Durham Prosecutes FBI Informants, While Protecting Their Handlers

 Special Counsel John Durham has investigated or indicted several unscrupulous anti-Trump informants. But he has spared the FBI agents who handled them, raising suspicions he's letting investigators off the hook in his waning investigation of misconduct in the Russiagate probe. But as the cases against the informants have gone to trial, defense lawyers have revealed evidence that cuts against that narrative

In the latest example, critics point to a flurry of pretrial motions in Durham's case against former FBI informant Igor Danchenko, the primary source for the false claims regarding Trump and Russia advanced by the opposition research paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign known as the Steele dossier.

• Relying on his reporting, the FBI claimed that the adviser, Carter Page, was a Russian agent at the center of “a well-developed conspiracy of cooperation” between Trump and the Kremlin to steal the 2016 presidential election.
• Had agents known, they might have asked more questions about the dossier and not relied on it to swear out the ultra-invasive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants.

Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith:

• He faked a CIA email to make it look like Page did not help the agency monitor Russia, when in fact he did and clearly wasn’t acting as a Russian agent.
• Even though he worked closely on the case with FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten, who was singled out by Horowitz in a 2019 report for cutting corners in the dossier verification process and even allowing information he knew to be incorrect slip into the FISA affidavits and mislead the court.
• Auten and his Crossfire team led the FISA court to believe Danchenko was "Russian-based" - and therefore presumably more credible.

Scammed by the Alfa Bank Scam?

• Durham also painted the FBI as a victim of the 2016 political machinations of two other anti-Trump informants
• Michael Sussmann and Rodney Joffe, who conveyed to investigators false rumors about Trump allegedly setting up a secret hotline with the Kremlin through Russia-based AlfaBank.
• The informant charged with lying to the FBI's top lawyer James Baker when he told him he was coming in with the tip - outlined in white papers and thumb drives - all on his own and not on behalf of Democrats and Clinton

The FBI was not fooled by the hoax, yet nonetheless went along with it for the next four months

• The case wasn't formally closed until Jan. 18, 2017, just two days before Trump was inaugurated
• Comey even held senior-level meetings on the Alfa investigation in his 7th floor office

Sussmann was a Democratic operative with an agenda

• He approached Baker with the Alfa tip several weeks before the DNC visited the FBI with a delegation from the DNC.
• They were there to pressure the FBI into concluding that Russian intelligence was behind the hacking of DNC emails.

Closing Arguments

• In his closing argument, Durham prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis told jurors the FBI's conduct was "not relevant."
• "Ladies and gentlemen, you've seen that the FBI didn't necessarily do everything right here. They made mistakes. They even kept information from themselves," he said. "That is not relevant to your evaluation of the defendant's lie."

Durham went easy on Baker, another top FBI official

• He held back key evidence from the special prosecutor before the Sussmann trial, a blatant lack of cooperation that may have cost Durham a conviction in the case.
• Baker, who reviewed and approved the FISA applications, never told Durham about a damning text message he received, which could have sealed the case for Durham.

Closing up shop

• Recent published reports say Durham is in the process of closing up shop and completing a final report on his findings by the end of the year.
• Republicans have promised to seize on the report if they win control of the House in November and take back the gavel to key oversight committees on the Hill, along with subpoena power.

Joffe is a subject in the Sussmann-related investigation

• he invoked his Fifth Amendment right not to testify after receiving a grand jury subpoena and has not cooperated with requests for documents.
• His lawyer did not return phone calls and emails.
• Sussman’s office declined to comment on the subpoena.

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