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WASHINGTON - The attorney who sparked an FBI investigation into since-debunked claims of a secret back channel between Donald Trump and a Russian bank billed Hillary Clinton’s campaign on the day he met with an FBI official. Attorney Michael Sussman’s expense reports were admitted into evidence in court Tuesday before the prosecution rested its case against the lawyer, who’s on trial for lying to the FBI during the meeting. Sussman had turned over “white papers” and other data on rumors of the since debunked tie between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank in 2016 while not revealing he was working...

The defense for a Democratic attorney accused of lying to the FBI hammered away Tuesday at the prosecution, arguing that the FBI probe the lawyer triggered with his Trump-Russia allegations was so shoddy and haphazard that any falsehood uttered by the attorney would not have affected the Russia investigation. Lawyers for former Perkins Coie partner Michael Sussmann maintain he did not lie to the FBI when he allegedly claimed he wasn’t acting on behalf of any client while giving the FBI data and reports suggesting that a secret server connected to Donald Trump was in communication with another computer controlled...

Prosecutors in the criminal trial of former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann are expected to introduce their most important piece of evidence this week, a billing record for the defendant’s 2016 meeting with the FBI to pitch anti-Trump dirt. Court watchers say waiting until later in the trial to show jurors a smoking gun in the case is the right call. “My speculation is that they are saving the billing record for the bolo punch at the end. The bigger risk is introducing it earlier in the trial and the jury won’t remember what it’s about,” said Andrew Leipold,...

Today we saw some important testimony in the Michael Sussmann case. First, Rodney Joffe, an FBI confidential human source, went around his FBI handler to relay dubious Alfa Bank information to a friend at the FBI. Second, there were indications that Joffe previously worked on Russia cyber security matters. This leads us to ask whether Joffe was in some way involved in the Trump/Russia investigation. More on that below. The testimony of retired FBI Agent Tom Grasso. Grasso, a witness for Sussmann, was a Special Agent with the FBI whose “primary responsibility involved investigating cyber crimes.” He was part of...

Today in the Michael Sussmann trial, we received additional information regarding the FBI leadership’s involvement in the opening – and execution – of the Alfa Bank/Trump investigation. This included FBI Headquarters not approving an FBI agent’s repeated requests to interview the sources of the Alfa Bank “materials.” But first we’ll start with the examination of Trisha Anderson. Anderson is currently the Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel. Back in 2016, she was an FBI deputy general counsel and reported directly to then-FBI general counsel James Baker. The purpose of her testimony was to prove-up her notes...

Another Mistake FBI agent Curtis Heide was asked by prosecutors about a communication drafted by him and fellow agent Allison Sands on Sept. 23, 2016, that stated “the DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE provided the FBI with a white paper that was produced by an anonymous third party.” FBI agent Curtis Heide was asked by prosecutors about a communication drafted by him and fellow agent Allison Sands on Sept. 23, 2016, that stated “the DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE provided the FBI with a white paper that was produced by an anonymous third party.” “That’s a mistake in our paperwork,” Heide said of the...

On Sept. 21, 2016, two days after Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann gave then-FBI General Counsel James Baker info about a supposed digital back channel between the Trump Organization and Moscow-based Alfa Bank, agent Joe PIENTKA texted colleague Curtis Heide: “People on 7th floor to include Director are fired up about this server.” Snip “Did you guys open a case? Reachout [sic] and put tools on?” Pientka asked. “If not I will call Dan as Priestap says its [sic] not an option – we must do it.” Later in the day, PIENTKA told Heide that a unit would be...

The Clinton campaign is postponing a fundraiser in North Carolina for unexplained reasons, while Hillary Clinton remains absent from the campaign trail. Hillary Clinton postponed a lunch fundraiser in Chapel Hill with some of the state’s wealthiest and most prominent Democrats. No reason was given for postponement of the Clinton event, according to CBS North Carolina. It was expected to take place at the home of Betty Craven and Michael Warner. The event was billed as “lunch with Hillary Rodham Clinton” and costs ranged from $2,700 to $100,000.

The trial of Michael Sussmann began another week on Monday, with more witnesses being called as Special Counsel John Durham continues to build his case against the former Hillary Clinton lawyer. Sussmann is charged with lying to the FBI, something he allegedly did when he hid who he was working for while sharing the now-debunked Alfa-Bank story. That disinformation campaign, which was meant to falsely assert Donald Trump was colluding with the Russians during the 2016 election, has now been directly tied to Hillary Clinton during the trial after it was revealed that she approved its dissemination. But apparently, Sussmann...

There was previously no known connection between the special counsel and the government’s investigation into the 2016 Democratic National Committee hack. The U.S. Department of Defense tasked the same Georgia Tech researcher embroiled in the Alfa Bank hoax with investigating the “origins” of the Democratic National Committee hacker, according to an email first obtained by The Federalist on Wednesday. That email also indicates the special counsel’s office is investigating the investigation into the DNC hack and that prosecutors harbor concerns about the DOD’s decision to involve the Georgia Tech researcher in its probe. The special counsel branded this person “Researcher-1”...

The Russia-Trump collusion narrative of 2016 and beyond was a dirty trick for the ages, and now we know it came from the top—candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. That was the testimony Friday by 2016 Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook in federal court, and while this news is hardly a surprise, it’s still bracing to find her fingerprints on the political weapon. Mr. Mook testified as a witness in special counsel John Durham’s trial of Michael Sussmann, the lawyer accused of lying to the FBI. In September 2016, Mr. Sussmann took claims of a secret Trump connection to Russia’s Alfa Bank...

Kash Patel, a former top House Intelligence Committee aide, said he believes special counsel John Durham has figured out the "insurance policy" discussed by leading FBI officials in the heat of the 2016 presidential election. A text message sent by FBI agent Peter Strzok to then-FBI lawyer Lisa Page in August 2016 mentioning an "insurance policy" is integral to what Republican investigators have long suspected to be part of a so-called plot to undermine then-candidate Donald Trump — a view rejected by ex-top FBI brass involved in the matter. Strzok and Page, who were romantically linked, have filed separate lawsuits...

Newly released notes taken by high-level Department of Justice (DOJ) officials during a March 6, 2017, meeting with FBI leadership expose some of the lengths the FBI engaged in to cover up its spying on the 2016 campaign of President Donald Trump. The notes were released on May 8 by lawyers representing former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann as part of an effort to clear him on charges of having lied to the FBI. The notes, in reality, appear to do little to exonerate Sussmann but do provide quite a bit of information on the FBI. The meeting at...

Bombshell testimony that Hillary Clinton personally authorized giving a reporter since-debunked data about Donald Trump and Russia was part of a chess-like maneuver to “protect the queen,” a former US Justice Department official told The Post. Jim Trusty said former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook’s revelation Friday, which he quickly tried to walk back, actually meshed with other testimony in which Mook and former campaign general counsel Marc Elias both said they were unaware campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann planned to also provide the information to the FBI. Both men said they would have objected to the move if they’d known....

Hillary Clinton's former campaign manager, Robby Mook, made news when he told a court on Friday that Hillary personally signed off on sharing debunked allegations linking Donald Trump and the Kremlin-backed Alfa-Bank with the media in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. Mook was a witness at the trial of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, who has been indicted by Justice Department special counsel John Durham on charges that he lied to the bureau's general counsel to hide his connection to the Clinton campaign. Mook testified that he and others at the Clinton campaign "weren't totally confident" regarding...

Sussmann trial testimony confirms earlier CIA, FBI evidence that Hillary Clinton approved dirtying up Trump with unproven Russia allegations. In an era where the hunt for disinformation has become a political obsession, Hillary Clinton has mostly escaped having to answer what role she played in spreading the false Russia collusion narrative that gripped America for nearly three years. On Friday, that dodge ended with a most unlikely witness: her former campaign manager Robby Mook, who was supposed to be a witness helping the defense of her former campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann on a charge of lying to the FBI. Instead,...

Yesterday morning we saw the continued testimony of former FBI general counsel James Baker and Hillary Clinton Campaign manager Robby Mook. (As we previously observed, Mook had already admitted to being briefed on “general updates concerning” Fusion GPS findings - though he has denied knowing who Fusion GPS was.) I’m traveling this weekend and can’t do the deepest dive into yesterday’s testimony - including that of the CIA agent in the afternoon session - but here are the highlights from Baker and Mook. The Baker examination, continued. Baker testified that Sussman did not notify him that the discredited Trump-Russia Alfa...

Listen to this article 0:00 / 4:37 1X BeyondWords Special Counsel John Durham on Thursday requested controversial former New York Times reporter Eric Lichtblau should be forced to answer all questions posed to him during the trial of former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann despite the journalist’s request to limit the scope of queries. "If Lichtblau takes the witness stand at trial, the Court should require him to answer all relevant questions posed to him that fall within the scope of his direct testimony, the criminal charge, or his credibility and reliability," Durham wrote in a response to Lichtblau’s...

There is a federal court ruling late today regarding mail-in ballots here in Pennsylvania but first... The US Forest Service announcing a temporary halt to controlled burns. The move comes after the service ignited New Mexico's largest wildfire ever during a controlled burn... Joe Biden's approval rating hits a new rock bottom... The Democrat controlled January 6th Committee met with former lawyer for President Trump former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani... Syria Says Three Dead In Israeli Strike Near Damascus... A federal judge ruling against the Biden Administration on its controversial plan to roll back Title 42 designed to control...

Elon Musk called out an old Hillary Clinton tweet as a “hoax” Friday after a Twitter user flagged it for misleading disinformation and was ignored. The tweet, written Oct. 31, 2016 during Clinton’s failed presidential campaign, is a statement issued in response to a news report about an alleged secret server at Trump Tower that was being used to covertly communicate with Russia. “Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank,” Clinton wrote in the tweet alongside the statement issued by one of her then-top aides, Jake Sullivan. A Twitter user tagged...