OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia witch hunt has been heating up for months, with many wanting Hillary Clinton and her allies held accountable.
Former Attorney General William Barr, who served under President Donald Trump, believes Durham has made progress in his investigation and that more damning information may come out soon.
Barr said that Durham has “dug very deep” into the origins of the FBI’s investigation into disproven claims that then-candidate Trump was colluding with Russia to interfere with the 2016 election and has uncovered “good information.”
“I think the question all along … has been that this was a campaign-dirty-trick to get the government to investigate allegations — scurrilous allegations — about Donald Trump and then leak that right before the election,” Barr said.
“And so that raises two questions: Was the Clinton campaign developing this false information and feeding it in for that purpose? And what was the FBI’s role on this?”
“It tells me that he [has] dug very deep and he has developed some good information and he thinks he can make a criminal case here,” Barr said.
The federal judge overseeing Durham’s case against former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann said on Thursday that he was “not inclined” to declare a mistrial.
Sussmann’s lawyers said they were considering moving for a mistrial in the first trial from Durham.
Last week, the judge gave Durham another victory in the trial.
Judge Cooper ruled that GPS Fusion, the research firm Clinton’s 2016 campaign hired to dig up dirt on Trump’s alleged ties to Russia, must turn over nearly two dozen emails to Durham’s team.
“Those emails – which are largely exchanges between Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman and Fusion GPS – are part of a batch that prosecutors subpoenaed last year. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper blocked prosecutors from getting 16 of those emails but allowed Durham to obtain 22,” Fox News reported.
“Cooper ruled that the 16 emails in question were protected by attorney-client privilege and attorney-work-product while the remaining 22 were not. Still, the judge ruled that those emails will not be admissible in the impending trial of Sussman – who is charged with lying to the FBI during a September 2016 meeting – because of the untimeliness of Durham’s request,” the report added.
Durham indicted Sussmann — a prominent lawyer who worked for the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign — for allegedly lying to FBI lawyer James Baker during a 2016 meeting about who he was representing when he gave information about Donald Trump and Russia to the bureau.
Sussmann’s legal team has been fighting Durham over his efforts to secure a number of documents from Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign they have claimed are protected by the attorney-client privilege.
Durham has been arguing that the campaign could not hide materials based on that claim because the materials being hidden have already been widely distributed to third parties.
Last week, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., sided with Durham and ordered the former campaign to produce the documents requested by the special counsel.
UPDATE – Durham won the first part of the fight.
Durham’s motion to compel has been granted.
“Privileged” Fusion GPS e-mails/docs will be provided to the court for in camera review.
The court will then determine whether the “privileges” apply. (Durham will get the docs.) https://t.co/sPmR8Qackg pic.twitter.com/PZTXlpVEqx
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) May 4, 2022
Fusion GPS poisoned the public with deceitful “opposition research”
And now, to keep documents from Special Counsel Durham, the Clinton Campaign tells the court Fusion GPS was providing “legal advice”
The lies are catching up to them.https://t.co/CWhrdzEH8y
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) April 20, 2022
He went on to note that evidence presented at Sussmann’s trial will indicate that in late July 2016, the Clinton attorney along with Joffe and “agents of the Clinton campaign” was “assembling and disseminating the Russian Bank-1 allegations and other derogatory information about Trump and his associates to the media and the U.S. government.”
