Category Archives: Presidential campaign

The Pandora Papers are Exposing Corruption of World Leaders

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A HUGE hat tip to the investigative journalists over the intensive and dedicated work on exposing tax evaders and money laundering across the globe.The Big Picture: Real estate in some of the world’s most coveted neighborhoods is owned by anonymous companies registered in notoriously secretive jurisdictions, like the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

Behind many of these offshore firms are political elites — including heads of state — who are often trying to avoid taxes or, in some cases, launder money.

?? Dictator’s Family in London: Family and close associates of Azerbaijan’s president — including his teenage children — secretly purchased $700 million worth of London real estate. Read more.

?? Czech PM in France: Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš set up a British Virgin Islands company in 2009 that secretly loaned €15 million to other shell companies he owned in the U.S. and Monaco. The money was eventually used to buy luxury French real estate. Read More.

?? Zelensky’s Offshore Network: Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, who won Ukraine’s presidency on an anti-corruption platform, was co-owner of an offshore network. Even now, his family appears to still be able to profit from one of the companies. Read More.

?? Russian Money in Croatia: The family of a wealthy Croatian tycoon with ties to Vladimir Putin secretly took over a real estate developer. The family then funnelled suspicious funds from a Russian pipeline company to this real estate firm, using an opaque trust. Read More.

?? Kazakh Oligarchs and a ‘Tokal’: Two oligarchs are linked to $30 million worth of transfers to the alleged unofficial third wife (or tokal) of Kazakhstan’s former president, who remains arguably the most powerful man in the country. Read More.

?? Serbian PEP’s Properties: When our Serbian colleagues reported that Siniša Mali, then the mayor of Belgrade, had bought 24 properties on Bulgaria’s coast, he denied the allegations and offered a challenge: “If you determine I’m the owner of these apartments, they’re all yours…”

Well, the Pandora Papers prove he is the properties’ owner, without a shadow of doubt. We’re still waiting for the keys. Read More.

Other finds in the data: ?? A Slovenian cosmetics fraudster.

PANDORA PAPERS FROM PARTNERS

OCCRP was one of 150 media outlets to investigate leaked documents from 14 service providers. Here are some highlights from our colleagues outside of the OCCRP network. 

?? Tony Blair’s Taxes: Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife saved hundreds of thousands of pounds in property taxes when acquiring a London office building from an offshore company. Read more in the Guardian.

?? Kenyan Dynasty: The family of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta secretly owned a web of offshore companies in Panama and the BVI. Read more in Finance Uncovered. 

?? Pakistan PM’s Inner Circle: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has surrounded himself with people who have secret holdings hidden offshore. Read more in ICIJ. 

?? King of Jordan in the U.S. and U.K.: Jordan’s long-ruling monarch King Abdullah II has secretly owned 14 luxury homes in the U.K and the U.S., which he purchased through front companies registered in notorious tax havens. Read more in ICIJ.

? Latin American PEPs: One of Central America’s most prestigious law firms, Alcogal, set up offshore companies for 160 politicians and public officials — including some accused of looting their own countries. Read more at ICIJ.

IMPACT & RESPONSES

?? Pakistan: Prime Minister Khan welcomed the Pandora Papers in a tweet, vowing to investigate citizens named in the investigation.

?? Czech Republic: The Czech national police announced they will “act upon” the Pandora Papers’ revelations into the prime minister, who is up for reelection this week.

?? Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka’s anti-corruption commission will reportedly investigate the assets of any politician named in the Pandora Papers, which includes ex-minister Nirupama Rajapaksa.

Find more impact at ICIJ

The U.S. government has long condemned prominent offshore financial centers, where liberal rules and guarantees of discretion have drawn oligarchs, business tycoons and politicians.

But a burgeoning American trust industry is increasingly sheltering the assets of international millionaires and billionaires by promising levels of protection and secrecy that rival or surpass those offered in overseas tax havens. That shield, which is near-absolute, has insulated the industry from meaningful oversight and allowed it to forge new footholds in U.S. states.

Explore the latest stories in our groundbreaking Pandora Papers investigation:

Useful Details/Laws about the Migrant Chaos at the Southern Border

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As a primer:

America’s Founders were concerned about invasion. It was mentioned it four times in the Constitution, though the term was never explicitly defined.

Article I, Section 8, Paragraph 15: The Congress shall have the Power (to) provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 2: The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.

Article I, Section 10, Paragraph 3: No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

Article IV, Section 4, Paragraph 1: The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestics Violence.

So, as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Mayorkas admits at least 13,000 Haitians were admitted into the United States to clear Del Rio, no one can deny this is an invasion. Further, that number only refers to those under that bridge in Del Rio, it does not include the 1.2 million that already passed into the United States or the unknown number of ‘gotaways’. Miles and miles of other parts of the Southern border goes unprotected or managed due to the overwhelming volume.

In June of 2021, Congressman Jody Arrington (R-TX) introduced legislation that further explains the lawlessness that Congress must address.

H.J.Res.50 – Recognizing that Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution explicitly reserves to the States the sovereign power to repel an invasion and defend their citizenry from the overwhelming and “imminent danger” posed by paramilitary, narco-terrorist cartels who have seized control of our southern border.

Read the proposed legislation here. 

Of course under Speaker Nancy Pelosi there will be no movement to this legislation or others in the pipeline.

Even more crazy is the fact that the Haitians were already given residency status in several countries in Latin America going back to as far as 2010, directly after the earthquake.

After the earthquake of 2010, thousands of Haitians began migration to the country, in hopes of finding a new life. According to Atlanta Blackstar, the United Nations reported “an unprecedented number of people displaced from their homes—one in 113 people in the world—migration and asylum has once again come under the spotlight.”

In 2015, the Brazilian government granted residency to almost 44, 000 Haitians. source

Haitians Flee To Brazil To Escape Getty Images

In part from an NBC affiliate: Most of the Haitians already had refugee status in Chile or Brazil but were not seeking the same from Mexico, according to Mexico’s foreign relations secretary, Marcelo Ebrard. “What they are asking for is to be allowed to pass freely through Mexico to the United States,” Ebrard said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued a stark warning during a news conference Monday. “If you come to the United States illegally, you will be returned, your journey will not succeed, and you will be endangering your life and your family’s life,” he said. The DHS says some who are being released are given legal documents summoning them to a court date.

“Individuals who are not immediately repatriated are either placed in Alternatives to Detention, detained in an ICE facility, or released with a legal document (either a Notice to Appear in court or a notice to report to an ICE office for further immigration processing),” DHS spokesman Eduardo Maia Silva told Sinclair Broadcast Group in an emailed statement. (this obviously has turned out to be a lie)

 

 

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“The reason Haitian migrants discard their Chilean and Brazilian ID cards over here on the Mex side is to obscure from asylum reviewers that they were already safely and prosperously situated for years and years before coming for the American upgrades,” explained Bensman.

Fox News journalist Bill Melugin also published photographs of documents discarded by the migrants, and among the findings, he discovered that some of them had already been processed by the United States.

 

It should be recalled that according to the Daily Mail, a recent report by the DHS Office of Inspector General found that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) does not have the resources to assess the health of migrants entering its custody and relies on public health systems in surrounding cities to do so.

“Without stronger COVID-19 prevention measures in place, DHS is putting its workforce, support staff, communities, and migrants at greater risk of contracting the virus,” wrote the DHS Office of Inspector General. source

Now back to that pesky Constitution…right? Not for anyone part of the Biden administration.

Joe and Hunter Sought Deal in Libya Email Evidence Shows

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Mohammed al Rahbani, an Obama donor was a member of the team in the plot to recover frozen assets of Muammar Gaddafi. The email evidence was obtain outside the scope of those found on the infamous Hunter laptop. The retainer was valued at $2 million plus a percentage of what assets were successfully recovered. (remember Hillary in this plot too)

Exactly what the FBI really has in possession has to be in volumes beyond imagination.

“Per phone conversation I met with #2 son, he wants $2 per year retainer… his dad is deciding to run or not,” wrote Jauhari.

He described Hunter’s “positives” as being chairman of the UN World Food Program and being a business partner of “SOS J. Forbes K.’s son”. Forbes is the middle name of John Kerry, and Hunter has been linked to Christopher Heinz, the former Massachusetts senator’s stepson-through-marriage to ketchup heiress Teresa Heinz-Kerry.

“Hillary Clinton had Muammar Qaddafi, the head of Libya, killed for reasons nobody ever explained… and then money from the [Tripoli] treasury was impounded.”

“If Hunter Biden was actually lobbying the U.S. government while his dad was vice president to get that money, that’s a very big deal. It’s probably a crime,” he said. source

And China is bigger than what has been reported.

“He wants to hire his own people – it can be close circle of people for confidentiality. His dad is deciding to run or not.”

Jauhari continued: “His positives are he is Chairman of UN World Food Program, son of #2 who has Libya file, access to State, Treasury, business partner SofS [Secretary of State] J. [John] Forbes K [Kerry] son and since he travels with dad he is connected everywhere in Europe and Asia where M. Q. [Muammar Qaddafi] and LIA [Libya Investment Authority] had money frozen. He said he has access to highest level in PRC [China], he can help there.” He added: “His negatives are that he is alcoholic, drug addict – kicked [out] of U.S. Army for cocaine, chasing low class hookers, constantly needs money-liquidity problems and many more headaches. We should meet in Gstraad or London to decide next steps.”

It should be noted Hunter Biden was discharged from the U.S. Navy Reserve, not the Army.

The outlet cited “two people close to the negotiations” who said “$2” meant $2 million for Hunter Biden, though the report said it does not appear that a deal with Hunter was ever worked out. The report also said other documents showed Jauhari and his cohorts wanted to keep up to 5% of whatever Libyan funds they could unlock, which would have meant tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

HUNTER HOLDS STAKE IN CHINESE FIRM SANCTIONED BY U.S.

The Chinese government was apparently a longtime obstacle to unlocking Libya’s billions in frozen assets. Mustafa Abdel Jalil, then the head of Libya’s National Transitional Council, said in 2011 that “China is obstructing the release of Libya’s frozen assets.” The Diplomat reported in 2019 that China “has not helped the Libyan government’s efforts to unfreeze financial assets.”

In his memoir, Beautiful Things, Hunter Biden wrote that in 2013, then-Vice President Joe Biden asked his son’s teenage daughter to join him on Air Force Two to Japan and then to Beijing, where he was meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Hunter said he tagged along.

At the time, Hunter Biden worked with Devon Archer at Rosemont Seneca, and “our deal with the biggest potential was a partnership with a Chinese private equity fund seeking to invest Chinese capital in companies outside the country,” he wrote.“While we were in Beijing, Dad met one of Devon’s Chinese partners, Jonathan Li, in the lobby of the American delegation’s hotel, just long enough to say hello and shake hands.”

When Patrick Ho, one of Chinese energy tycoon Ye Jianming’s lieutenants, was charged by the Justice Department in 2017, the first call he reportedly made after his arrest was to Joe Biden’s brother James, who said he thought the call was meant for Hunter Biden.

Ho was indicted and convicted for his role in a global money laundering and bribery scheme. Ho, likely under FISA surveillance at one point, tried reaching out to Joe Biden’s son for help because he agreed to represent Ho as part of his efforts to work out a liquefied natural gas deal worth tens of millions of dollars with CEFC China Energy leader Ye, who has since disappeared in China.

In 2017, Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden’s, worked with him and others to create a business dubbed Sinohawk to establish a joint venture with CEFC. Bobulinski repeatedly expressed in 2017 messages that he expected the venture to get off the ground with $10 million in startup money from CEFC. A Senate GOP report concluded that millions of dollars were sent by CEFC to accounts linked to Hunter Biden instead.

Hunter Biden still holds a 10% equity stake in Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company, according to Chinese business records.

The Chinese investment firm has invested in Chinese Communist Party-linked firms the United States has sanctioned, including a technology company accused of assisting in human rights abuses against the Uyghurs and a nuclear company that allegedly conspired to acquire U.S. nuclear technology to benefit China’s military.

Jauhari’s LinkedIn states he is the manager of Gulf Facilities Contracting and Trading, which does business in places such as Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, and Libya. FEC records indicate he gave more than $80,000 to the Obama campaign in 2012, roughly $30,000 to the Democratic National Committee, tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic state parties and congressional campaigns, and $2,700 to Hillary for America in 2015.

Rahbani’s LinkedIn indicates he is the chairman at Safid, an air distribution systems company in Riyadh.

U.S. election law prohibits foreign nationals from donating to federal campaigns, but prosecutors said Rahbani and a business associate gave Imaad Zuberi $850,000 to donate to President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection inauguration. Zuberi only donated $97,500 of it to Obama before pocketing the rest for himself.

Rahbani spoke in the past about his support for Obama and pulled pictures of himself with the former president and Joe Biden at a 2013 inaugural event down from his website after Zuberi pleaded guilty.

Zuberi, a California venture capitalist and campaign fundraiser who worked to gain influence with prominent Republicans and Democrats, including former President Donald Trump and now-President Joe Biden, was sentenced to a dozen years in prison for illegal donations and foreign agent lobbying schemes in early 2021.

Zuberi pleaded guilty in November 2019 to charges of tax evasion, making nearly $1 million in illegal campaign contributions through straw donations and foreign funds, and falsifying records of his extensive work as a foreign agent. For years, Zuberi donated mostly to Democrats before throwing large sums at Trump’s inaugural committee after his win in 2016.

Zuberi is seen in multiple photographs with Obama in 2014. The convicted criminal is also pictured numerous times in 2014 with then-Vice President Joe Biden in records made public by the Justice Department.

The businessman tried to work his way closer to Biden through Fran Person, who had served as Biden’s body man for eight years before leaving in 2014, after which Zuberi began to cultivate a closer relationship with him. Zuberi also worked to unfreeze up to billions in Libyan government assets, and Zuberi’s WhatsApp messages from 2015 reveal lengthy discussions with a redacted associate as they talk about setting up meetings in Washington, D.C., and Paris to try to unlock the money.

Zuberi, Person, and others met at the Four Seasons Hotel in Paris in May 2015 with the alleged Libyan deputy prime minister to try to figure out how to unfreeze the billions.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The new report from Business Insider pointed to another email from the following year — Feb. 26, 2016 — where Washington lawyer John Sandweg, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2013 and 2014 under Obama, said he had talked to Hunter and his team about the Libya effort.

“I spoke with HB’s team yesterday. They are interested in the project, but emphasized that for them to get involved, the team (lobbyists, lawyers and PR) would need to be a small group of folks they have a tight relationship with. They do not want a large group involved and they only want people with whom they have a close relationship with due to the sensitivities surrounding their involvement,” he wrote.

Sandweg, now the head of the “Cross-Border Risks team” at Nixon Peabody law firm, confirmed to the outlet that he had been speaking with a business associate of Hunter’s about the Libyan project at the time, saying, “They indicated they would consider it and I passed the message back. Jauhari wound up hiring a different law firm instead.”

The outlet said neither Jauhari nor Hunter’s attorney responded to requests for comment, and the White House declined to comment. Rahbani attorney Martin Auerbach said the businessman “has no recollection of seeing those emails contemporaneously” and “knows to a certainty that he never spoke to and has no recollection of talking about Hunter Biden.”

Concerns about Hunter Biden gained broader attention in late 2020 after he confirmed he was under federal investigation. Multiple outlets reported he is being federally investigated in connection with his taxes and possible links between his overseas business and China and other countries. Hunter Biden said in April he was “cooperating completely” with the investigation and insisted he is “100% certain” he will be cleared of wrongdoing. source

In part:

That email, which was sent to fellow Democratic donor Sheikh Mohammed al-Rahbani, also flagged the “negatives” to enlisting Hunter’s help.

“He is alcoholic, drug addict – kicked [out] of U.S. Army for cocaine, chasing low-class hookers, constantly needs money-liquidity problems and many more headaches,” the email said. Hunter was actually discharged from the US Naval Reserve in 2014, not the Army as the email suggested.

Hunter and Heinz founded Rosemont Seneca Partners, a billion-dollar private equity firm, back in 2009. Their business dealings soured when Hunter opted in 2014 to join the board of a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch.

The second email was sent to the two business contacts by Washington lawyer John Sandweg on Feb. 26, 2016, regarding the same deal.

“I spoke with HB’s team yesterday. They are interested in the project, but emphasized that for them to get involved, the team (lobbyists, lawyers and PR) would need to be a small group of folks they have a tight relationship with,” Sandweg wrote.

“They do not want a large group involved and they only want people with whom they have a close relationship with due to the sensitivities surrounding their involvement.”

Asked about the email, Sandweg told Insider that Jauhari ended up hiring a different law firm.

Neither Hunter nor the White House has commented on the newly emerged emails.

The outlet said the emails, as well as other documents it had obtained, appeared to suggest the Libya deal did not go ahead.

 

Perkins Coie Lawyer Sussman Took Orders from Hillary in Russian Collusion Fabrication

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Joe Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan is not exempt either. He was always Hillary’s secret agent man including the back channel in the beginnings of the Iran nuclear deal. His fingerprints are all over the Perkins Coie, Clinton campaign and Russian collusion lies. He needs a subpoena along with dozens of others and should be stripped of his security clearance.

Hillary Clinton attends Jake Sullivan-Maggie Goodlander ...

In part from Yahoo News: In the closing days of the 2016 race, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tweeted: “Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank.”

She also shared a lengthy statement from Sullivan, one of her top advisers.

“This could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow,” Sullivan claimed. “Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank. This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump’s ties to Russia… This line of communication may help explain Trump’s bizarre adoration of Vladimir Putin.”

Sullivan added: “We can only assume that federal authorities will now explore this direct connection between Trump and Russia as part of their existing probe into Russia’s meddling in our elections.”

“Alfa Bank” is mentioned nine times in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, but never in reference to the alleged Trump-Russia server story. In his December 2019 report, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz said the FBI “concluded by early February 2017 that there were no such links” between Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization.

A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report from 2020 did not find “covert communications between Alfa Bank and Trump Organization personnel.” The Senate said that “based on the FBI’s assessment, the Committee did not find that the Domain Name System activity reflected the existence of substantive or covert communications between Alfa Bank and Trump Organization personnel.”

INDICTMENT

But read on.

FNC: Former Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell said the indictment of Perkins-Coie attorney Michael Sussmann by Special Counsel John Durham is an important development in the probe into the origins of the FBI’s investigation into connections between the Trump campaign and Russia, but is not necessarily key to the entire genesis of the Russia investigation.

Grenell, who also served as President Trump’s ambassador to Germany, called the entire probe “such a ‘swamp’ situation” and added that Sussmann was simply one of the subjects of 63 transcripts released while he was DNI, after Durham requested them.

“I hope that we have a lot of time to focus on these issues going forward. The media that pushed this, I don’t believe that the FBI officials were duped by an outside lawyer working with Hillary Clinton who lied about his client,” Grenell, speaking on “Fox News Primetime,” said of Sussmann.

“Michael Sussmann, whoever he is and whatever lie he told, we released his transcript … There is a treasure trove of information of people lying under oath in these,” Grenell said.

As Durham, a former Connecticut federal prosecutor, is investigating the origins of the Russia investigation, Grenell advised that the original Russia probe continued past September of 2016 not because of “some lawyer [lying] to the FBI about who he was working for – because the FBI leadership knew this information was wrong –  they continued the investigation because it would help Hillary Clinton.”

RELATED READING:

The First Possible Prosecution from the Durham Investigation

“Everybody in Washington — lobbyists, newsrooms, a whole bunch of people — wanted Hillary to win. So what did they do? They allowed this opposition research to become part of the DOJ and FBI. That is so scary to think that politics permeated into the DOJ and to the FBI. This is what we call political prosecution, and when it happens in third world countries we call it out.”

Host Lawrence Jones added that one person of interest to him who is allegedly connected to the Sussmann case is current Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan. The Vermont native previously served under Clinton when she was secretary of state and further advised her 2016 campaign.

“Sussmann claimed [evidence presented to the FBI] it was a tip from a cybersecurity expert who had nothing to do with Hillary Clinton, even though he worked for her. Total coincidence, sure,” he said.

“I guess it is also a coincidence that Hillary tweeted about it around the same time: Jake Sullivan … signed off on that tweet. Now, that’s significant.”

As the Washington Examiner reported, Clinton tweeted that “computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank,” later adding a statement from Sullivan:

“This could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow… This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump’s ties to Russia… This line of communication may help explain Trump’s bizarre adoration of Vladimir Putin,” wrote Sullivan at the time, according to the outlet.

***

Hillary Clinton’s other secret agent man was Marc Elias who headed up the Perkins Coie law firm. He hired Crowdstrike and Fusion GPS. Another fact is he was the campaign lawyer of record for Kamala Harris when she ran for president.

Democrat Lawyer Behind 'Russia Dossier' Pressures Nevada ...

The First Possible Prosecution from the Durham Investigation

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Durham “has told the Justice Department that he will ask a grand jury to indict a prominent cybersecurity lawyer on a charge of making a false statement to the FBI,” the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing “people familiar with the matter.”

Sussmann’s lawyers, Sean M. Berkowitz and Michael S. Bosworth, acknowledged Wednesday that they expected him to be indicted, but denied wrongdoing.

“Mr. Sussmann has committed no crime,” they told the Times. “Any prosecution here would be baseless, unprecedented and an unwarranted deviation from the apolitical and principled way in which the Department of Justice is supposed to do its work. We are confident that if Mr. Sussmann is charged, he will prevail at trial and vindicate his good name.

Durham has until the weekend to charge Sussmann because of a five-year statute of limitations, the newspaper said. source

Michael Sussmann (@michaelsuss) | Twitter

Breaking report from the New York Times (Savage and Goldman, et al.): Special Counsel John Durham “will ask a grand jury to indict” former DNC/Clinton campaign lawyer (and Perkins Coie partner) Michael Sussman for giving false statements. The false statement charges would relate to a September 19, 2016 meeting FBI lawyer James Baker had with Sussman, where Sussman relayed to the FBI the discredited theory that the Trump Organization was communicating with Alfa Bank.

The New York Times states:

Mr. Baker, the former F.B.I. lawyer, is said to have told investigators that he recalled Mr. Sussmann saying that he was not meeting him on behalf of any client.

This was contradicted by (1) Sussman’s testimony to Congress; and (2) Sussman’s own billing records. Sussman’s lawyers acknowledged “they expected him to be indicted.”

As to Sussman’s testimony, here is a portion where he discusses the Alfa Bank information was given to him by a client.

As we have discussed, the New Yorker first reported back in 2020 that Durham had impaneled a grand jury relating to the false Alfa Bank/Trump Organization story. There is the potential that former Feinstein staffer Daniel Jones – as well as the researches behind the Alfa Bank matter – will also face charges of giving false information to federal officials.

More recently, we noted that Fusion GPS has been fighting to keep secret its communications about Trump/Alfa Bank secret in a civil suit. Court records we reviewed appear to show the degree with which Fusion GPS, Glenn Simpson, and their associates went in drafting and promoting the false Alfa Bank/Trump Organization story.

One court document of interest is this August 26, 2016 e-mail from Fusion GPS to Michael Sussman.

That Fusion GPS-Sussman correspondence occurred not long before Sussman met with FBI General Counsel James Baker weeks later.

The e-mails correspond to the dates the Alfa Bank/Trump Organization was getting media exposure. One has to wonder what other correspondence Sussman had with Fusion GPS.

Questions have long been asked about Sussman’s involvement in the potential cover-up of the DNC hack in 2016. It was Sussman who brought in CrowdStrike (given his close relationship with founder Shawn Henry) to look into the DNC hack. According to Politico:

In late April [2016], the DNC’s IT department noticed some suspicious behavior and contacted DNC chief executive officer Amy Dacey, according to a DNC official. Dacey reached out to DNC lawyer Michael Sussmann, a partner at the Perkins Coie law firm and a former federal prosecutor specializing in cybercrimes. Sussmann called Shawn Henry, the president of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, to get his company’s help.

This CrowdStrike/Perkins Coie links put into perspective this information in the the New York Times article, where Durham

has been pursuing a theory that the Clinton campaign used Perkins Coie to submit dubious information to the F.B.I. about Russia and Mr. Trump in an effort to gin up investigative activity to hurt his 2016 campaign.

If that is the case, then we doubt it would be limited to the Alfa Bank allegations.

Future Developments

We’ll be following the Sussman story closely and will post the charging documents and criminal information once – or if – Durham gets the indictment. (hat-tip)

***

When Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked about the origin of the infamous Trump dossier, James Comey brushed off most of the questions. The former Federal Bureau of Investigations director said someone on his “senior staff”—he couldn’t remember who—had “briefed” him on the dossier “sometime in the fall” of 2016. Mr. Comey had been told it came “from a reliable source.” He insisted he “never knew exactly which Democrats had funded” it. He then continued on about his book, which meditated on the importance of “truth.”

Testifying before a joint session of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, Mr. Baker said Mr. Sussmann approached him. The contact was initiated before the FBI and Justice Department applied for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant for key Trump campaign figure Carter Page, according to the Daily Caller’s report.

Mr. Baker was instrumental in obtaining the warrants for Mr. Page. source