Special Counsel John Durham unveiled new text message evidence Monday night, revealing a Clinton campaign attorney lied to the FBI in an attempt to smear former President Trump.
QUICK FACTS:
- Special Counsel John Durham unveiled new smoking gun evidence Monday night, revealing text messages showing Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann lied to the FBI in an effort to smear Donald Trump with now-disproven Russia collusion allegations.
- In a court filing Monday night, Durham suggested for the first time that Hillary Clinton’s campaign, her investigators, and others formed a “joint venture or conspiracy” to manufacture a story of collusion to hinder Trump’s election and subsequent presidency.
- “These parties acted as ‘joint venturers’ and therefore should be ‘considered as co-conspirators,'” Durham wrote.
- Durham also claimed the message from Sussman falsely informed the FBI that he was not working on behalf of any client when he delivered the fake Trump-Russia collusion information, when he was in fact working for the Clinton campaign and another client.
- “Jim – it’s Michael Sussman, I have something time-sensitive (and sensitive) I need to discuss,” Sussman texted former FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016. “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.”
- Prosecutors claim the text message will become central evidence in the trial to reveal Sussman lied to the FBI.
SPECIAL COUNSEL JOHN DURHAM ON CLINTON CAMPAIGN ATTORNEY LYING TO 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 said.
BACKGROUND:
- In April 2022, Durham issued trial subpoenas for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Fusion GPS, and Perkins Coie during his prosecution of Sussmann for lying to the FBI.
- Durham, who was tasked in March 2019 with reviewing the origins of the 2016-2017 FBI investigation of the Trump and Russia “collusion” story, said his investigation led him to believe that the groups played a coordinating role in pushing the false claims.
- The groups, according to Durham, were “meeting to agree on the express goal of a joint venture is precisely what happened here, on more than one occasion.”
- “The parties agreed to conduct work in the hope that it would benefit the Clinton Campaign, namely, gathering and disseminating purportedly derogatory data regarding Trump and his associates’ internet activities,” he said.
- In September 2021, Sussman was accused of lying to the FBI when he claimed to have information about an alleged secret communications channel between Trump and a Russian bank, claims that turned out to be false.
- Sussman allegedly told former FBI General Counsel James Baker in October 2016 that he was not representing any client, while he was privately billing the Clinton campaign at the time.
