{"id":1499370,"date":"2022-06-01T08:45:13","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T12:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1499370"},"modified":"2022-06-01T08:45:35","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T12:45:35","slug":"was-russia-collusion-server-data-pushed-in-violation-of-senate-ethics-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/was-russia-collusion-server-data-pushed-in-violation-of-senate-ethics-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Russia Collusion Server Data Pushed In Violation of Senate Ethics Rules?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><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%2Fwas-russia-collusion-server-data-pushed-in-violation-of-senate-ethics-rules%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=1499370&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 class=\"RichTextArticleBody\">\n<div class=\"RichTextArticleBody-body\">\n<div class=\"Enhancement\">\n<div class=\"Enhancement-item\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lurking behind the mountains of prosecutorial evidence presented in over 150 exhibits and testimony by nearly two dozen witnesses in the now-concluded <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/michael-sussmann-wont-testify-in-durham-trial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Michael Sussmann<\/a> trial, questions swirl about how widely the debunked <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/russia-investigation\">Trump-Russia collusion<\/a><\/u> computer data spread among <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/washington-d-c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Washington, D.C.\u2019s<\/a> most powerful committees, including the Senate Armed Services Committee in early 2017.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, a D.C. jury found Sussmann, the 57-year-old former Perkins Coie lawyer, <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/sussmann-found-not-guilty-in-blow-to-john-durhams-investigation\">not guilty of lying to the FBI<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this setback to special counsel John Durham\u2019s investigation, the public learned how a powerful attorney, in a law firm representing the Hillary Clinton campaign, deliberately bypassed protocol to get a meeting with the FBI general counsel in September 2016 to pass along the Alfa-Bank materials that Sussmann participated in preparing with the help of Fusion GPS and his client, Rodney Joffe.<\/p>\n<p><b><u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/both-sides-accuse-each-other-of-magic-tricks-in-sussmann-closing-arguments\">BOTH SIDES ACCUSE EACH OTHER OF MAGIC TRICKS IN SUSSMANN CLOSING ARGUMENTS<\/a><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n<div class=\"Enhancement\">\n<div class=\"Enhancement-item\">\n<figure class=\"Figure mb-1 mb-sm-3 mb-md-1 article-lead-photo data_invisible\" data-align=\"center\" data-image-size=\"fixed\" itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n<div class=\"Figure-container\"><source media=\"(max-width: 768px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" data-image-size=\"1060x600_md\" \/><source media=\"(max-width: 768px)\" data-image-size=\"1060x600_md\" \/><source media=\"(max-width: 1440px)\" type=\"image\/webp\" data-image-size=\"1060x600_xl\" \/><source media=\"(max-width: 1440px)\" data-image-size=\"1060x600_xl\" \/><source type=\"image\/webp\" data-image-size=\"1060x600\" \/><source data-image-size=\"1060x600\" \/><figcaption class=\"Figure-caption\" itemprop=\"caption\">\n                Michael Sussmann speaks to the media outside the federal courthouse in Washington, Tuesday, May 31, 2022 after being acquitted of lying to the FBI<br \/>\n               <\/figcaption><div class=\"Figure-credit\" itemprop=\"author\">\n                Manuel Balce Ceneta\/AP\n               <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In addition, in a surprising revelation in the two-week trial, it was revealed that Sussmann\u2019s client Joffe <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/judge-says-durham-cant-mention-joffe-being-cut-off-as-fbi-source\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was fired as a confidential human source<\/a> for the FBI in 2021. Joffe, identified as \u201cTech Executive 1,\u201d may now be a focus in Durham\u2019s investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Lingering questions remain: if, for example, Sussmann, along with Fusion GPS\u2019s Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, Daniel Jones of the Democracy Integrity Project, and Joffe, worked together to promote the same fabricated allegations of a secret communications channel between Russia\u2019s Alfa-Bank and the Trump Organization to the Senate Armed Services Committee after<i> <\/i>Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Jason Foster, president of Empower Oversight, a nonprofit group dedicated to increasing accountability for government and corporate wrongdoing, told the <i>Washington Examiner<\/i>: \u201cIt remains unclear to what extent TDIP\u2019s report allegedly produced for the Senate Armed Services Committee overlaps with the information Sussmann provided to the FBI, although they appear to be closely related. The testimony at the [Sussmann] trial has not explored that question, but it is an important one that the Senate Ethics Committee should examine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The debunked computer data \u201cwhite papers,\u201d written and assembled by Fusion GPS, Joffe, and Perkins Coie attorneys Sussmann and Marc Elias, were delivered to FBI General Counsel James Baker by Sussmann on Sept. 19, 2016, via hard copy and thumb drives.<\/p>\n<p>This opposition research, down to the thumb drives passed, <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/sussmann-billed-clinton-campaign-for-thumb-drives-he-gave-to-fbi-pushing-alfa-bank-allegations\">was paid for by the Clinton campaign<\/a><\/u> while at the same time promoted by Fusion GPS into select reporters\u2019 stories.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cwhite papers\u201d alleged a covert communications channel between Russia\u2019s Alfa-Bank and the Trump Organization. Ultimately, the FBI determined there was insufficient evidence, and Sussmann would later try to peddle the data to the CIA with no success.<\/p>\n<p>Troubling to Foster, who worked for two decades as a congressional investigator, is whether or not the Senate Armed Services Committee knowingly allowed Daniel Jones\u2019s TDIP to \u201cwork for free\u201d for a year in violation of Senate Rule XXXV, which prohibits any gift, which includes gifts of services, over $100 per year.<\/p>\n<p>On Oct. 8, 2021, three weeks after Sussmann was indicted by Durham for allegedly lying to the FBI, Foster wrote to Sen. Christopher Coons (D-DE), the Senate Ethics Committee\u2019s chairman, and Vice Chairman Sen. James Lankford (R-OK). He <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/empowr.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/2021-10-08-JF-to-Sen.-Ethics-Cmte-SASC-Complaint-Request-for-Inv.pdf\">specifically asked<\/a><\/u> if the Senate Armed Services Committee violated rules \u201cby requesting and accepting professional services from TDIP and Daniel J. Jones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Foster pointed out \u201cTDIP\u2019s research \u2026 began in 2017, continued for more than a year, involved hiring computer science experts at no cost to the Committee \u2026 [and] aimed at evaluating data that the Committee had received for alleged connections between Alfa Bank and Trump Organization servers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Foster emphasized the need for transparency, noting: \u201cThe advice we followed was to avoid accepting professional services without paying for them, even if it was related to the Committee\u2019s official business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A review by the <i>Washington Examiner<\/i> of Alfa-Bank court filings, including Jones\u2019s Aug. 18, 2021, deposition, congressional testimony, and other public documents, offers context into the relationship between TDIP and Fusion GPS.<\/p>\n<p>On the Sunday following Trump\u2019s inauguration in January 2017, Fusion\u2019s Simpson and Fritsch met with Jones. By Jan. 31, TDIP was incorporated as a new nonprofit organization. In their book, <i>Crime in Progress<\/i>, Simpson and Fritsch described how \u201cTDIP intended to tap the super-wealthy to fund work to protect the democratic system of government from a new and insidious assault.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jones, with considerable input and fundraising efforts by Simpson and Fritsch, raised $7 million in the first year, and Jones paid half of that, $3.3 million, to Bean LLC, Fusion GPS\u2019s limited liability company. TDIP also paid nearly $700,000 to discredited dossier author Christopher Steele\u2019s entity, Walsingham Partners.<\/p>\n<p>TDIP donors include George Soros, deep-pocketed Democrats in Silicon Valley, and a group tied to Tom Steyer, the California businessman-turned-failed 2020 presidential candidate.<\/p>\n<p>As TDIP\u2019s president, Jones, a former FBI analyst and former staffer to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), was paid more than $380,000. Besides TDIP, Jones also operates a for-profit firm, Penn Quarter Group, in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n<p>Jones <u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/115\/crpt\/hrpt1110\/CRPT-115hrpt1110.pdf\">told the FBI<\/a><\/u> in March 2017 that Penn Quarter Group \u201cwas being funded by 7 to 10 wealthy donors located primarily in New York and California, who provided approximately $50 million.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Foster stressed: \u201cAllowing Senate committees to accept free investigative services by an unknown group of billionaires raises potential conflict of interest issues that the Gift Rule is intended to prevent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Committees need to engage outside consultants for official business, there is a process for doing so,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;It\u2019s unclear who on the Foreign Relations Committee was aware of the arrangement for free services provided and to what extent it was officially authorized. An Ethics Committee investigation could help clear up some of those questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Apparently, nothing stopped Fusion GPS from figuring out ways to promote the Alfa-Bank narrative, with the help of TDIP.<\/p>\n<p>In the now-ended Alfa-Bank civil litigation, Jones testified how he met with the Senate Armed Services Committee\u2019s T. Kirk McConnell, at McConnell\u2019s request, in the spring of 2017 \u201cin the Senate Armed Services space \u2026 and they asked for my insights into the alleged connection between Alfa-Bank servers and Trump Organization servers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[McConnell] relayed that he had information from a trusted source about the server allegation \u2026 and the Senate Armed Services Committee was in possession of information about the server allegations.\u201c<\/p>\n<p>Jones described in his deposition how the DNS (domain name system) data was \u201calready in the hands of the committee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, Jones said: \u201cThey asked me to evaluate that information. \u2026 The next step was to meet with an individual named Michael Sussmann.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jones had multiple meetings with Michael Sussmann in the spring of 2017. Sussmann also represented Joffe.<\/p>\n<p>Curiously, Jones said Sussmann chose to refer to his client Joffe as \u201cMax\u201d or \u201cJohn Galt.\u201d But Jones said he figured out the expert was indeed Joffe. During the Sussmann trial, it was revealed that Joffe was \u201cterminated\u201d as a<b> <\/b>confidential human source for the FBI in 2021.<\/p>\n<p><b><u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/hillary-clinton-signed-off-on-sharing-debunked-alfa-bank-claims-with-the-media\">HILLARY CLINTON SIGNED OFF ON PUSHING ALFA-BANK CLAIMS TO THE MEDIA<\/a><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n<p>Jones detailed, in his August 2021 deposition, that Fusion GPS was paid $3.3 million for a \u201chefty\u201d 687-page Alfa research backgrounder that he admitted was produced \u201crather quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a key exchange in his deposition, Jones was grilled by Alfa-Bank attorney Margaret Krawiec over a TDIP report dated March 21, 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Jones claimed Fusion GPS had no knowledge that the background report that TDIP paid millions for would be included in the report he gave to the Senate Armed Services Committee for analysis sometime early to mid-2017.<\/p>\n<p>The timing is notable, as this is shortly after TDIP was created on Jan. 31, 2017, and two months later, the Fusion report had a new home.<\/p>\n<p>Was the data described in Durham\u2019s indictment of Sussmann the same data obtained and analyzed by TDIP for the Senate Armed Services Committee? Was this also part of the core research that Fusion GPS provided? As Durham&#8217;s investigation continues to unfold, this remains a mystery.<\/p>\n<p>Simpson and Fritsch bragged about what TDIP could do in their book, writing: \u201cWithout the deadline of an election \u2026 TDIP had the luxury to roam into underexplored areas while also opening up entirely new inquiries. It could bring on specialists: linguists, accountants, campaign finance nerds, Web scraping data gurus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The reality was TDIP served as another way for Fusion GPS to earn even more money in lucrative contracts than in their previous work with Perkins Coie. This would enable them to continue the amplification of the Russian collusion narrative against Trump\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n<p>Seven months after Foster sent his letter, he said: \u201cWe have received no reply or communication from anyone at the Senate Ethics Committee\u201d regarding Empower Oversight\u2019s request for an investigation. \u201cThe Ethics Committee\u2019s procedures don\u2019t require it to respond to complaints from the public like ours. However, our filing argues that a public resolution would be in the best interests of the Senate. If the Gift Rule was violated, then there should be accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b><u><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/u><\/b><\/p>\n<p>The <i>Washington Examiner<\/i> did not receive a response to questions submitted to Coons and Lankford.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lurking behind the mountains of prosecutorial evidence presented in over 150 exhibits and testimony by nearly two dozen witnesses in the now-concluded Michael Sussmann<\/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-1499370","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\/1499370","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=1499370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499370\/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=1499370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1499370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1499370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}