The latest filing from Special Counsel John Durham is not only problematic for Hillary Clinton but threatens the Joe Biden administration as well.
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was a senior adviser to Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016 and played a key role in pushing the bogus Trump-Russia collusion narrative, as well the allegations of a secret line of communication between Trump and the Kremlin via Alfa Bank, cited in the latest motion filed by Durham—which also wasn’t true.
“This could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow,” Sullivan had said in a statement following a report from Slate about the alleged link. “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. It certainly seems the Trump Organization felt it had something to hide, given that it apparently took steps to conceal the link when it was discovered by journalists.”
The filing makes clear that the Clinton campaign hired a technology firm to hack Trump Tower, and later the White House, in search of incriminating evidence linking Trump to Russia. None existed, of course, but it does appear that Alfa Bank was hacked with bogus evidence planted to give the appearance that there was a secret line of communication between them and Trump.
Sullivan didn’t just push the bogus story to the media. He also gave sworn testimony to the House Intelligence Committee in December 2017, during which he denied that the Clinton campaign had spread misinformation.
“Are you aware of any collusion, coordination, or conspiracy by yourself or by any other members of the campaign that you were working with to procure fake Russian information to harm Donald Trump?” Sullivan was asked.
“I mean, you will forgive me if I want to say more than just an emphatic ‘No’ to that answer, because I find that totally absurd,” he replied.
Related: Get Ready for More: The Durham Probe Has ‘Accelerated’
Sullivan hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing (yet), but Just The News notes that two court filings last fall call into doubt the veracity of his testimony: “Court filings in those cases state that Sullivan — identified in the Sussmann indictment only as a Clinton ‘foreign policy advisor’ — engaged in email traffic with other Clinton campaign officials and lawyers about a story leaked to the news media suggesting Trump had a secret communications system with Russia via a computer server at the Moscow-based Alfa Bank.” The filings all connect Sullivan directly to the effort to spread the false story—which was considered dubious even then. Whether Sullivan knew that is unclear, but experts told Just the News that Sullivan had an obligation to check it out before lending it credibility in the media because he was the Clinton campaign’s senior national security adviser.
“If you’re the national security adviser, or you’re the foreign policy advisor for presidential candidate Secretary Hillary Clinton, you got to be able to look at the information and vet it before you make a conclusion,” CIA officer Daniel Hoffman told Just The News.
The other possibility is that Sullivan knew the information was bogus but spread it anyway. Former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) was asked whether Sullivan’s testimony was accurate. “Well, it sure doesn’t look like it,” he replied. “Because he was one of the propagandists that was out there all through the 2016 election that was promoting this, promoting this in great detail.”
He also noted that it “seems like everybody who was involved in the Russia hoax was actually promoted. So if you were in the Obama White House, and you participated in this hoax, you got a major promotion, you got a new job.”
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) told Just The News that Sullivan should be investigated.
“Just because you’re getting paid by Hillary Clinton, just because you are Hillary Clinton, or you’re associated with Hillary Clinton, you don’t get some free pass from the justice system,” Zeldin said.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member