https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/durham-focuses-on-russian-yotaphones-clinton-campaign-lawyer-linked-to-trump/ar-AAWrx53?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=332a689a79fa401d93b7f9c78bb4a636

Washington Examiner

Durham focuses on Russian YotaPhones Clinton campaign lawyer linked to Trump

Jerry Dunleavy - 9h ago

John Durham has revealed further details about the Trump-Russia collusion allegations that Michael Sussmann pushed to the CIA in 2017, scrutinizing claims surrounding Russian phones known as YotaPhones.

In early 2017 in a conversation with the CIA, the Democratic cybersecurity lawyer linked former President Donald Trump to these phones near the White House and elsewhere beginning in 2016. The special counsel has rejected these allegations and said the CIA did too.

Sussmann was indicted last September for allegedly concealing his clients — Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and “Tech Executive-1,” known to be former Neustar executive Rodney Joffe — from FBI general counsel James Baker in September 2016 when he pushed since-debunked claims of a secret back channel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank.

Durham says Sussmann similarly concealed his client, Joffe, when he met with the CIA on Feb. 9, 2017. The special counsel released Friday a lightly redacted version of the CIA’s “memorandum for the record” written the day the agency met with Sussmann.

The CIA said Sussmann told them his contacts had gathered information “indicating that a Russian-made Yota phone had been seen by them connecting to WiFi from the Trump Tower in New York, as well as from a location in Michigan, at the same time that then-candidate Trump was believed to be at these locations” and that “the Yota phone was seen connecting to WiFi from the Executive Office of the President (the White House)” in December 2016.

The special counsel revealed Friday that the CIA concluded in early 2017 that the Alfa Bank and YotaPhone information was not “technically plausible,” was “user created," “contained gaps,” and “conflicted with [itself].”

Sussmann’s lawyers are objecting to the various statements their client allegedly made to the CIA in 2017 being introduced as evidence during the May trial, but Durham is insisting on it.

The special counsel argued that “regardless of whether this statement was true, partially true, or — as the Government contends — false and misleading, the statement is admissible because it provides crucial context for the defendant’s meeting and the other statements he made.”

cnn projecting, LEGAL SECRETS

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hillary-clinton-s-2016-campaign-tries-to-keep-its-legal-secrets-away-from-special-counsel-john-durham/ar-AAWqpWM?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=4ed54d1e5e034e0187142ec672d5d869

Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign is asking a federal court to keep details of its legal and research activity secret as they're being pursued by special counsel John Durham.

Durham is seeking more access to information about Perkins Coie, the campaign's primary law firm, and its contact and emails with Fusion GPS – a politically charged court fight that could yield more information about the campaign's research on Donald Trump and Russia that included the infamous Steele dossier, which contained unverified and salacious allegations about Trump.

Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign tries to keep its legal secrets away from special counsel John Durham

In sworn statements, top Clinton officials John Podesta, Robby Mook and Marc Elias maintain that work Fusion GPS did for the Clinton campaign could be considered part of legal work – and should be protected under attorney-client privilege.

Mook, Clinton's presidential campaign manager in 2016, distanced himself from the hiring of Fusion. He said he enlisted Perkins Coie for legal work as well as advice on fact-finding and research but "was not aware during the campaign of any contractors that Perkins Coie engaged to assist it in providing legal services and legal advice."

Podesta, the Clinton campaign chairman, said in his own affidavit he believed the legal work documents held by Perkins Coie or its subcontractors, like Fusion GPS, should stay secret.