By Mary Fanning and Alan Jones | May 14, 2022
Special Counsel John Durham’s first trial in his multi-year investigation into the origins of the hoax Trump Russian collusion investigation begins on Monday, May 16, with defendant Michael Sussman on trial for one count of lying to the FBI.
Sussman is the former partner at law firm Perkins Coie who in September 2016 met with FBI General Counsel James Baker. Both the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign and the DNC retained Perkins Coie for the 2016 presidential election season. During his meeting, Sussman presented so-called ‘evidence’ to Baker and the FBI that supposedly proved the existence of communications between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank.
Later, the FBI determined that there was no evidence that Trump was communicating with Alfa Bank.
The question before the court is whether or not Sussman lied to Baker by claiming that he did not represent a client when in fact he was representing the Clinton campaign.
How did the FBI not know that Sussman was working on behalf of the Clinton campaign when he met with Baker?
The Sussman trial took on a new and more expansive dimension earlier this week after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia allowed Sussman’s attorneys to submit as exhibits hand-written notes taken during a March 6, 2017 meeting at FBI headquarters. Senior officials from the FBI and the DOJ attended that meeting, including FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division Peter Strzok, FBI General Counsel James Baker, Assistant Director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division Bill Priestap, James Rybicki, chief of staff to then-director of the FBI James Comey, and U.S. Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente.
According to the March 6, 2017 FBI meeting notes, that were taken on the Monday morning following President Trump’s now-infamous Saturday, March 4, 2017 tweet accusing Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower, “FBI trying to determine what is behind POTUS tweets.”
On the morning of Saturday, March 4, 2017, The American Report, in response to President Trump’s “Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ tweet three hours earlier, sent a tweet to President Trump and Trump’s son Eric Trump, alerting President Trump that “Brennan/Clapper ‘tapped Trump a Zillion times’ says CIA contractor Dennis Montgomery.”
Also the morning of Saturday, March 4, 2017, in response to President Trump’s “Obama had my ‘wires tapped’”tweet, The American Report posted detailed information to The American Report’s official Facebook page about “THE HAMMER” wiretapping Donald Trump “a zillion times.”
CIA Contractor-turned-whistleblower Dennis Montgomery Sued James Comey
In June, 2017, CIA contractor-turned-whistleblower Dennis Montgomery sued James Comey, Barack Obama, John Brennan, the FBI, the CIA, and various other U.S. government intelligence officials and agencies.
According to Montgomery’s lawsuit:
On August 19, 2015 Plaintiff Montgomery was induced by Defendants Comey and the FBI and made to turn over 47 hard drives of evidence of the aforementioned illegal, unconstitutional activity, which hard drives alone are valued in excess of $50,000 dollars. Indeed, counsel for Montgomery, Plaintiff Klayman, was told and assured by the former General Counsel of the FBI, James Baker, that Defendant Comey was taking “hands on” supervision and conducting the FBI’s Montgomery investigation, given its importance…
…On or about December 21, 2015, Plaintiff Montgomery was interviewed under oath at the FBI Field Office in the District of Columbia. There,over the course of an over three-hour interview, recorded on video, with Special Agents Walter Giardina and William Barnett, Plaintiff Montgomery meticulously laid out the NSA, CIA, DNI’s, and the other Defendants’ – particularly Defendants Clapper and Brennan’s – pattern and practice of conducting illegal, unconstitutional surveillance against millions of Americans, including prominent Americans such as the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, other justices, 156 judges, prominent businessmen, and others such as Donald J. Trump, as well as Plaintiffs themselves. Plaintiffs were assured that the FBI, under Defendant Comey, would conduct a full investigation into the grave instances of illegal and unconstitutional activity set forth by Montgomery. However, the FBI, on Defendant Comey’s orders, buried the FBI’s investigation because the FBI itself is involved in an ongoing conspiracy to not only conduct the aforementioned illegal, unconstitutional surveillance, but to cover it up as well. Plaintiff Klayman has contacted FBI General Counsel James Baker numerous times to obtain an update on the Montgomery investigation, but has been ignored each time.
ICIG Took Possession Of Montgomery’s Hard Drives And Testimony
We exclusively reported at The American Report on December 18, 2020 that U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon confirmed that Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG), former FBI agent Irvin Charles “Chuck” McCullough III, took possession of Montgomery’s recorded testimony and hard drives:
According to a March 3, 2018 opinion by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon in the case DENNIS MONTGOMERY, et al., Plaintiffs, v. JAMES COMEY, Defendants:
At the status conference in this case, counsel for the Government defendants represented to this Court that the “hard drives are in a secure facility with the [I]ntelligence [C]ommunity’s Office of Inspector General” and that there was “no risk” that they were “going to be destroyed anytime soon…
…Plaintiffs’ primary argument on this point is that, without preservation of the hard drives and the interview tapes, they “will lose the material evidence in this case.” Pls.’ Mot. 18. But as I have already explained, the Government has represented to this Court that there is a litigation hold preventing the destruction of either the hard drives or the interview tapes.
In October 2018, about sixteen months after Montgomery sued Comey, James Baker testified before a joint congressional committee. Approximately two weeks later, during his second day of testimony, Baker suddenly interrupted Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) and asked to amend his testimony. Baker had suddenly “remembered” that in 2015 Montgomery had provided to the FBI with electronic storage devices containing evidence of illegal US government surveillance targeting US citizens.
James Baker Amended 2018 CongressionalTestimony, Suddenly ‘Remembered’ That Montgomery Turned Evidence Over To FBI
We previously reported at The American Report in “HAMMERTIME: Baker Buried Whistleblower Montgomery’s Trump Surveillance Evidence Then Suddenly “Remembered” FBI Had It”:
Former FBI General Counsel James A. Baker is the second current or former senior FBI official to have misled Congress about the FBI’s receipt of evidence from CIA/NSA whistleblower Dennis Montgomery that Montgomery maintains proves President Obama’s intelligence chiefs, CIA Director John Brennan and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, illegally surveilled Donald Trump with “THE HAMMER” (HAMR) super-surveillance system.
Former FBI counsel Baker, who was interviewed by a joint committee of the U.S. House of Representatives just weeks before the 2018 midterm election, stated during day one of his interview, conducted on October 3, 2018, that the FBI and the DOJ did not “infiltrate or surveil” the Trump campaign for “political purposes.”
Baker simultaneously denied on day one that Obama administration officials made “demands or requests” of the FBI and the DOJ to “infiltrate or surveil” the Trump campaign.
At the beginning of Baker’s day two testimony, conducted on October 18, 2018, Baker interrupted Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) stating he wanted to amend the record of his day one testimony, thereby sidestepping a potential perjury charge.
Between day one of his interview two weeks earlier and day two, Baker suddenly “remembered” that U.S. government contractor Dennis Montgomery had turned over to the FBI evidence in 2015 in the form of digital storage devices that, Montgomery asserted, proved that the U.S. government illegally surveilled American citizens and government officials…
…Baker’s two-day interview, carried out on October 3 and October 18, 2018, was “part of a joint investigation by the House Committee on the Judiciary and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform into decisions made and not made by the DOJ and the FBI regarding the 2016 Presidential election.”
Notably, Baker stated the wrong year when disclosing that Montgomery had turned over evidence to the FBI. Baker transposed the year by one digit, stating that Montgomery had provided the evidence to the FBI in 2016, instead of the actual year it occurred, 2016:
Baker carefully stated: “To the best of my recollection, it’s in the late summer, early fall 2016.” Baker misstated the year the FBI took possession of Montgomery’s evidence during day two of his interview. By carefully reciting that it was to the “best of his recollection” Baker neatly sidestepped a potential perjury charge.
Did Baker intentionally misstate the year. Was there an intent to deceive?
Judge Christopher Cooper Who Is Presiding Over The Sussman Trial Is Married To Amy Jeffress, Lisa Page’s Attorney; Page And Strzok Were Central To The Hoax Russian Collusion Coup D’etat Against President Donald Trump
On Sunday, March 20, 2017, just hours after US Air Force General Thomas McInerney (Ret) and Admiral James A. Ace Lyons (Ret) presented the American Report’s March 19, 2017 exclusive “Whistleblower Tapes” exposé over America’s airwaves, revealing “The Hammer,” Strzok and Page exchanged a text message that specifically mentioned “Montgomery.”
Judge Christopher Cooper, who is presiding over Sussman trial, is married to Amy Jeffress, Lisa Page’s attorney. Page and Strzok were central to the hoax Russian collusion coup d’etat against President Donald Trump.
Does Judge Cooper’s connection to former FBI attorney Lisa Page present a clear conflict of interest in the Sussman trial?
Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch stated during a recent interview, “If a spouse has a substantial interest in the outcome of a proceeding, then a judge should consider recusal…That is a question Judge Cooper will have to ask himself.”
Americans can hope that Judge Christopher Cooper is up to the task and is a man for all seasons.
According to a May 2, 1999 wedding announcement published by the New York Times, “Dorothy Ames Jeffress, a Federal prosecutor, and Christopher Reid Cooper, a lawyer, were married yesterday afternoon at the Meridian House, a historic mansion in Washington. Judge Merrick Garland of the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit officiated…”
Durham Has Obtained 22 Emails From Fusion GPS
Judge Cooper ordered Fusion GPS to turn over to Special Counsel Durham 22 emails that the research firm had withheld by claiming that they were protected under attorney-client privilege. Although Durham cannot use those emails in Sussman’s trial, Durham may use them in a future case related to his ongoing investigation into the origins of the hoax Trump Russian collusion investigation.
Let’s hope that Special Counsel Durham has another bite at the apple, and that more revelations are forthcoming.
COPYRIGHT 2022 MARY FANNING AND ALAN JONES