XPost: alt.politics.trump, sac.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: democrat-criminals@mail.house.gov   
      
   WASHINGTON — FBI agents probing since-debunked claims of a secret back   
   channel between Donald Trump and a Russian bank believed that the   
   allegations had originated with the Department of Justice — when in fact   
   they came from Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann, who had   
   shopped them to the bureau’s then-general counsel days earlier.   
      
   In the latest revelation to emerge from Sussmann’s trial in DC federal   
   court on a count of lying to the FBI, special counsel John Durham’s   
   prosecutors revealed that investigators had received an electronic   
   communication citing a referral from the DOJ “on or about” Sept. 19, 2016,   
   the same day Sussmann met with James Baker, then the FBI’s top lawyer.   
      
   The document, a record of the investigation being opened by agents Curtis   
   Heide and Allison Sands and dated Sept. 23, 2016, did not mention Sussmann   
   as the source of the allegations.   
      
   “In that referral, the DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE provided the FBI with a white   
   paper that was produced by an anonymous third party,” the communication   
   said, before adding: “According to the white paper, a U.S.-based server   
   that is owned by the TRUMP ORGANIZATION has been communicating with the   
   Russian-based ALFA BANK organization in Moscow, Russia.”   
      
   The document was circulated to several top FBI officials — including Peter   
   Strzok, who oversaw the probe of Clinton’s email server as well as the   
   Trump-Russia investigation, and was famously fired from the bureau in 2018   
   after the emergence of text messages he sent to his colleague and mistress   
   Lisa Page in which he vowed to help “stop” Trump from winning the White   
   House.   
      
   Sands, who testified late Monday afternoon, told jurors that she believed   
   Heide had told her the referral came from the Department of Justice.   
      
   The error was seized on by Sussmann’s defense attorney Michael Bosworth,   
   who grilled Sands about whether Heide had lied to her – or if someone had   
   lied to him about the source of the material.   
      
   “You haven’t been interviewed in that [Durham] investigation?” Bosworth   
   asked at one point. “No,” Sands responded.   
      
   Testifying for the prosecution Monday, FBI agent Ryan Gaynor revealed that   
   bureau honchos shielded Sussmann’s identity from field agents who   
   investigated the claims of a link between Trump and Alfa Bank as part of a   
   longstanding practice known as a “close hold.”   
      
   Gaynor told prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis that the decision to hide where   
   the information was made by top leadership at the FBI before the Alfa Bank   
   material was given to the Chicago field office.   
      
   After the information was handed over to the Chicago squad, a more senior   
   FBI agent at headquarters asked Gaynor, who had volunteered to “track” the   
   investigation, to determine if the hold was affecting or hindering the   
   investigation, he testified.   
      
   Gaynor determined he could “not make an argument that we needed to pull   
   the hold [reveal Sussmann as the source] at the time” because they were   
   waiting on information from the spam email company that was actually   
   behind the supposed secret back channel between the Trump Organization and   
   Alfa Bank, he testified.   
      
   Prosecutors then introduced a series of emails from agents in the Chicago   
   field office who were investigating or overseeing the matter and   
   requesting they be given access to the source.   
      
   In one Oct. 3, 2016, email, agent Heide wrote to Gaynor, “We really want   
   to interview the source of all this information. Any way we can track down   
   who this guy is and how we’re getting this information?”   
      
   Supervisory Special Agent Daniel Wierzbicki followed up: “An interview   
   with the source of information …  may allow us to understand the ‘what’   
   and ‘why’ of the white paper.”   
      
   Gaynor responded that it was being discussed at headquarters, but did not   
   provide the identity of the source.   
      
   On Monday, he said he may have come to a different conclusion about the   
   hold hindering the investigation if he had known Sussmann was acting as an   
   attorney for the Clinton campaign when he turned over the information.   
      
   According to Gaynor, that knowledge could have “impacted the way I viewed   
   the close hold” and that it would have been more of “an issue on the close   
   hold on the hinder side.”   
      
   Gaynor added that had he known the source was motivated by politics or   
   someone with a business interest that overlapped with the bureau, he may   
   not have ever volunteered to act as a point person at agency headquarters.   
      
   During cross examination, Bosworth repeatedly tried to poke holes in   
   Gaynor’s previous statements to investigators, highlighting a number of   
   instances in which the agent testified that he knew Sussmann was acting on   
   behalf of the Democratic National Committee — even conflating the attorney   
   and the DNC as the source of the information in his testimony before a   
   grand jury.   
      
   Sussmann is charged with lying to the FBI when he met with Baker in   
   September 2016 and turned over a “white paper” that showed the purported   
   tie between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank.   
      
   Sussmann said he was providing the information on his own when, according   
   to prosecutors, he was working on behalf of the Clinton campaign and   
   another client, tech executive Rodney Joffe, who told him about the bank.   
      
   TAGS: 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION  DONALD TRUMP  FBI  HILLARY CLINTON   
   RUSSIA  SPECIAL COUNSEL  5/23/22   
      
      
   --   
   "LOCKDOWN", left-wing COVID fearmongering.  95% of COVID infections   
   recover with no after effects.   
      
   No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.   
   Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.   
      
   Donald J. Trump, cheated out of a second term by fraudulent "mail-in"   
   ballots.  Report voter fraud: sf.nancy@mail.house.gov   
      
   Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden   
   fiasco, President Trump.   
      
   Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the   
   The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood   
   queer liberal democrat donors.   
      
   President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed   
   dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)