{"id":1483832,"date":"2022-05-19T08:01:55","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T12:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1483832"},"modified":"2022-05-19T08:01:59","modified_gmt":"2022-05-19T12:01:59","slug":"spygate-conspirators-begin-selling-their-hoax-to-a-dc-jury-but-the-facts-dont-fit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spygate-conspirators-begin-selling-their-hoax-to-a-dc-jury-but-the-facts-dont-fit\/","title":{"rendered":"Spygate Conspirators Begin Selling Their Hoax To A DC Jury, But The Facts Don\u2019t Fit"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fspygate-conspirators-begin-selling-their-hoax-to-a-dc-jury-but-the-facts-dont-fit%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1483832&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>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\u2019s opening arguments in the special counsel\u2019s criminal case against Sussmann. But the information known to date, as well as the <em>modus operandi<\/em> of the Spygate players throughout the years they peddled the Russia-collusion hoax, render this argument laughable.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, trial in <em>United States v. Sussmann <\/em>began in earnest following a day of jury selection. At issue is whether the former Clinton campaign attorney lied to former FBI General Counsel James Baker when Sussmann provided him data and whitepapers purporting to show the existence of a secret-communications network between the Russian-based Alfa Bank and Donald Trump. Special Counsel John Durham\u2019s team claims Sussmann lied when he shared the Alfa Bank \u201cintel,\u201d saying he wasn\u2019t acting on behalf of a client, while, in fact, Sussmann represented both tech executive Rodney Joffe and the Clinton campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutor Brittain Shaw set the stage for the jury, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/durham-sussmann-lawyers-clash-in-opening-to-trial\">telling<\/a> the 12 jurors and four alternates during opening argument that \u201cSussmann\u2019s actions were part of \u2018a plan to create an October surprise on the eve of a presidential election\u2019 and to get the FBI to investigate, arguing the plan \u2018largely succeeded.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Sussmann and Joffe \u201cleaked the Alfa-Bank allegations to the\u00a0<em>New York Times<\/em>,\u201d Shaw <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/durham-sussmann-lawyers-clash-in-opening-to-trial\">continued<\/a>, but \u201cwhen that wasn\u2019t published immediately, Sussmann brought a sense of urgency to the FBI about the media being on the verge of running a story.\u201d According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/durham-sussmann-lawyers-clash-in-opening-to-trial\">prosecutors<\/a>, \u201cthe FBI getting involved would make the story \u2018more attractive\u2019 to the press\u201d and \u201cSussmann\u2019s goal was to \u2018inject\u2019 the FBI into a presidential election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not so, Sussmann\u2019s lawyer Michael Bosworth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/05\/17\/politics\/michael-sussman-john-durham-trial\/index.html\">counter<\/a>ed, telling the jury in the defense\u2019s opening argument that his client \u201chad a genuine interest in national security\u201d and was concerned about the data at a time when questions about Trump\u2019s connections to Russia were <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/charlie_savage\/status\/1526568274963603459\">swirling<\/a>. According to Sussmann\u2019s team, the Clinton campaign <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/charlie_savage\/status\/1526568274963603459\">planned<\/a> \u201cto take this new weird thing public,\u201d and they handed it to The New York Times. That\u2019s what the campaign <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/charlie_savage\/status\/1526568274963603459\">wanted<\/a>\u2014press coverage that hurt Trump and helped Clinton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe meeting with the FBI is the exact opposite of what the Clinton campaign would\u2019ve wanted,\u201d Bosworth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/05\/17\/politics\/michael-sussman-john-durham-trial\/index.html\">told<\/a> the jury, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/05\/17\/politics\/michael-sussman-john-durham-trial\/index.html\">suggesting<\/a> \u201cthe FBI quashed the news story after learning about it from Sussmann.\u201d \u201cThe FBI meeting is something they didn\u2019t authorize, they didn\u2019t direct him to do, and they didn\u2019t want him to do,\u201d Sussmann\u2019s lawyers argued. But once the Times was ready to publish the material, Sussmann called Baker \u201cto help the FBI\u201d \u201cand warn them that a story was coming,\u201d the defense <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2022\/05\/17\/politics\/michael-sussman-john-durham-trial\/index.html\">claimed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The evidence on all fronts suggests otherwise. First, emails exchanged between reporters and Peter Fritsch, a co-founder of the investigative research firm, Fusion GPS, that Perkins and Coie had hired on behalf of the Clinton campaign, indicate the Times was nowhere near \u201cready to publish the material\u201d when Sussmann handed it off to Baker on September 19, 2016.<\/p>\n<p>For instance, in one thread between Fritsch and the Times\u2019 Eric Lichtblau, bearing the subject line \u201calfa and trump\u201d and dated October 5, 2016, the duo were discussing Alfa Bank data published on Reddit, apparently by April Lorenzen. At that point, Fritsch is still telling the Times he has \u201cno idea\u201d where the material came from, but that \u201cit\u2019s either someone real who has real info or one of the donald\u2019s 400 pounders,\u201d whatever that meant. Fritsch then adds that the \u201cde vos stuff looks rank to me,\u201d in reference to the supposed communications between the Michigan health system\u2019s computer and Alfa Bank.<\/p>\n<p>Another email thread from October 18, 2016 also indicates the Times was not ready to publish the story. In that thread, Fritsch is pushing Reuter\u2019s Mark Hosenball to run the Alfa Bank story. When Hosenball told him \u201cthe problem is that the nature of the data is way above my level of competence,\u201d Fritsch responds, \u201cit\u2019s everyone\u2019s problem\u201d and then suggests he call David Dagon at Georgia Tech.<\/p>\n<p>Then, on October 31, 2016, hours before Slate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/news_and_politics\/cover_story\/2016\/10\/was_a_server_registered_to_the_trump_organization_communicating_with_russia.html\">published<\/a> the Alfa Bank story, in promoting the about-to-break news to Reuters, Fritsch wrote the \u201cUSG,\u201d meaning the \u201cUnited States government,\u201d is \u201cabsolutely investigating.\u201d This email shows Fusion GPS knew the value an FBI investigation added to a story it was pushing for the Clinton campaign.<\/p>\n<p>A second problem with Sussmann\u2019s storyline that the FBI meeting was \u201cthe exact opposite of what the Clinton campaign would\u2019ve wanted\u201d because it caused the government to quash the New York Times article flows from the fact Sussmann did not originally tell Baker the name of the outlet supposedly poised to publish the story.<\/p>\n<p>In his congressional testimony, Baker <a href=\"http:\/\/thespygateproject.org\/ocred_docs\/docs\/10.3.18_Baker_Redacted.pdf\">explained<\/a> that after he handed the Alfa Bank material off to the counterintelligence division, they wanted \u201cmore time to evaluate it before the media started publishing stuff.\u201d According to Baker, agents asked him to \u201cgo back to Sussmann and find out who in the media is going to publish this because we might want to ask them to delay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his testimony, Baker was fuzzy on the details and did not remember whether Sussmann had mentioned the media having the Alfa Bank material during their initial September 19, 2016, meeting or only later during a follow-up conversation. (If the latter, that will really throw a wrench in Sussmann\u2019s theory of defense.) <\/p>\n<p>What Baker stated unequivocally, however, was that Sussmann had not originally identified The New York Times as the outlet supposedly ready to run the story, and that it was only later when Baker followed up with Sussmann that they learned that fact. The FBI then \u201cwent to the New York Times\u201d and \u201cstarted a series of conversations with them to try to get them to slow down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>If Sussmann\u2019s goal were truly to provide the FBI with a heads-up of the impending story, as his attorneys argued yesterday, he accomplished that objective on September 19, 2016. To achieve that goal, Sussmann would have no reason to answer Baker\u2019s follow-up question concerning the name of the media outlet ready with the Alfa Bank story. In fact, as a lawyer, he would have a good reason to refuse: It was in the Clinton campaign\u2019s interest for the story to run.<\/p>\n<p>But if Sussmann instead sought to spur the media into action, sending the FBI into the arms of The New York Times proved a perfect plan, as it made the Alfa Bank story more marketable.<\/p>\n<p>Here, we see a third problem with Sussmann\u2019s line of defense: From the Steele dossier to the FISA surveillance of Carter Page, the Clinton campaign repeatedly fed the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies supposed \u201cintel\u201d on Trump, which it also peddled to the press. Then it used leaks of the government\u2019s investigation into Trump\u2019s supposed connections with Russia to drive more media coverage of the Russia collusion story.<\/p>\n<p>Yet Sussmann\u2019s legal team told the jury the FBI meeting was something the Clinton campaign \u201cdidn\u2019t authorize,\u201d \u201cdidn\u2019t direct him to do\u201d and \u201cdidn\u2019t want him to do.\u201d That line of argument presents prosecutors with the perfect opening to inform the jury of the Clinton campaign\u2019s <em>modus operandi<\/em>, and it will likely do so with the questioning of Sussmann\u2019s former legal partner Marc Elias, who is scheduled to testify later today.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Margot Cleveland is The Federalist&#8217;s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. <\/p>\n<p>Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. <\/p>\n<p>As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2019s opening arguments in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":489,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1483832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1483832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1483832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1483832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1483832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1483832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}