Durham Issues Subpeonas to Hillary Clinton's Law Firm and the Tech Bros Who Fabricated the Alfa Bank Hoax

Jason D. Meister
@jason_meister

BREAKING: Special Counsel John Durham issued a new set of subpoenas, including to a law firm with close ties to Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign

CNN tries spinning the story away-- no doubt to protect the "sources" (really coconspirators) it was working with to push this hoax on to the public and into the FBI.

Special Counsel John Durham has issued a new set of subpoenas, including to a law firm with close ties to Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, an indication that Durham could be trying to build a broader criminal case, according to people briefed on the matter. So far, Durham's two-year probe into the FBI's Russia investigation hasn't brought about the cases Republicans has hoped it would.

The grand jury subpoenas for documents came earlier this month after Durham charged Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann with lying to the FBI in a September 2016 meeting. During that meeting, Sussmann handed over data purporting to show links between the Trump Organization and Russia's Alfa Bank.

That tip became part of the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election but the FBI ultimately couldn't find evidence of a link.

In seeking additional documents from Sussmann's former law firm, Perkins Coie, investigators from the special counsel's office appear to be sharpening their focus on the Democratic political machinery during the 2016 campaign and efforts to tie Trump to Russia.

Perkins Coie's clients in 2016 included the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The law firm also hired on the campaign's behalf a research company that commissioned the dossier from ex-British spy Christopher Steele that alleged that Trump was compromised by Russia.

While working for Perkins Coie, Sussmann also represented Rodney Joffe, a cybersecurity expert referred to in Durham's indictment as "Tech Executive-1." In 2016, Joffe, who has not been previously identified, worked with researchers to collect internet data about the Trump Organization that Sussmann took to the FBI.
Durham's continued use of the federal grand jury in Washington, DC, signals that he could be interested in adding to Sussmann's charges or bringing cases against additional defendants.

They go to raging leftwing lunatic "Popehat" for his unbiased take:

In interviews with CNN, several former federal prosecutors criticized Durham's use of what's known as a speaking indictment against Sussmann, laying out a broader case detailing the suspected political motivations and conduct by several people outside of Sussmann's legal practice who aren't actually charged. The former prosecutors say a false statement charge is typically straightforward, and often laid out in a single sheet of paper.

"There are two ways to take it: The way charitable and favorable to Durham is this is basically making a case for this being material," said Ken White, a former prosecutor-turned-white collar defense lawyer in Los Angeles who follows Trump-era cases closely. "The less charitable interpretation is, this is Durham doing what he's going to do, basically making his pitch for Trump as a victim."

Here's where CNN spins this "research" -- making up fake crimes and reporting them to the FBI in order to get the media to report the headline "FBI investigating a crime" -- as something that happens every day in DC.

The larger narrative Durham describes lays out a practice not uncommon in politics and a world that's usually opaque to the general public -- in which campaigns traffic stories that could hurt their opponents, and sometimes try to get law enforcement to open investigations into alleged wrongdoing. At times, the research and authorities' reactions to the research will leak to the news media as part of partisan attempts to affect election outcomes.

A friend writes: "LOVE that part. Gee, I wonder if CNN, including the authors of this piece, ever played a role in such partisan politics."

Lawyers steeped in Washington are often involved in opposition research efforts.

Justice Department officials suspected a similar effort was in the works in 2020, when Rudy Giuliani sought meetings with top Justice officials to provide documents related to Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, while providing news organizations some of the same information, according to former Trump administration officials.

"Suspected."

By the way, CNN refuses to acknowledge the "documents" it's talking about here, which come from the Hunter Biden Laptop. "Hold 10% for The Big Guy" and all that.

These practices themselves aren't regulated by the law, and Durham hasn't charged as a crime any actions central to the opposition research itself.

"Certainly it's routine for people with contacts in the government to be hired to try to get the government interested into launching an investigation that's advantageous for clients," White said. "It's all part of petitioning the government."

This is petitioning the government -- protected by the First Amendment, CNN says.

Lawyers hiding their clients and passing off hoax crimes to the FBI to trick them into conducting a criminal probe. And then lying to the FBI about what brought them into their offices.

All to distract from Hillary's very real secret server scandal.

CNN then goes on to revive the Russiagate Hoax again, and demands to know why Durham didn't mention the hoax they worked so hard to propagate in their indictment.

posted by Ace at 02:40 PM

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