Durham Finds Smoking Gun Text Message From FBI Revealing ‘Joint Venture’ To Defame Trump
Jon Dougherty, April 11, 2023
Special Counsel John Durham has recently unveiled a text message that shows how Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer, Michael Sussmann, lied to the FBI about not working on behalf of any client while delivering anti-Trump research, Just the News reported.
Additionally, Durham, a former federal prosecutor appointed to investigate the origins of the ‘Trump-Russia collusion’ hoax by then-Attorney General William Barr, has indicated that he is prepared to present evidence that the attempt to defame Donald Trump with the false accusation was a “conspiracy.”
Durham revealed in a bombshell court filing several months ago for the first time that there was a “joint venture or conspiracy” between then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign, researchers, and others to fabricate the collusion story, with the intention of harming Trump’s chances of winning the election and disrupting his presidency.
“These parties acted as ‘joint venturer[s]’ and therefore should be ‘considered as co-conspirator[s],'” he wrote.
Durham also unearthed a text message showing that Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann lied to the FBI about not working on behalf of any client when he delivered anti-Trump research prior to the 2016 election. In reality, Sussmann was working for both the Clinton campaign and another client, according to prosecutors, Just the News reported further in their report from late last year.
“The existence of the text message between Sussmann and then-FBI General Counsel James Baker was revealed in a court filing late Monday night by Durham’s team. Prosecutors said they intend to show Sussmann gave a false story to the FBI but then told the truth about working on behalf of the Clinton campaign when he later testified to Congress,” the outlet’s report continued.
“Jim – it’s Michael Sussmann. I have something time-sensitive (and sensitive) I need to discuss,” Sussmann said in a text to Baker on Sept. 18, 2016, the new court filing revealed. “Do you have availability for a short meeting tomorrow? I’m coming on my own – not on behalf of a client or company – want to help the Bureau. Thanks.”
The prosecution team stated that the newly discovered text message will be a crucial piece of evidence during the trial as it will demonstrate that Sussmann misled the FBI.
“The defendant lied in that meeting, falsely stating to the General Counsel that he was not providing the allegations to the FBI on behalf of any client,” Durham’s motion said. “In fact, the defendant had assembled and conveyed the allegations to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including (i) a technology executive (‘Tech Executive-1’) at a U.S.-based Internet company (‘Internet Company-1’), and (ii) the Clinton Campaign.”
The prosecutor pointed out that during Sussmann’s testimony before the House a year later, he admitted that he had approached the FBI at the instruction of his client.
“We had a conversation, as lawyers do with their clients, about client 1 needs and objectives and the best course to take for a client,” Sussmann testified during a deposition that was taken by then-House Intelligence Committee GOP investigative counsel Kash Patel. “And so it may have been a decision that we came to together. I mean, I don’t want to imply that I was sort of directed to do something against my better judgment, or that we were in any sort of conflict.”
Durham informed the court that he intends to present evidence that Sussmann, along with Tech Executive-1 Rodney Joffe and others, collaborated in a “joint venture” with the Clinton campaign to promote the false narrative that Trump had a secret computer channel at Moscow’s Alfa Bank with the Kremlin to interfere in the election. This theory has since been debunked.
“As an initial matter, the Government expects that the evidence at trial will show that beginning in late July/early August 2016, the defendant, Tech Executive-1, and agents of the Clinton Campaign were ‘acting in concert toward a common goal,’ … namely, the goal of assembling and disseminating the Russian Bank-1 allegations and other derogatory information about Trump and his associates to the media and the U.S. government,” Durham’s team said.
“The evidence of a joint venture or conspiracy will establish that in November 2016, soon after the Presidential election, Tech Executive-1 emailed a colleague, stating, ‘I was tentatively offered the top [cybersecurity] job by the Democrats when it looked like they’d win,'” Durham’s prosecutors noted further.
“In sum,” the filing concludes, “the above evidence, public information, and expected testimony clearly establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant and Tech Executive-1 worked in concert with each other and with agents of the Clinton Campaign to research and disseminate the Russian Bank-1 allegations.”
Patel told Just the News Durham’s latest filing is among his most significant yet in the case.
“Durham has just shown the whole world what major pieces of our Russiagate investigation revealed,” Patel said. “Hard evidence, emails and text messages, showing the Clinton Campaign, Fusion GPS, Perkins Coie, Joffe, and the media were all synced in August of 2016 pushing the false Alfa Bank server story, while also all working on the Steele Dossier matter. Durham submits all this evidence as ‘joint venture conspiracy’ under the rules of evidence.”
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