
In Durham’s estimation, Joffe and his colleagues had “exploited this arrangement by mining for the purpose of gathering derogatory information about Donald Trump.” Fox News took this line from Durham’s filing and ran with it, claiming Durham had said he had found that the Clinton campaign had paid the technology company to “infiltrate” White House servers. about odd internet data suggesting that someone using a Russian-made smartphone may have been connecting to networks at Trump Tower and the White House, among other places.Īccording to the filing, Sussmann had gotten his information from technology executive Rodney Joffe, whose company, Neustar, had performed server-related work for the White House. Sussmann had presented other suspicions to the government. But it also recounted a meeting at which Mr.

The filing was ostensibly about potential conflicts of interest. Sussmann of lying during a September 2016 meeting with an F.B.I. Sussmann, a cybersecurity lawyer with links to the Democratic Party. Durham filed in a case he has brought against Michael A. The latest example began with the motion Mr. But the entire narrative appeared to be mostly wrong or old news-the latest example of the challenge created by a barrage of similar conspiracy theories from Mr. Durham, the Trump-era special counsel investigating the inquiry into Russia’s 2016 election interference, filed a pretrial motion on Friday night, he slipped in a few extra sentences that set off a furor among right-wing outlets about purported spying on former President Donald J.

The problem? Neither Robert Durham nor John Durham nor anyone else for that matter had actually provided evidence of any such crime, let alone even suggested it. Yes, as you’ve probably heard, on Saturday the former president released a statement claiming “Special Counsel Robert Durham”-he meant to say “ John Durham” but was apparently too angry to keep his Johns and his Roberts straight-had uncovered “indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia,” a “scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate” for which Trump suggested those involved should be executed but would settle for criminal prosecution.

Which it didn’t, though unfortunately for reason, logic, and the concept of the truth, Donald Trump, Fox News, and various other deranged conservatives cannot be convinced of that. The country, nay, the world would be gripped by the story, and for good reason-a former candidate for office spying on the president? In the White House? That would be crazy! And you’re right-it would be crazy if something like that had actually happened. The whole thing would be a big flipping deal! One for which there would be major, major consequences and far-reaching fallout.

Imagine, if you will, that a special counsel appointed by the federal government declared in a court filing that he had evidence that a major political figure-let’s call her Hillary Clinton-had paid spies to infiltrate the White House and run surveillance on Donald Trump in order to frame him as a foreign asset.
