From Yournews.com February 13, 2022
Special Counsel John Durham filed a motion in federal court in Washington, DC, on Friday alleging that Hillary Clinton’s political allies paid a contractor to spy on Donald Trump — both as a candidate, and as president — using cell phone data.
The motion was filed in the case of former Clinton Campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, who is charged with lying to the FBI about whether he was working for the campaign when he told the FBI about a false link between Trump and Russia.
Sussmann was a partner at Perkins Coie, which often represents Democrats and which hired Fusion GPS to produce the false Russia “dossier” on then-candidate Trump, at the behest of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Durham’s filing deals with a potential conflict of interest involving Sussmann’s legal representation from Latham & Watkins LLP, which also represented others in the investigation “whose interests may conflict with those of the defendant.” These, the Techno Fog blog notes, include Perkins Coie, former Perkins Coie lawyer Marc Elias, and the Hillary Clinton campaign. If they are also charged or exposed to criminal liability, the firm might face a conflict of interest among the various defendants.
The filing then reveals that Sussmann was involved in an effort to mine data from a project run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) at a U.S. university (identified in previous reports as Georgia Tech) to spy on Trump and his associates — at Trump Tower, at Trump’s private residence, and at the Executive Office of the Presidency once Trump took office in the White House. Their goal was to dig up damaging information that could then be used to build the “Russia collusion” narrative against Trump.
As Durham notes in the filing:
4. The Indictment also alleges that, beginning in approximately July 2016, Tech Executive-1 had worked with the defendant, a U.S. investigative firm retained by Law Firm-1 on behalf of the Clinton Campaign, numerous cyber researchers, and employees at multiple Internet companies to assemble the purported data and white papers. In connection with these efforts, Tech Executive-1 exploited his access to non-public and/or proprietary Internet data. Tech Executive-1 also enlisted the assistance of researchers at a U.S.-based university who were receiving and analyzing large amounts of Internet data in connection with a pending federal government cybersecurity research contract. Tech Executive-1 tasked these researchers to mine Internet data to establish “an inference” and “narrative” tying then-candidate Trump to Russia. In doing so, Tech Executive-1 indicated that he was seeking to please certain “VIPs,” referring to individuals at Law Firm-1 and the Clinton Campaign.
5. The Government’s evidence at trial will also establish that among the Internet data Tech Executive-1 and his associates exploited was domain name system (“DNS”) Internet traffic pertaining to (i) a particular healthcare provider, (ii) Trump Tower, (iii) Donald Trump’s Central Park West apartment building, and (iv) the Executive Office of the President of the United States (“EOP”). (Tech Executive-1’s employer, Internet Company-1, had come to access and maintain dedicated servers for the EOP as part of a sensitive arrangement whereby it provided DNS resolution services to the EOP. Tech Executive-1 and his associates exploited this arrangement by mining the EOP’s DNS traffic and other data for the purpose of gathering derogatory information about Donald Trump.)
The filing further explains that claims of collusion involving were based on supposed hookups from these targeted sites with a Russian mobile phone provider, but failed to note that these connections were common in the U.S. and had begun in 2014 — i.e. during the Obama administration, long before Trump.
The revelations in Durham’s filing are already being compared to Watergate, which began when Republican operatives broke into the offices of the Democratic National Committee during the 1972 presidential campaign. In this case, however, the alleged spying was not confined to the campaign but continued after the election, once Trump was already the president.
July 2016 also marks the point at which the Obama administration launched its investigation into supposed links between Trump and Russia, after Trump joked at a press conference about Russia looking for Hillary Clinton’s missing emails.
In March 2017, after radio host Mark Levin noted evidence in the public domain that investigators had used wiretaps to eavesdrop on Trump associates, Trump claimed the government had his “wires tapped” and was attacked by the media.
Fox News quoted former Trump aides reacting to the news of Durham’s filing, claiming it vindicated their suspicions:
Former chief investigator of the Trump-Russia probe for the House Intelligence Committee under then-Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., Kash Patel, said the filing “definitively shows that the Hillary Clinton campaign directly funded and ordered its lawyers at Perkins Coie to orchestrate a criminal enterprise to fabricate a connection between President Trump and Russia.”
“Per Durham, this arrangement was put in motion in July of 2016, meaning the Hillary Clinton campaign and her lawyers masterminded the most intricate and coordinated conspiracy against Trump when he was both a candidate and later President of the United States while simultaneously perpetuating the bogus Steele Dossier hoax,” Patel told Fox News, adding that the lawyers worked to “infiltrate” Trump Tower and White House servers.
“Indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by the operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia,” says former president.
Former President Donald Trump did not mince words over revelations of Hillary Clinton “operatives” intercepting his office’s internet traffic at the White House, calling the treacherous act “punishable by death.”
Special Counsel John Durham revealed in a court filing Friday that a tech executive connected to Clinton’s campaign “exploited” White House internet traffic to fabricate a connection between his campaign and the Russian government.
“The latest pleading from Special Counsel Robert Durham provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by the operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia,” Trump said in a statement on Saturday.
NEW!
President Donald J. Trump:
"The latest pleading from Special Counsel Robert Durham provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection… pic.twitter.com/jaERtmhDER
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) February 12, 2022
“This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate and those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution.”
“In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death. In addition, reparations should be paid to those in our country who have been damaged by this,” he added.
In his filing, Durham explained how Rodney Joffe – known as Tech Executive-1 in the indictment of Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann – and his team at Georgia Tech “exploited” data from internet traffic related to Trump Tower, Trump’s Central Park apartment, and the Executive Office of the President of the United States.
Sussmann was indicted by Durham in September 2021 for lying to FBI general counsel James Baker about a supposed connection between Trump and Russia bank Alfa Bank that sparked the FBI’s counterintelligence operation known as Crossfire Hurricane against Trump in 2016.
Durham was appointed by former Attorney General William Barr in 2019 to investigate FBI’s actions related to its “investigation” of the Russia collusion hoax.
FROM FOX NEWS
Clinton campaign paid to ‘infiltrate’ Trump Tower, White House servers to link Trump to Russia: Durham
‘Tech Executive-1 and his associates exploited this arrangement by mining the EOP’s DNS traffic and other data for the purpose of gathering derogatory information about Donald Trump.’
Lawyers for the Clinton campaign paid a technology company to “infiltrate” servers belonging to Trump Tower, and later the White House, in order to establish an “inference” and “narrative” to bring to government agencies linking Donald Trump to Russia, a filing from Special Counsel John Durham says.
Durham filed a motion on Feb. 11 focused on potential conflicts of interest related to the representation of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman, who has been charged with making a false statement to a federal agent. Sussman has pleaded not guilty.
The indictment against Sussman says he told then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016, less than two months before the 2016 presidential election, that he was not doing work “for any client” when he requested and held a meeting in which he presented “purported data and ‘white papers’ that allegedly demonstrated a covert communications channel” between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, which has ties to the Kremlin.
But Durham’s filing on Feb. 11, in a section titled “Factual Background,” reveals that Sussman “had assembled and conveyed the allegations to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including a technology executive (Tech Executive 1) at a U.S.-based internet company (Internet Company 1) and the Clinton campaign.”
Durham’s filing said Sussman’s “billing records reflect” that he “repeatedly billed the Clinton Campaign for his work on the Russian Bank-1 allegations.”
The filing revealed that Sussman and the Tech Executive had met and communicated with another law partner, who was serving as General Counsel to the Clinton campaign. Sources told Fox News that lawyer is Marc Elias, who worked at the law firm Perkins Coie.
Durham’s filing states that in July 2016, the tech executive worked with Sussman, a U.S. investigative firm retained by Law Firm 1 on behalf of the Clinton campaign, numerous cyber researchers and employees at multiple internet companies to “assemble the purported data and white papers.”
“In connection with these efforts, Tech Executive-1 exploited his access to non-public and/or proprietary Internet data,” the filing states. “Tech Executive-1 also enlisted the assistance of researchers at a U.S.-based university who were receiving and analyzing large amounts of Internet data in connection with a pending federal government cybersecurity research contract.”
“Tech Executive-1 tasked these researchers to mine Internet data to establish ‘an inference’ and ‘narrative’ tying then-candidate Trump to Russia,” Durham states. “In doing so, Tech Executive-1 indicated that he was seeking to please certain ‘VIPs,’ referring to individuals at Law Firm-1 and the Clinton campaign.”
Durham also writes that during Sussman’s trial, the government will establish that among the Internet data Tech Executive-1 and his associates exploited was domain name system (DNS) internet traffic pertaining to “(i) a particular healthcare provider, (ii) Trump Tower, (iii) Donald Trump’s Central Park West apartment building, and (iv) the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP).”
Durham states that the internet company that Tech Executive-1 worked for “had come to access and maintain dedicated servers” for the Executive Office of the President as “part of a sensitive arrangement whereby it provided DNS resolution services to the EOP.”
“Tech Executive-1 and his associates exploited this arrangement by mining the EOP’s DNS traffic and other data for the purpose of gathering derogatory information about Donald Trump,” Durham states.
The filing also reveals that Sussman provided “an updated set of allegations” including the Russian bank data, and additional allegations relating to Trump “to a second agency of the U.S. government” in 2017.
Durham says the allegations “relied, in part, on the purported DNS traffic” that Tech Executive-1 and others “had assembled pertaining to Trump Tower, Donald Trump’s New York City apartment building, the EOP, and the aforementioned healthcare provider.”
In Sussman’s meeting with the second U.S. government agency, Durham says he “provided data which he claimed reflected purportedly suspicious DNS lookups by these entities of internet protocol (IP) addresses affiliated with a Russian mobile phone provider,” and claimed that the lookups “demonstrated Trump and/or his associates were using supposedly rare, Russian-made wireless phones in the vicinity of the White House and other locations.”
“The Special Counsel’s Office has identified no support for these allegations,” Durham wrote, adding that the “lookups were far from rare in the United States.”
“For example, the more complete data that Tech Executive-1 and his associates gathered–but did not provide to Agency 2–reflected that between approximately 2014 and 2017, there were a total of more than 3 million lookups of Russian Phone-Prover 1 IP addresses that originated with U.S.-based IP addresses,” Durham wrote. “Fewer than 1,000 of these lookups originated with IP addresses affiliated with Trump Tower.”
Durham added that data collected by Tech Executive-1 also found that lookups began as early as 2014, during the Obama administration and years before Trump took office, which he said, is “another fact which the allegations omitted.”