‘TRUMP RUSSIA’ DOUBTS
Smear-team skeptic
A researcher tasked by tech executive Rodney Joffe with mining online data to create a “narrative” of Trump-Russia collusion expressed doubt about the Hillary Clinton campaign-led project in an August 2016 e-mail cited by special counsel John Durham — writing at one point, “This will not fly.”
The message emerged in a motion filed late Monday, in which Durham alleged that Joffe, Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and its attorney Michael Sussmann took part in a “joint venture” to gather and spread damaging information about then-Republican nominee Donald Trump.
In the filing, Durham argued that communications between Joffe and online sleuths should be admitted as evidence in Sussmann’s upcoming trial on a charge of lying to the FBI about his work for the Clinton campaign while suggesting that the Trump Organization had ties to a Russian bank.
Looking for a story
According to prosecutors, Joffe told his subordinates that “VIPs” — a phrase Durham says refers to Sussmann, Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias and the campaign itself — were “looking for a true story that could be used as the basis for closer examination.”
“Trump has claimed he and his company have had NO dealings with .ru [Web domains] other than the failed Casino, and the Miss universe [sic] pageant,” Joffe allegedly wrote. “He claims absolutely NO interaction with any financial institutions. So any potential like that would be jackpot.”
A couple of days later, the researcher responded to Joffe that his request was all but impossible.
“[Y]ou do realize that we will have to expose every trick we have in our bag to even make a very weak association?” wrote the person, identified only as Researcher-1. “. . . [U]nless we get . . . traffic collected at critical points between suspect organizations, we cannot technically make any claims that would fly public scrutiny . . .
“Sorry to say this, we are nowhere close coming with a plan to attack this problem that will fly in the public domain. The only thing that drive us at this point is that we just do not like [Trump]. This will not fly in eyes of public scrutiny. Folks, I am afraid we have tunnel vision.”
Duo kept going
Despite the skepticism, Joffe and Sussmann pressed on, eventually drafting a “white paper” of information claiming that Trump Organization computer servers were communicating with servers at Moscow-based Alfa-Bank.
Sussmann turned over the white paper to then-FBI General Counsel James Baker on Sept. 19, 2016, after allegedly texting him that he had “time-sensitive (and sensitive)” information to discuss.
In addition to the FBI, the special counsel alleges, the allegations about Trump and Alfa-Bank were shared with State Department personnel by Christopher Steele, the former British spy who wrote the now-infamous dossier of allegations about the 45th president’s links with Russia.