John Durham Goes to Court
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In a new legal filing, the special counsel says a tech company that had access to Trump's internet communications shared that data with operatives working for the Clinton campaign in 2016. Images: Getty Images/AP/Masterclass/Reuters Composite: Mark Kelly By Kimberley A. Strassel May 12, 2022 6:28 pm ET
Special Counsel John Durham steps into court Monday with the first trial of his probe into Democrats' Russia-collusion hoax. That's a formality. Mr. Durham has already won.
Perkins Coie lawyer Michael Sussmann stands accused of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation by claiming the dirt on Donald Trump he fed to the FBI wasn't delivered on behalf of "any client." Mr. Sussmann was in the pay of the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee and worked extensively with outside players and the media to produce the collusion narrative as well as documents that stoked FBI probes of Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign, according to Durham filings. Mr. Sussmann has pleaded not guilty.
Commentators spent last week warring over whether Judge Christopher Cooper’s rulings on the use of evidence would help or hinder Mr. Durham’s case. It doesn’t much matter. Mr. Durham has already accomplished his far bigger goal with this narrow indictment. He’s put every sleazy collusion player in the hot seat, with ramifications beyond the courtroom.
From the day the special counsel released the 27-page Sussmann indictment in September (and the follow-on charges against dossier contributor Igor Danchenko), it’s been clear he had ambitions that went far beyond a conviction for lying. Each of his filings follows the same, deliberate strategy—lengthy briefs and long exhibits full of names, emails and documents, all of which connect the dots and expose the web that enabled this hoax, and the lies that kept it hidden.
Democratic superlawyer Marc Elias isn’t charged, but he also no longer heads the elite political-law practice at Perkins Coie. The firm last August announced Mr. Elias, who’d been there 28 years, was leaving to start his own small practice. A few weeks later, the Sussmann indictment laid bare the role Mr. Elias, a longtime DNC and Clinton lawyer, played in ginning up and distributing the bogus Trump-Russia claims.
Christopher Steele, author of the infamous dossier, once lauded by the press as an international superspy, is now a man in search of a reputation. His dossier’s “intelligence,” Mr. Durham’s documents show, came primarily from a Brookings Institution employee, Mr. Danchenko, who was recycling salacious chatter from a Clinton associate. Whatever work Mr. Steele may find in future, it won’t include assisting the FBI or any other respectable agency.
Fusion GPS, which hired Mr. Steele, has become toxic in Washington. The Durham prosecutions show how the opposition-research firm operates—not by producing real research, but by shopping seamy claims to law enforcement, then browbeating journalists into covering the “investigations” Fusion inspires. (Fusion in court filings says its job was to help Perkins Coie with legal advice—a claim the judge largely rejected Thursday.) The Washington press corps knows it got played—and how. A recent Durham filing released dozens of emails showing reporters at top outlets palling it up with their Fusion narrators, with one Slate writer even sending a draft October 2016 article for Fusion to review. Is the DNC going to hire Fusion anytime soon? Even credulous reporters will think twice before running with another Fusion lead.
Mrs. Clinton won’t be in the courtroom, but the campaign’s claims it was in the dark about the Perkins Coie and Fusion work are in ashes. Mr. Durham’s evidence shows top Clinton aides—including campaign manager Robby Mook—were apprised of allegations and helped circulate them. Also among the circulators was current national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who faces calls to resign given his role.
Then there’s James Comey’s FBI. One downside of the Durham “lying” strategy is that it requires prosecutors to present the FBI as dupes of the Clinton operation. Yet amusingly, this has lured the defense into providing evidence of FBI rot. Mr. Sussmann’s lawyers will argue at trial that their client can’t be found guilty of lying to the FBI, since “they have reviewed more than 300 emails that show the bureau understood Sussmann worked for Democratic campaign entities,” as the Washington Post reports.
The FBI knew all along and ran with unvetted political dirt, even if Mr. Sussmann’s alleged lie allowed it to pretend it was aboveboard. And as the Durham evidence shows, it went on pretending, failing to follow up on Mr. Steele, the dossier or its Clinton origins until long after the election (at which point special counsel Robert Mueller failed to follow up on the FBI for nearly two years more). Most of the FBI’s former leaders have been fired or left, its reputation is in tatters, and the GOP will dig further if it regains Congress this fall.
Many conservatives remain frustrated that Mr. Durham hasn’t pursued far more sweeping conspiracy charges. But conspiracy cases are hard to prove. A sweeping prosecution of high-name figures would cause a political feeding frenzy, and be proclaimed by the media a partisan exercise. A court loss would make it easier for the press to cast the entire effort as debunked.
The narrow prosecution of the little-known Mr. Sussmann has allowed for a focus on the bigger story. Stay tuned for a flood of more information coming out of a trial that on its face is about one lawyer, but in reality is the continuing tale of one of the dirtiest tricks in modern U.S. history.
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Those Fusion GPS e-mails are now in the hands of John Durham. Hillary Clinton may be off limits and Marc Elias may escape the net, but Clinesmith confessed, Sussman is going down this month and Igor Danchenko will go down next month. We are just getting started.
That's a far cry from the promises made just a month ago...
In the last week, the Judge pulled the rug out from under Durham's conspiracy theories, TWICE.
Oh and BTFW, anything in the Fusion GPS emails is LONG past the statute of limitations. So, it's hard to understand WTF you are so excited about?
The whole point is to show that the Dems and DNC are dirty and corrupt...for the voters to see and decide
So according to you, this whole thing is a partisan witch hunt...
Yet the 'Dems and the DNC' aren't on trial, are they Greg?
Durham has had YEARS to 'show his work', yet he has failed miserably.
The Judge is rightfully refusing to allow Durham to 'muddy the waters' in a trial for ONE count against Sussman of lying to the FBI.
Durham spewed a shit ton of innuendo in his filings about conspiracies and spying, which gave all of his sycophants a hard on, yet can't manage to indict ANYONE for ANY of it.
You and yours have long had a favorite term for that.
I believe it's HOAX.
Hillary’s theme song:
The woman who walked away unscathed from multiple scandals and created the greatest lie in American political history.
... the literal definition of delusional.
Yet your hero let the clock run out, dropped the ball, blundered along and botched the 'case' that you and yours insisted should be blatantly obvious to everyone.
Durham had the full force of the US government behind him, a vast amount of investigative material already gathered before his appointment and an unlimited budget.
Since it's obvious to anyone paying attention that you have hung your hat on Durham's YEARS long investigation, perhaps you can explain why you still hold him in such high regard after he let Hillary Clinton 'walk away unscathed'?
Least she has good taste.
Doubt it but the person who gave it to her does ..... definitely....
Beats Trump's
Nah but his useful idiots theme song to their hero Biden, truly does takes the cake:
Durham's investigation can never come to anything because the CIA and FBI investigations of Trump's secret relationships with many known candidates agents of Russian State were legally predicated...
Beginning by at least 2014 and continuing right up to election day in 2016 Trump was in secret negotiations with Vlad Putin to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Trump even offered Putin a luxury penthouse as a bribe. Of course the FBI and CIA cannot and will not explicitly confirm this, but it explains why our and every other spy agency in the world investigated Trump's Russian connections...
Lol..."It's all top secret, but I Know!"
I guess alleging secret conspiracies is better than directly pushing misinformation. Baby steps.
Now, wasn't it far easier for you to mindlessly post a cartoon vs. thinking and intelligently posting?
1. Yes, Trump was being investigated by the CIA and FBI and Interpol and MI6 and even Russian State Intelligence Services by 2014 and continuing well after election day 2016.
2. Hillary Clinton retired in January of 2013!
3. The CIA and FBI investigations into Trump's Russian connections were legally predicated.
Why not post a cartoon as evidence to back that up?
Oh, that's right, you can't prove it!
Somehow that proof never gets posted. doesn't stop it from getting posted over and over and over though.
That's right. I have seen many times he has been asked for proof, but usually he runs away when asked.
I expect nothing different this time.
Or maybe he is too busy looking for his next cartoon!
Yet, the judge has already ruled that Clinton campaign and DNC communications about the CIA and FBI investigations into Trump's Russian connections are inadmissible for the exact reasons I explicitly outlined above...
Trump's Russian connections were already revealed in Paul Manafort,'s and Roger Stone's convictions and pardons. Have you never heard of Michael Cohen, Trump's ex-lawyer, who testified at length to Congress about Trump's negotiations with Putin to build Trump Tower Moscow? Where have you been?
Just post some credible links, no cartoons!
This has no relation to reality.
You know people can read the ruling and see how nonsensical your claim is, right?
Just be sure to let Clinesmith, Sussman and Igor Danchenko know!
LOL!
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How was Hillary Clinton responsible for CIA and FBI investigations into Donald Trump's Russian dealings in 2014, 2015 and 2016 when she retired from public service in January of 2013?
I didn't say she was, why are you arguing something I didn't claim?
It doesn't make your other comments any less false.
"Handwritten notes by then-CIA Director John Brennan , who now is a fiery anti-Trump commentator, say that Brennan briefed Obama on “alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016 of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services.”
Everyone in DC knew that the CIA and FBI had active investigations into Trump's Russian connections by the time Clinton was campaigning in 2016. Those investigations had begun after Clinton retired from public service. Therein lies the rub for Durham...
Even if Sussman did lie about something it does not alter the fact that yes, the CIA and FBI were just doing their jobs. Trump and Co were seeking out and establishing relationships with known agents of Russian State Intelligence Services in 2014 and 2015! What were the FBI and CIA to do? Look the other way? It would not have mattered much anyway. Evey spying agency in the world was well aware, as Michael Steele documented in his files!
You keep saying that but never can provide proof.
We know why,.....
Even if what you say is true, Trump has never been indicted, charged, or convicted of any crimes.
Trump was indicted the day he beat their chosen one .... at least in every left wing looners mind.
Neither has Clinton.
It wasn't, though.
See all that proof?
Wonder why he left?
It seems he is throwing all he has into this one case....
Even a judge admonished him for it.
The vast majority of which has nothing to do with the VERY narrow case he's supposed to be arguing against Sussman. That fact has been illustrated by the Judge denying the 'evidence' dump that Durham wanted to make.
Him shoving everything into this one case makes me think this is all he has.
You should read Clinton's motion to dismiss Trump's lawsuit. It points out that there isn't an iota of evidence and ultimately, it's all moot since the statute of limitations has expired for all the bullshit that Durham spewed in his filings. It's delicious.