{"id":1489205,"date":"2022-05-24T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T11:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1489205"},"modified":"2022-05-24T09:10:44","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T13:10:44","slug":"fbi-wrongly-told-agents-russia-collusion-claims-came-from-doj-not-ex-clinton-lawyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fbi-wrongly-told-agents-russia-collusion-claims-came-from-doj-not-ex-clinton-lawyer\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI Wrongly Told Agents Russia-Collusion Claims Came From DOJ, Not Ex-Clinton Lawyer"},"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\">24<\/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%2Ffbi-wrongly-told-agents-russia-collusion-claims-came-from-doj-not-ex-clinton-lawyer%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=1489205&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--><aside class=\"single__inline-module alignleft\"><\/aside>\n<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 FBI agents probing since-debunked claims of a secret back channel between Donald Trump and a Russian bank believed that the allegations had originated with the Department of Justice \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/05\/20\/hillary-clinton-okd-sharing-trump-russia-data-campaign-manager\/\">when in fact they came<\/a> from Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann, who had shopped them to the bureau\u2019s then-general counsel days earlier.<\/p>\n<p>In the latest revelation to emerge from Sussmann\u2019s trial in DC federal court on a count of lying to the FBI, special counsel John Durham\u2019s prosecutors revealed that investigators had received an electronic communication citing a referral from the DOJ \u201con or about\u201d Sept. 19, 2016, the same day Sussmann met with James Baker, then the FBI\u2019s top lawyer.<\/p>\n<p>The document, a record of the investigation being opened by agents Curtis Heide and Allison Sands and dated Sept. 23, 2016, did not mention Sussmann as the source of the allegations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn that referral, the DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE provided the FBI with a white paper that was produced by an anonymous third party,\u201d the communication said, before adding: \u201cAccording to the white paper, a U.S.-based server that is owned by the TRUMP ORGANIZATION has been communicating with the Russian-based ALFA BANK organization in Moscow, Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The document was circulated to several top FBI officials \u2014 including Peter Strzok, who oversaw the probe of Clinton\u2019s email server as well as the Trump-Russia investigation, and was famously fired from the bureau in 2018 after the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2018\/06\/14\/texts-reveal-disgraced-fbi-agent-told-lover-well-stop-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">emergence of text messages<\/a> he sent to his colleague and mistress Lisa Page in which he vowed to help \u201cstop\u201d Trump from winning the White House.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><figcaption>Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann fell under scrutiny for lying to the FBI.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">Photo by Justin Sullivan\/Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Sands, who testified late Monday afternoon, told jurors that she believed Heide had told her the referral came from the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n<p>The error was seized on by Sussmann\u2019s defense attorney Michael Bosworth, who grilled Sands about whether Heide had lied to her \u2013 or if someone had lied to him about the source of the material.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou haven\u2019t been interviewed in that [Durham] investigation?\u201d Bosworth asked at one point. \u201cNo,\u201d Sands responded.<\/p>\n<p>Testifying for the prosecution Monday, FBI agent Ryan Gaynor revealed that bureau honchos shielded Sussmann\u2019s identity from field agents who investigated the claims of a link between Trump and Alfa Bank as part of a longstanding practice known as a \u201cclose hold.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gaynor told prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis that the decision to hide where the information was made by top leadership at the FBI before the Alfa Bank material was given to the Chicago field office.<\/p>\n<p>After the information was handed over to the Chicago squad, a more senior FBI agent at headquarters asked Gaynor, who had volunteered to \u201ctrack\u201d the investigation, to determine if the hold was affecting or hindering the investigation, he testified.<\/p>\n<p>Gaynor determined he could \u201cnot make an argument that we needed to pull the hold [reveal Sussmann as the source] at the time\u201d because they were waiting on information from the spam email company that was actually behind the supposed secret back channel between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, he testified.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/FBI-offices.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/FBI-offices.jpg\" alt=\"Prosecutors revealed that investigators had received an electronic communication citing a referral from the DOJ \" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" \/><\/a><figcaption>Prosecutors revealed that investigators had received an electronic communication citing a referral from the DOJ \u201con or about\u201d Sept. 19, 2016, the same day Sussmann met with James Baker, then the FBI\u2019s top lawyer.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">YURI GRIPAS\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Prosecutors then introduced a series of emails from agents in the Chicago field office who were investigating or overseeing the matter and requesting they be given access to the source.<\/p>\n<p>In one Oct. 3, 2016, email, agent Heide wrote to Gaynor, \u201cWe really want to interview the source of all this information. Any way we can track down who this guy is and how we\u2019re getting this information?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Supervisory Special Agent Daniel Wierzbicki followed up: \u201cAn interview with the source of information \u2026\u00a0 may allow us to understand the \u2018what\u2019 and \u2018why\u2019 of the white paper.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gaynor responded that it was being discussed at headquarters, but did not provide the identity of the source.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, he said he may have come to a different conclusion about the hold hindering the investigation if he had known Sussmann was acting as an attorney for the Clinton campaign when he turned over the information.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/michael-sussmann-ap-01-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-22379884\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/michael-sussmann-ap-01-1.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/michael-sussmann-ap-01-1.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=1535 1536w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/michael-sussmann-ap-01-1.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all 1024w, https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/05\/michael-sussmann-ap-01-1.jpg?quality=75&#038;strip=all&#038;w=512 512w\" alt=\"The document, written by agents Curtis Heide and Allison Sands and dated Sept. 23, 2016, did not mention Michael Sussmann (pictured) as the data source.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" \/><\/a><figcaption>The document, written by agents Curtis Heide and Allison Sands and dated Sept. 23, 2016, did not mention Sussmann (pictured) as the data source.<\/figcaption><figcaption><span class=\"credit\">AP Photo\/Jose Luis Magana<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>According to Gaynor, that knowledge could have \u201cimpacted the way I viewed the close hold\u201d and that it would have been more of \u201can issue on the close hold on the hinder side.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gaynor added that had he known the source was motivated by politics or someone with a business interest that overlapped with the bureau, he may not have ever volunteered to act as a point person at agency headquarters.<\/p>\n<p>During cross examination, Bosworth repeatedly tried to poke holes in Gaynor\u2019s previous statements to investigators, highlighting a number of instances in which the agent testified that he knew Sussmann was acting on behalf of the Democratic National Committee \u2014 even conflating the attorney and the DNC as the source of the information in his testimony before a grand jury.<\/p>\n<p>Sussmann is <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/09\/17\/michael-sussmann-indicted-pleads-not-guilty-in-alleged-fbi-lie\/\">charged with lying<\/a> to the FBI when he met with <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/05\/20\/hillary-clinton-lawyer-michael-sussmann-hid-more-fbi-official\/\">Baker<\/a> in September 2016 and turned over a \u201cwhite paper\u201d that showed the purported tie between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank.<\/p>\n<p>Sussmann said he was providing the information on his own when, according to prosecutors, he was working on behalf of the Clinton campaign and another client, tech executive Rodney Joffe, who told him about the bank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON \u2014 FBI agents probing since-debunked claims of a secret back channel between Donald Trump and a Russian bank believed that the allegations had originated with the Department<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":1898327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"FBI Wrongly Told Agents Russia-Collusion Claims Came From DOJ, Not Ex-Clinton Lawyer","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1489205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"FBI Wrongly Told Agents Russia-Collusion Claims Came From DOJ, Not Ex-Clinton 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