By Hans Mahncke (originally published May 30, 2022)

The trial of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann is coming to an end but rather than provide definitive answers to the origins of the Russiagate hoax, the trial has brought to light many new mysteries and unanswered questions.

Durham’s overarching trial narrative was that the FBI was duped by Sussmann when he presented them with data purportedly tying Donald Trump to the Kremlin via the Russian Alfa Bank. It may have been Durham’s only viable strategy, given the fact he was facing a jury of 12 Washington D.C. residents, a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 20 to 1.

This strategy did give Sussmann’s team the opportunity to highlight serious misconduct by the FBI, with a flurry of new information about FBI malfeasance and abuses coming to light.Continue Reading

By Jeff Carlson & Hans Mahncke

Originally Published 5/9/22

Notes taken by high-level Department of Justice (DOJ) officials during a March 6, 2017, meeting with FBI leadership expose some of the lengths the FBI went to, to cover up its spying on the 2016 campaign of President Donald Trump.

The notes were released on May 8 by lawyers representing former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann as part of an effort to clear him on charges of having lied to the FBI. The notes, in reality, appear to do little to exonerate Sussmann but do provide quite a bit of information on the FBI.

The meeting at which the notes were taken took place just two days after Trump’s March 4, 2017, tweet in which he accused former President Barack Obama of having wiretapped Trump Tower. Trump’s tweet panicked FBI leadership, who were unsure exactly how much Trump knew about their efforts to tie him up with Russia collusion allegations.

What the notes reveal is that in response to the tweet, they tried to cover their tracks.Continue Reading

By Jeff Carlson & Hans Mahncke

Originally Published 4/25/22

Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter represents a seismic shift in American political discourse.

Democrats and the media have benefited for years from seeing their voices artificially amplified through a cozy relationship with the multitude of tech companies. The goal has been to make their policies and ideas appear as though they are far more accepted than they really are.

The problem is that Twitter functions as the de facto public square—and the false elevation of some ideas and views combined with the active suppression of others has a direct impact on public discourse and debate.Continue Reading

By Jeff Carlson & Hans Mahncke

Originally Published 4/20/22

In a coordinated legal action between a number of Hillary Clinton operatives and associates, almost two dozen separate documents were simultaneously filed on April 19 in special counsel John Durham’s case against former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann.

This sudden flurry of mass filings included responses from former Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta, campaign manager Robby Mook, Clinton campaign lead lawyer Marc Elias, contractors Fusion GPS, the Clinton campaign itself, and the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

The trigger for the flurry of filings was a request by Durham to unseal a number of emails involving the parties. The emails are currently being withheld on very questionable grounds of attorney–client privilege. Based on the coordinated filings, it appears that a large number of important people associated with the Clinton campaign are very concerned about the information in those emails becoming public.Continue Reading

By Jeff Carlson & Hans Mahncke

Originally Published 3/4/22

As the trial of Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann approaches, special counsel John Durham and Sussmann’s lawyers are arguing over what evidence can be admitted. As part of those arguments, Durham filed a “routine” response late on April 15, detailing why the evidence he’s seeking to admit is both relevant and admissible.

These back-and-forth filings are common in the weeks leading up to federal trials, but the disclosures made by Durham are anything but routine.

The most striking of these disclosures concerns data trails that Sussmann and his cohorts, including “Tech Executive-1” Rodney Joffe, had supposedly uncovered between Trump and the Russian Alfa Bank. It was widely claimed that these data trails established a direct communications channel between Trump and the Russian government.Continue Reading

By Jeff Carlson & Hans Mahncke

Originally Published 4/6/22

A newly released memo from the U.S. State Department reveals that government officials knew early on that the COVID pandemic likely originated at a lab in Wuhan, China.

That memo, dated April 2020, states that out of five possible origins for COVID, a lab leak was by far the most likely. The memo also suggests that alternative theories had been introduced to prevent a lab leak from being investigated. The memo, which focuses almost entirely on the likelihood of a lab leak, contains a large amount of information that wasn’t known publicly at the time it was written.

Although a lab leak is now widely accepted as a likely origin for the virus, when the memo was written, a concerted effort was underway to discredit that possibility. It also raises the question of what senior State Department leadership—including then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo—knew and why the information was withheld from the public.Continue Reading

By Jeff Carlson & Hans Mahncke

Originally Published 3/23/22

On May 18, 2020, then-Attorney General Bill Barr made a statement to the media declaring that special counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Russiagate hoax wasn’t focused on either former President Barack Obama or former Vice President Joe Biden, stating that “I don’t expect Mr. Durham’s work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man.”

In his new book, Barr has revealed that he made that statement in response to a series of tweets by then-President Donald Trump. A week earlier, Trump had started using the term “Obamagate” on Twitter, alleging that both Obama and Biden had “led the charge” on the FBI’s phony Russiagate investigation.

Barr recounts in his book that he felt it was unacceptable for Trump to attempt to drag his presidential election opponent into the Russiagate scandal and that Barr felt that it was incumbent upon him to make a public statement.Continue Reading

By Jeff Carlson & Hans Mahncke

Originally Published 3/18/22

On April 12, 2019, Hunter Biden took his damaged laptop to a computer repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware. It was the beginning of a series of fateful events that would culminate in The New York Times finally admitting on March 17, 2022, that Biden’s laptop and its contents were real.

Previous reporting by the New York Post detailed emails that were found on Hunter Biden’s laptop that showed that then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, his brother James, and son Hunter Biden were all deeply entangled in various overseas business ventures, in countries including Qatar, Ukraine, Russia, and China.

The emails also showed that Hunter Biden was directed by the head of a Ukrainian energy company’s board to find a way to stop the investigation into the company. While the authenticity of his laptop had been confirmed earlier, it unfortunately took verification by The New York Times to allow the story to enter the mainstream.Continue Reading

By Jeff Carlson & Hans Mahncke

Originally Published 3/4/22

As war rages in Ukraine following the invasion by Russia, the realities on the ground are difficult to assess—it’s estimated that thousands have been killed, including hundreds of civilians, and 2 million have been forced to flee their homes.

Although Russian President Vladimir Putin is rightly deserving of blame, top U.S. officials over the past decade have played important roles in critical events that undermined U.S. relations with Russia and resulted in the destabilization of Ukraine.

The deterioration in our relations with Russia, in many ways, started with President George W. Bush in 2008, when he dangled before Ukraine the promise of NATO membership during the Bucharest declaration, boldly claiming, “We agreed today that these countries will become members of NATO.”Continue Reading

By Jeff Carlson & Hans Mahncke

Originally Published 2/25/22

In October 2016, Wikileaks released a little-noticed email exchange involving Jennifer Palmieri, the communications director for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, and Democratic strategist Joel Johnson. The exchange, which was dated Feb. 26, 2016, revealed the existence of a Clinton campaign “swift boat project”—a political term used for smear campaigns—aimed at then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

At the time, the email was largely ignored, but it has recently gained new relevance through disclosures in court filings by special counsel John Durham.

It appears the Clinton campaign’s plans revolved around two primary prongs directed at Trump. The first and better-known element of that project involved Fusion GPS and Trump-dossier author and former MI6 spy Christopher Steele. The other element involves the efforts of Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann and his use of data exploited by technology executive Rodney Joffe and a team of IT operatives.Continue Reading