{"id":1494047,"date":"2022-05-27T07:44:50","date_gmt":"2022-05-27T11:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1494047"},"modified":"2022-05-27T07:44:52","modified_gmt":"2022-05-27T11:44:52","slug":"testimony-in-durham-trial-reveals-spygate-conspirators-deceived-the-fbi-using-same-strategy-twice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/testimony-in-durham-trial-reveals-spygate-conspirators-deceived-the-fbi-using-same-strategy-twice\/","title":{"rendered":"Testimony in Durham Trial Reveals Spygate Conspirators Deceived The FBI Using Same Strategy Twice"},"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\">28<\/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%2Ftestimony-in-durham-trial-reveals-spygate-conspirators-deceived-the-fbi-using-same-strategy-twice%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=1494047&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>Tech executive Rodney Joffe fed the Alfa Bank hoax to the FBI via two distinct routes, testimony from yesterday\u2019s proceedings in the Michael Sussmann criminal case indicates. This apparent circular reporting further cements Special Counsel John Durham\u2019s Section 1001 false statement case against Sussmann by highlighting the significance of Sussmann\u2019s alleged lie to former FBI General Counsel James Baker.<\/p>\n<p>Sussmann, who is in the middle of week two of his trial in a D.C. federal court, was charged last fall in a one-count indictment with lying to Baker when he provided Baker two flash drives and several \u201cwhite papers\u201d purporting to establish the existence of a secret communication network between the Russian-based Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization.<\/p>\n<p>According to prosecutors, Sussmann lied to Baker when he claimed during their September 19, 2016, meeting that he was presenting this information to help the FBI and not on behalf of any client. In truth, though, the government maintains that Sussmann represented both the Clinton campaign and Joffe when he met with Baker and provided the supposed Alfa Bank intel.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors working for the special counsel\u2019s office closed their case-in-chief earlier this week, after presenting about a dozen witnesses. Those included Baker, who testified that he was \u201c100 percent confident\u201d that Sussmann had claimed during their September 19, 2016, meeting that he was not there \u201con behalf of any particular client.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Bill Priestap, who in September 2016 served as the assistant director of the FBI\u2019s Counterintelligence Division, and Trisha Anderson, the FBI\u2019s then-deputy general counsel, also testified. They confirmed notes they took at the time that memorialized Baker\u2019s statements to them that Sussmann had claimed he was not coming to the FBI on behalf of any client.<\/p>\n<p>Baker also testified that because Sussmann had claimed to be coming on his own behalf, Baker treated Sussmann as a confidential source and kept Sussmann\u2019s identity secret from other agents. As a result, agents investigating the supposed Trump-Alfa Bank network were kept in the dark concerning Sussmann\u2019s role in bringing the data to the FBI. Consequentially, agents were also left unaware of Joffe\u2019s role in procuring the data and whitepapers.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to claiming the Hillary Clinton campaign would not have wanted Sussmann to pass the Alfa Bank information to the FBI, Sussmann\u2019s legal team also challenged the prosecution\u2019s case by arguing that Joffe had no reason to use Sussmann to share the Alfa Bank information with the FBI. They said that was because at the time of Sussmann\u2019s meeting with Baker, Joffe was a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/05\/19\/michael-sussmann-defense-contradicts-itself-on-another-key-argument\/\">confidential human source<\/a>, or a \u201cCHS,\u201d for the FBI.<\/p>\n<p>Questioning last week by Sussmann\u2019s lawyers further indicated that in September 2016, when Sussmann was allegedly meeting with Baker on behalf of Joffe, Joffe had presented FBI Special Agent Tom Grasso a copy of the Alfa Bank whitepaper, under the presumption that Grasso served as Joffe\u2019s handler. Those questions seemingly served to counter the prosecutor\u2019s claims that Joffe used Sussmann to sidestep his handler.<\/p>\n<p>However, yesterday when the defense called Grasso to testify on behalf of Sussmann, Grasso revealed that he was not Joffe\u2019s handler. Rather, Grasso, who knew Joffe was a CHS, had a long working relationship with Joffe and believed Joffe had provided credible information in the past.<\/p>\n<p>With their questioning of Grasso, Sussmann\u2019s legal team attempted to bolster their argument that Sussmann was rightly concerned with the \u201cintel\u201d Joffe shared and thus gave it to Baker out of a concern for national security. But the plan backfired when on cross-examination Grasso revealed several facts damaging to Sussmann\u2019s defense and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/05\/23\/heres-a-play-by-play-of-the-special-counsel-criminal-case-heading-into-week-two\/\">supportive<\/a> of the prosecution\u2019s legal theory of \u201ca look, a leak, and a lie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>First, Grasso <a href=\"https:\/\/technofog.substack.com\/p\/was-rodney-joffe-involved-in-the?s=r\">testified<\/a> that \u201cin early October 2016,\u201d the tech executive had \u201ccalled Agent Grasso and provided some information on the purported ties between the Alfa Bank\/Trump Organization. Joffe further informed Agent Grasso that there was an ongoing investigation on this matter \u2013 something Agent Grasso had been unaware of up until that point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That testimony proves significant because it shows that within two weeks of Sussmann meeting with Baker, Joffe knew the FBI had launched an investigation into the Alfa Bank \u201cintel,\u201d even though FBI agents testified that they were holding the investigation \u201cclose.\u201d The only logical <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KingMakerFT\/status\/1529506598510596096\">explanation<\/a> for Joffe\u2019s knowledge is that he knew of the Alfa Bank investigation because Sussmann apprised his client that he had given the data to the FBI.<\/p>\n<p>Grasso also <a href=\"https:\/\/technofog.substack.com\/p\/was-rodney-joffe-involved-in-the?s=r\">testified<\/a> that \u201cJoffe specifically asked [Grasso] not to disclose his identity to other people in the Bureau.\u201d According to Grasso, Joffe <a href=\"https:\/\/technofog.substack.com\/p\/was-rodney-joffe-involved-in-the?s=r\">claimed<\/a> he wanted to stay anonymous because \u201cthis is very sensitive information. People\u2019s safety could be at risk.\u201d Because of that request, Grasso did not contact Joffe\u2019s handler to inform him that Joffe had provided Grasso supposed intel\u2014something Grasso testified he had done in the past when Joffe gave him information.<\/p>\n<p>Joffe\u2019s demand for anonymity with Grasso parallels the tech executive\u2019s alleged use of Sussmann to take his anonymous tip of the Alfa Bank hoax first to the FBI and then later to the CIA. It also further refutes Sussmann\u2019s argument that Joffe had nothing to gain by having Sussmann go to the FBI with the tip on his behalf: Clearly, Joffe had a motive for having others provide the Alfa Bank information to the FBI without it being connected to him, because he used his connection with Grasso to repeat the process, when Joffe could have instead provided the information directly to his handler.<\/p>\n<p>As requested, Grasso passed the Alfa Bank \u201ctip\u201d on to the agents working the case in Chicago, without informing them of Joffe\u2019s involvement in providing the data. From Chicago\u2019s perspective, then, the FBI had received two separate reports of data supposedly connecting Alfa Bank and the Trump organization. It appeared as though Agent Grasso, who was out of <a href=\"https:\/\/technofog.substack.com\/p\/was-rodney-joffe-involved-in-the?s=r\">Pittsburgh<\/a>, was working with one source and the FBI in D.C. was obtaining intel from an apparent second source, when in fact, Joffe served as the source in both cases.<\/p>\n<p>During his cross-examination of Grasso, lead prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/charlie_savage\/status\/1529500242026045441\">introduced<\/a> this theory to the jury when he asked Grasso \u201cwhether he knows what circular reporting is and whether he has ever encountered someone planting information with two different parts of the FBI so it looks corroborating.\u201d While Grasso responded that he had \u201cnever encountered that,\u201d the special counsel is sure to stress in its closing argument that the evidence suggests that is precisely what happened here. That is why it was imperative that Sussmann lie to Baker\u2014so that his client Joffe could feed the Alfa Bank theory to other parts of the FBI and thereby bolster the theory of Russia collusion.<\/p>\n<p>If this all sounds strangely familiar, it is. Christopher Steele followed the same tack when, on the condition of anonymity, he provided Yahoo! News the same \u201cintel\u201d contained in the dossier that he handed to the FBI. The FBI would then rely on the Yahoo! News reporting to seemingly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/politics\/trump-russiagate-steele-dossier\/\">confirm<\/a> the Steele dossier when the DOJ submitted FISA applications to surveil Carter Page.<\/p>\n<p>To date, it appears that Steele will be getting off Scot-free for this ploy. Whether Sussmann will also will be up to the jury, which will likely receive the case for deliberation early next week.<\/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>Tech executive Rodney Joffe fed the Alfa Bank hoax to the FBI via two distinct routes, testimony from yesterday\u2019s proceedings in the Michael Sussmann criminal case indicates. This apparent circular<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"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-1494047","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\/1494047","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\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1494047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494047\/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=1494047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1494047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1494047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}