ruled yesterday. Prosecutors will now be greatly limited in the material they may elicit from one of the two witnesses granted immunity in exchange for their testimony against Sussmann.Sussmann, whose trial in a D.C. federal court on a false statement...

The judge in the case of attorney Michael Sussmann will review a batch of Clinton campaign emails and other documents to determine whether they were improperly concealed from the court. Judge Christopher Cooper’s ruling is a victory for special counsel John Durham, who has pushed to introduce the documents as evidence in his case against Sussmann, who is charged with lying to the FBI in 2016 about his motivations for presenting the bureau with later debunked evidence of the Trump Organization communicating with Russia’s Alfa Bank. Hillary for America, the law firm Perkins Coi, and others involved in the allegations...

Special counsel John Durham will not be allowed to present “extensive evidence” of the inaccuracy of the Trump-Russia collusion claims in his case against Michael Sussmann — unless the Democratic cybersecurity lawyer argues their accuracy first. Sussmann was indicted last September for allegedly concealing his clients, Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and “Tech Executive-1" Rodney Joffe, from FBI general counsel James Baker in September 2016 after Sussmann pushed since-debunked claims of a secret backchannel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa-Bank. Durham says Sussmann similarly concealed his client, Joffe, when he pushed further Trump-Russia collusion claims to the CIA in...