>>> Lawyers for Michael Sussmann, accused by Trump-era special counsel John Durham of lying to FBI in a 2016 Trump-Russia meeting, seek quick trial after prosecutors turn over evidence showing star witness recalled the meeting differently than the indictment. <<<
The Exhibit is offered to contradict how Durham characterized Baker's recollection.
Of course, defense if likely cherry-picking what to submit as an exhibit. For all we know, Baker may have subsequently clarified his recollections.
I think the times and many others have switched gears to dishonestly start saying the dosser is irrelevant to the Russian narrative... Seems they are looking for new talking points to keep that going.
I'll say this ... To keep all of this anti Trump stuff going the man must have them terrified.
TechnoFog's analysis of the latest developments in the Alfa Bank civil case against FusionGPS/Simpson, who/which have been desperately trying to withhold relevant discovery.
The title says it all:
"Special Counsel Durham found the e-mails Fusion GPS tried to hide"
It's so bad, they not only withheld emails to/from Joffe, they didn't even put them on their "Privilege list" -- Simpson's lawyers tried to pretend they didn't realize Joffe's emails were relevant to the Alfa Bank lawsuit!
Alfa only learned of their existence -- and Joffe's role -- via the Sussmann indictment by Durham!
But that means that Durham obtained the very emails that Fusion/Simpson had sought to hide from Alfa Bank -- emails Fusion still tries to claim are privileged.
It sure looks like Durham successfully pierced attorney/client privilege, or somebody voluntarily turned them over to Durham (cooperating witness/plea bargain?)
I can't help but suspect the content of those emails had something to do with Marc Elias's departure from PC this summer.
Things are clearly starting to heat up in a dramatic way.
But remember, what can be discovered and/or admitted in a civil suit between private parties is totally separate from what can be obtained and used by government investigative and prosecutorial authorities. The same materials may be available in one but not the other. Criminal cases, in that sense, offer more leeway.
1) it appears that arguing the Joffe emails are privileged, even when no attorney is even cc'd on some of the emails, rests on the assertion that Joffe (and his subordinate DNS researchers) were effectively acting as contractors for PC when they worked up the DNS data on Alfa Bank. But that's a "Catch-22" for Sussmann, who was the recipient of the Joffe DNS project. If that stuff is "work product" then it had to be on behalf of a client, and the only client left, if Joffe is pretending to be a contractor, is Hillary's campaign. But that means that in asserting work product privilege over the Alfa Bank project emails, Sussmann lied to Baker in his meeting about on whose behalf he was acting in coming forward. Alternatively, if it isn't attorney work product by a subcontractor, then the emails not even cc'd to Sussmann or any other attorney can hardly be privileged, especially when FusionGPS's lawyers did NOT put these emails on the privilege list, or turn them over for discovery! Catch-22!
Thus, Durham has the targets in a bind, and they can't get out.
2) the fact that FusionGPS's lawyers had the audacity to not even put the Joffe/DNS researcher emails on the privilege list is HUGE clue that the existence of Joffe, and how he connects the DNS records to Sussmann, Sussmann to FusionGPS, and ultimately to Hillary's campaign, was a critical line of defense that the Conspirators desperately wanted to remain intact. But what FGPS's attorneys didn't know was after they left the Joffe emails off if the privilege list and failed to turn them over to Alfa Bank's attorneys, Durham obtained access to the emails (either through court order, or a cooperating witness voluntarily handed them over.) I assume the safer route for prosecutorial purposes would be to get a court to order the piercing of the privilege claim.
But that requires Durham to show the court there was evidence of ongoing criminal activity by the client, and if Joffe's people were producing work product, the only client of Sussmann's that could have been engaged in ongoing criminality that breaks the privilege was HILLARY'S CAMPAIGN PEOPLE!!!!
Any claim it wasn't for Hillary destroys the work product privilege claim, and if it was, it's an admission that Sussmann is guilty of lying to Baker.
Piercing this firewall to find out about the role of Joffe and his minions is obviously a huge setback for the conspirators, and not just in the civil case.
Am I over reaching in the conclusion that this implies Durham has demonstrated to a court that Hillary's campaign people were engaged in ongoing criminal acts (or planning them.) Had Durham not successfully done so, he would not have had access to the Joffe, et al, emails.
The only other way Durham could get a court to allow him access -- that I can think of -- would be to show there was no privilege to begin with. But that contradicts what was asserted to the court by FGPS attorneys in the Alfa Bank civil case filing a few day ago. They can't have it BOTH ways.
I just think we can can draw some interesting inferences from what FGPS did in the civil case. The act of trying to hide the existence of Joffe and his minions working the DNS data, by pretending it isn't related to the Alfa Bank case, is a high risk maneuver, one which betokens the fact that hiding Joffe and his minions' role was a sort of "firewall" FGPS hoped would hold.
But Durham has already breached that firewall. I suspect there is no way they can stop him now.
FusionGPS claimed privilege on emails with Joffe that were not even cc'd to a Perkins Coie lawyer.
Even more astounding, FusionGPS didn't even list the emails with Joffe in the original filing of privileged communications. They claim they didn't know Joffe would have any relevant info to impart, so they skipped his emails completely.
It was only after the Sussmann indictment that Alfa's lawyers realized the significance of Joffe, whom they had not even ID'd prior to Sussmann's indictment. Now Fusion wants to claim attorney client privilege even on emails that weren't cc'd to any lawyer at all!
They are struggling to keep this info from coming to light. It must be damning.
Between the Danchenko indictments and the memos capturing the 28 July 2016 briefing to President Obama that Clinton was in the process of executing a dirty trick operation tying Trump to Russia, in CIA Director John Brennan’s own handwriting, we know that Team Clinton began a campaign in the Einter of 2015/2016 to tie the Republicans to Russia, and that the CIA Director and top two officials, at minimum, in FBI counterintelligence were aware of it NLT 28JUL2016.
How considerate of the Russian General Staff’s military intelligence directorate to begin a hacking campaign against the DNC just as they were concluding the planning phase of their dirty trick. Really leant verisimilitude to the entire scheme. I mean who would have bought into the Alfa Bank hoax or Steele Fraud if there hadn’t been actual Russian hacking? Someone from Perkins Coie ought to send those GRU colonels a thank you card for helping their scheme work. The GRU personnel that actually exist of course.
Don't forget Mark P. , It wasn't just the Alpha Bank Conspiracy, they also caught Trump red-handed requesting on live TV that Russia find Hillary's emails.
On another front, Lee Smith's article "Here Comes the Limited Hangout" is a deep dive expose of the media's willing complicity in peddling the Clinton Dossier Hoax, and their desperate attempts to distance themselves from it now that it is imploding, relying on the lame Dan Rather defense: "fake, but true."
I would love to see Durham indict Weissmann. I doubt Durham is a fan of his past lawless prosecutions and acted in one of them to have it overturned. Sidney Powell wrote in Licensed to Lie that it was Durham who challenged the Mueller/Weissmann prosecution of the 4 Merrill Lynch employees. Two of the four died in prison, the other two were eventually freed. It's time for some accountability.
Or leaked to some other member of the Media. These people are so idiotically drunk with the power we the people bequeathed them that they truly can't see that they are NOT FOOLING ANYONE with their parlor games. I mean, their were leaks everywhere and all the time by these little wretches (none now, hmmm), the Mueller team can leak a FISA application without consequence, and Comey can leak his recollections on dinner with the President without consequence, but Weismann couldn't leak his deep thoughts on the Orange Man? Yeah right.
The "Omicron variant" of the Mueller report will no doubt contain riveting details based on Weissmann's "Bizarro World" theory of Obstruction, in which he believes "corrupt purposes" may be divined by some sort of legal analysis of the suspect's "state of mind."
The only impediment the release of Weissmann's Smut report will have on Durham would be to create a public backlash if Durham were to indict Weissmann after this announcement. It would give the MSM the hook they need to characterize an indictment of Weissmann as "politically motivated" payback for having alerted the NYT to the existence of this collection of legal refuse.
A side issue: to the extent any evidence was collected via GJ, and not used in the prosecution of Manafort and others, nor in the Mueller report, is it not still covered by Rule 6e? IOW, DOJ can't release the unused GJ material w/o a judge approving it.
If so, this will be the fall-back position of all Russia Collusion True-Believers™ -- the "really bad stuff" -- the proof of Trump and Manafort's Collusion with PUTIN -- will still be hidden behind the DOJ redactions in Weissmann's report.
Hope springs eternal for such people ... including Weissmann, I suspect.
Note that the update indicates review will be done around end of January, after which it will be circulated to various DOJ components before final release.
Also note the update states DOJ "intends to release all non-exempt portions" of the document. AFAIK, anything collected by GJ and not used at trial or already released to the public in the Mueller report would be "exempt" under Rule 6e.
Thus the battle plan emerges -- Weissmann and allies will allude to "unseen evidence" prior to the release of these files to perpetuate the myth of Russia Collusion -- much like Adam Schiff's stunts for TV cameras. And after it is released, Weissmann and allies will continue the ruse by claiming the "secret sauce" that proves "crimes were committed" is hidden behind the blacked-out redacted passages!
>> https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.235638/gov.uscourts.dcd.235638.27.4.pdf <<
Durham files exhibit D in Sussmann case.
Baker interviewed for a job at Perkins Coie after leaving FBI.
Just one page of at least 9 in whatever the original doc was.
>> https://twitter.com/charlie_savage/status/1468048655500382216 <<
>>> Lawyers for Michael Sussmann, accused by Trump-era special counsel John Durham of lying to FBI in a 2016 Trump-Russia meeting, seek quick trial after prosecutors turn over evidence showing star witness recalled the meeting differently than the indictment. <<<
The Exhibit is offered to contradict how Durham characterized Baker's recollection.
Of course, defense if likely cherry-picking what to submit as an exhibit. For all we know, Baker may have subsequently clarified his recollections.
I'm pretty sure Durham has thought this issue through. This seems like it might be part of an effort to gin up public sympathy.
... and/or an effort to force him to make a decision earlier than he'd like to.
I agree he wouldn't put in the indictment statements he can't back up with evidence.
"force him to make a decision earlier than he'd like to"
That would, IMO, be wishful thinking. I don't think that will happen.
I think the times and many others have switched gears to dishonestly start saying the dosser is irrelevant to the Russian narrative... Seems they are looking for new talking points to keep that going.
I'll say this ... To keep all of this anti Trump stuff going the man must have them terrified.
sure seems like Strzok's "insurance policy" had myriad clauses..
TechnoFog's analysis of the latest developments in the Alfa Bank civil case against FusionGPS/Simpson, who/which have been desperately trying to withhold relevant discovery.
The title says it all:
"Special Counsel Durham found the e-mails Fusion GPS tried to hide"
It's so bad, they not only withheld emails to/from Joffe, they didn't even put them on their "Privilege list" -- Simpson's lawyers tried to pretend they didn't realize Joffe's emails were relevant to the Alfa Bank lawsuit!
>> https://technofog.substack.com/p/special-counsel-durham-found-the <<
Alfa only learned of their existence -- and Joffe's role -- via the Sussmann indictment by Durham!
But that means that Durham obtained the very emails that Fusion/Simpson had sought to hide from Alfa Bank -- emails Fusion still tries to claim are privileged.
It sure looks like Durham successfully pierced attorney/client privilege, or somebody voluntarily turned them over to Durham (cooperating witness/plea bargain?)
I can't help but suspect the content of those emails had something to do with Marc Elias's departure from PC this summer.
Things are clearly starting to heat up in a dramatic way.
We will see how the court reacts in the Alpha Bank civil case to Fusion with holding emails from discovery.
But remember, what can be discovered and/or admitted in a civil suit between private parties is totally separate from what can be obtained and used by government investigative and prosecutorial authorities. The same materials may be available in one but not the other. Criminal cases, in that sense, offer more leeway.
Two thoughts on this:
1) it appears that arguing the Joffe emails are privileged, even when no attorney is even cc'd on some of the emails, rests on the assertion that Joffe (and his subordinate DNS researchers) were effectively acting as contractors for PC when they worked up the DNS data on Alfa Bank. But that's a "Catch-22" for Sussmann, who was the recipient of the Joffe DNS project. If that stuff is "work product" then it had to be on behalf of a client, and the only client left, if Joffe is pretending to be a contractor, is Hillary's campaign. But that means that in asserting work product privilege over the Alfa Bank project emails, Sussmann lied to Baker in his meeting about on whose behalf he was acting in coming forward. Alternatively, if it isn't attorney work product by a subcontractor, then the emails not even cc'd to Sussmann or any other attorney can hardly be privileged, especially when FusionGPS's lawyers did NOT put these emails on the privilege list, or turn them over for discovery! Catch-22!
Thus, Durham has the targets in a bind, and they can't get out.
2) the fact that FusionGPS's lawyers had the audacity to not even put the Joffe/DNS researcher emails on the privilege list is HUGE clue that the existence of Joffe, and how he connects the DNS records to Sussmann, Sussmann to FusionGPS, and ultimately to Hillary's campaign, was a critical line of defense that the Conspirators desperately wanted to remain intact. But what FGPS's attorneys didn't know was after they left the Joffe emails off if the privilege list and failed to turn them over to Alfa Bank's attorneys, Durham obtained access to the emails (either through court order, or a cooperating witness voluntarily handed them over.) I assume the safer route for prosecutorial purposes would be to get a court to order the piercing of the privilege claim.
But that requires Durham to show the court there was evidence of ongoing criminal activity by the client, and if Joffe's people were producing work product, the only client of Sussmann's that could have been engaged in ongoing criminality that breaks the privilege was HILLARY'S CAMPAIGN PEOPLE!!!!
Any claim it wasn't for Hillary destroys the work product privilege claim, and if it was, it's an admission that Sussmann is guilty of lying to Baker.
Piercing this firewall to find out about the role of Joffe and his minions is obviously a huge setback for the conspirators, and not just in the civil case.
Am I over reaching in the conclusion that this implies Durham has demonstrated to a court that Hillary's campaign people were engaged in ongoing criminal acts (or planning them.) Had Durham not successfully done so, he would not have had access to the Joffe, et al, emails.
The only other way Durham could get a court to allow him access -- that I can think of -- would be to show there was no privilege to begin with. But that contradicts what was asserted to the court by FGPS attorneys in the Alfa Bank civil case filing a few day ago. They can't have it BOTH ways.
Catch-22.
In fact Durham doesn't care what happens in the Alfa Bank civil suit. It makes no difference to his GJ case.
Yup. I get that.
I just think we can can draw some interesting inferences from what FGPS did in the civil case. The act of trying to hide the existence of Joffe and his minions working the DNS data, by pretending it isn't related to the Alfa Bank case, is a high risk maneuver, one which betokens the fact that hiding Joffe and his minions' role was a sort of "firewall" FGPS hoped would hold.
But Durham has already breached that firewall. I suspect there is no way they can stop him now.
It sure seems so.
Filing in Alfa civil case:
>> https://twitter.com/RyanM58699717/status/1466892469744934919 <<
FusionGPS claimed privilege on emails with Joffe that were not even cc'd to a Perkins Coie lawyer.
Even more astounding, FusionGPS didn't even list the emails with Joffe in the original filing of privileged communications. They claim they didn't know Joffe would have any relevant info to impart, so they skipped his emails completely.
It was only after the Sussmann indictment that Alfa's lawyers realized the significance of Joffe, whom they had not even ID'd prior to Sussmann's indictment. Now Fusion wants to claim attorney client privilege even on emails that weren't cc'd to any lawyer at all!
They are struggling to keep this info from coming to light. It must be damning.
Don't worry. Durham had this stuff long ago.
... which suggests one reason why the Weissmann Dossier is suddenly getting lots of press.
>> https://twitter.com/RyanM58699717/status/1466888661413343235 <<
>> https://twitter.com/RyanM58699717/status/1466897199518863364 <<
Between the Danchenko indictments and the memos capturing the 28 July 2016 briefing to President Obama that Clinton was in the process of executing a dirty trick operation tying Trump to Russia, in CIA Director John Brennan’s own handwriting, we know that Team Clinton began a campaign in the Einter of 2015/2016 to tie the Republicans to Russia, and that the CIA Director and top two officials, at minimum, in FBI counterintelligence were aware of it NLT 28JUL2016.
How considerate of the Russian General Staff’s military intelligence directorate to begin a hacking campaign against the DNC just as they were concluding the planning phase of their dirty trick. Really leant verisimilitude to the entire scheme. I mean who would have bought into the Alfa Bank hoax or Steele Fraud if there hadn’t been actual Russian hacking? Someone from Perkins Coie ought to send those GRU colonels a thank you card for helping their scheme work. The GRU personnel that actually exist of course.
Don't forget Mark P. , It wasn't just the Alpha Bank Conspiracy, they also caught Trump red-handed requesting on live TV that Russia find Hillary's emails.
And when pray tell are the Russians actually going to find and publish these e-mails? It’s been over 5.5 years.
On another front, Lee Smith's article "Here Comes the Limited Hangout" is a deep dive expose of the media's willing complicity in peddling the Clinton Dossier Hoax, and their desperate attempts to distance themselves from it now that it is imploding, relying on the lame Dan Rather defense: "fake, but true."
>> https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/limited-hangout-lee-smith <<
I would love to see Durham indict Weissmann. I doubt Durham is a fan of his past lawless prosecutions and acted in one of them to have it overturned. Sidney Powell wrote in Licensed to Lie that it was Durham who challenged the Mueller/Weissmann prosecution of the 4 Merrill Lynch employees. Two of the four died in prison, the other two were eventually freed. It's time for some accountability.
Any significant facts would have been published by the NYTimes long ago.
Or leaked to some other member of the Media. These people are so idiotically drunk with the power we the people bequeathed them that they truly can't see that they are NOT FOOLING ANYONE with their parlor games. I mean, their were leaks everywhere and all the time by these little wretches (none now, hmmm), the Mueller team can leak a FISA application without consequence, and Comey can leak his recollections on dinner with the President without consequence, but Weismann couldn't leak his deep thoughts on the Orange Man? Yeah right.
That's my view. If it wasn't in the Mueller Dossier it probably woulda been leaked long ago.
The pathetic nature of the actual Team Mueller indictments is a reliable measure of how little of anything they found after all that digging.
The "Omicron variant" of the Mueller report will no doubt contain riveting details based on Weissmann's "Bizarro World" theory of Obstruction, in which he believes "corrupt purposes" may be divined by some sort of legal analysis of the suspect's "state of mind."
The only impediment the release of Weissmann's Smut report will have on Durham would be to create a public backlash if Durham were to indict Weissmann after this announcement. It would give the MSM the hook they need to characterize an indictment of Weissmann as "politically motivated" payback for having alerted the NYT to the existence of this collection of legal refuse.
A side issue: to the extent any evidence was collected via GJ, and not used in the prosecution of Manafort and others, nor in the Mueller report, is it not still covered by Rule 6e? IOW, DOJ can't release the unused GJ material w/o a judge approving it.
If so, this will be the fall-back position of all Russia Collusion True-Believers™ -- the "really bad stuff" -- the proof of Trump and Manafort's Collusion with PUTIN -- will still be hidden behind the DOJ redactions in Weissmann's report.
Hope springs eternal for such people ... including Weissmann, I suspect.
court docs and update from DOJ on the Weissmann Material:
>> https://twitter.com/walkafyre/status/1466816390745178112 <<
Note that the update indicates review will be done around end of January, after which it will be circulated to various DOJ components before final release.
Also note the update states DOJ "intends to release all non-exempt portions" of the document. AFAIK, anything collected by GJ and not used at trial or already released to the public in the Mueller report would be "exempt" under Rule 6e.
Thus the battle plan emerges -- Weissmann and allies will allude to "unseen evidence" prior to the release of these files to perpetuate the myth of Russia Collusion -- much like Adam Schiff's stunts for TV cameras. And after it is released, Weissmann and allies will continue the ruse by claiming the "secret sauce" that proves "crimes were committed" is hidden behind the blacked-out redacted passages!
Secret evidence, comrades! Trust us!
>> https://twitter.com/HansMahncke/status/1466631604986683393 <<
Echos my take: the timing of this is suspect. It didn't just suddenly jump out from behind a filing cabinet and was discovered by a janitor.
Somebody, or plural, is/are worried about something, and that something is Durham.