OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jim Jordan has a theory about who special counsel John Durham will go after next — the FBI and others connected to Hillary Clinton.
During an interview with the Washington Examiner, Jordan said he is working to expose problems with the Trump-Russia investigation and contended that Durham is just getting started with his investigation.
Last week, Russian-born analyst Igor Danchenko — key source for the Steele dossier that alleged ties between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia — was arrested by federal agents last week as part of the Durham investigation.
The most important allegations made in the Steele dossier — which was partially funded by Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the law firm Perkins Coie — have not been proven and many have been disputed by the FBI.
FBI agents interviewed Danchenko in 2017, which suggested that parts of the dossier were misleading.
Jordan said there were “three takeaways” from Durham.
“The first is that these aren’t just your typical 1001 lying to the FBI,” he said. “In other words, the Sussmann and Danchenko lies weren’t to Durham and his investigative team. They were the lies to the FBI at the start of the whole charade, at the start of the whole Trump-Russia thing.”
“So, these are lies from 2016 and 2017. I think that’s a key distinction. These are indictments from the original lies. This is not a lie. These are the lies that started the whole Russia investigation,” he added.
Jordan said: “The second thing is it’s what we’ve said all along. It was never Trump who colluded with the Russians. It was the Clinton campaign working with Russians to then get information to Christopher Steele, which then got to the FBI, and, shazam, they start this whole thing. Particularly with Danchenko, when you read that indictment, it’s like, this goes right back to Clinton. This is Dolan. This goes right back to the Clinton operatives.”
“I think maybe the third thing is, how did the FBI not know?” Jordan said. “How did they not know that when Sussmann comes in and talks to them that this was garbage about the Alfa Bank stuff and the relationship to Trump? How did they not know? Because remember, when Sussmann comes in, he doesn’t talk to just anybody at the FBI. He’s talking with Jim Baker, the chief counsel of the FBI, and he just hands him false information.”
Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan played a big role in spreading the Alfa Bank claims during the 2016 election.
When asked whether Sullivan might be scrutinized by Durham, Jordan said it looked like that was possible.
“When you read through the Danchenko indictment and you see that it’s going right back to Clinton people who were starting this whole story, I assume it’s what we always thought. It was to take the heat off of Clinton herself,” Jordan said.
“So, I don’t know for sure, but it seems like that’s where Durham is kind of pushing, and if that’s the case, then maybe he will want to talk to Sullivan, and maybe he has,” Jordan added.
