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Special Counsel John Durham’s team has uncovered a smoking gun text message to the FBI that indicates there was a “conspiracy” and “joint venture” to create a false narrative to saddle then-President-elect Donald Trump with a phony Russian ‘collusion’ narrative.
According to Just the News’ John Solomon, Durham, in a late Monday court filing, “revealed he has unearthed a text message showing Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann falsely told the FBI he was not working on behalf of any client when he delivered anti-Trump research.”
He also has put “the courts on notice he is prepared to show the effort to smear Donald Trump with now-disproven Russia collusion allegations was a ‘conspiracy,'” Solomon added.
His report noted further:
In a bombshell court filing late Monday night, Durham for the first time suggested Hillary Clinton’s campaign, her researchers and others formed a “joint venture or conspiracy” for the purpose of weaving the collusion story to harm Trump’s election chances and then the start of his presidency.
“These parties acted as ‘joint venturer[s]’ and therefore should be ‘considered as co-conspirator[s],'” he wrote.
Durham also revealed he has unearthed a text message showing Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann falsely told the FBI he was not working on behalf of any client when he delivered now-discredited anti-Trump research in the lead-up to the 2016 election. In fact, he was working for the Clinton campaign and another client, prosecutors say.
The contents of the text between Sussmann and then-FBI General Counsel James Baker was revealed in the late-Monday court filing by Durham’s prosecutorial team. They wrote in their filing they intend to show the courts that Sussmann provided a false story to the FBI but then told a GOP congressional investigator the truth that he was working on behalf of the Clinton campaign.
“Jim – it’s Michael Sussmann. I have something time-sensitive (and sensitive) I need to discuss,” Sussmann texted Baker on Sept. 18, 2016, according to the new court filing. “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 added that the text will be vital during trial to show that Sussmann was not being honest with 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,” said Durham’s filing. “In fact, the defendant had assembled and conveyed the allegations to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including (i) a technology executive (“Tech Executive-1”) at a U.S.-based Internet company (“Internet Company-1″), and (ii) the Clinton Campaign.”
Prosecutors noted that in congressional testimony a year later, Sussmann said he was working on behalf of his client when he approached the FBI.
“We had a conversation, as lawyers do with their clients, about client 1 needs and objectives and the best course to take for a client,” Sussmann testified in a deposition taken by then-House Intelligence Committee Republican investigative counsel Kash Patel.
“And so it may have been a decision that we came to together. I mean, I don’t want to imply that I was sort of directed to do something against my better judgment, or that we were in any sort of conflict,” Sussmann added.
In addition, Durham informed the court he also plans to present additional evidence that Sussmann worked with the Clinton campaign, tech executive Rodney Joffe, identified as Tech Executive-1, and others in a “joint venture” to push a fake story that Trump had a secret electronic backchannel to the Moscow-based and Kremlin-linked Alfa Bank as part of an effort to steal the election.
“As an initial matter, the Government expects that the evidence at trial will show that beginning in late July/early August 2016, the defendant, Tech Executive-1, and agents of the Clinton Campaign were ‘acting in concert toward a common goal,’ … namely, the goal of 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,” said Durham’s filing.
“The evidence of a joint venture or conspiracy will establish that in November 2016, soon after the Presidential election, Tech Executive-1 emailed a colleague, stating, ‘I was tentatively offered the top [cybersecurity] job by the Democrats when it looked like they’d win,'” the filing continued.
“In sum, the above evidence, public information, and expected testimony clearly establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant and Tech Executive-1 worked in concert with each other and with agents of the Clinton Campaign to research and disseminate the Russian Bank-1 allegations,” it added.
Patel, who got to the bottom of the Russian collusion hoax with then-Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), who was head of the House Intelligence Committee, told Solomon regarding Durham’s filing:
Durham has just shown the whole world what major pieces of our Russiagate investigation revealed. Hard evidence, emails and text messages, showing the Clinton Campaign, Fusion GPS, Perkins Coie, Joffe, and the media were all synced in August of 2016 pushing the false Alfa Bank server story, while also all working on the Steele Dossier matter. Durham submits all this evidence as ‘joint venture conspiracy’ under the rules of evidence.
