Durham convinces judge to review concealed documents in Clinton privilege battleMay 04, 2022 03:12 PM
The judge in the case of Democratic cybersecurity lawyer Michael Sussmann has agreed to review dozens of records currently withheld because of assertions of attorney-client privilege by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign to see if they have been improperly concealed. The agreement is a win for special counsel John Durham in his case against Sussmann, who has been indicted on charges of concealing his clients.
Judge Christopher Cooper said Wednesday he would grant the government’s motion, arguing he did not believe it was breaking attorney-client privilege for him to review the records in dispute in an “in camera” setting, away from the public and the press.
The judge repeatedly pointed to the difference between hiring a firm to do “fact-checking” versus hiring it to do “opposition research.”
Hillary for America, the DNC, and Perkins argue claims of attorney-client privilege should keep the records concealed and claim Fusion simply provided them legal services. Durham is insisting those groups played a coordinated role in pushing false collusion claims.
The judge said he didn't doubt Elias’s claims about Fusion being hired to provide legal advice but said that didn’t mean everything Fusion did in 2016 is covered by privilege. The judge said he would review the Joffe records too.
It remains to be seen how the judge will rule on the privilege claims after taking a look at the Alfa Bank-related documents. Thirty are internal Fusion emails, and eight relate to Joffe and Fusion.
Clinton’s 2016 campaign and Fusion united in court on Wednesday.
Fusion’s lawyer said the firm asserted privilege over 1,500 documents, adding it also “produced hundreds of documents.” Fusion said the Clinton campaign, DNC, and Perkins had made “judgment calls” on what was privileged. (Just like HRC's lawyers did with the 33,000 emails)
The judge asked Durham prosecutor Jonathan Algor whether Durham would come back for the other 1,500 documents if the judge ended up agreeing with the prosecution about these 38 records. Algor said “not for this trial” but left the door open for the future, saying that “Your Honor’s decision is important” for the investigation. (meaning the prosecution has only just begun)
Algor told the judge the Clinton campaign and Fusion wrongly "advanced a very broad and novel theory” of attorney-client privilege that “opposition research” is “somehow protected.” He said “none of the docuement shows” any of that related to “legal advice.”
Algor stressed the opposition research was pushed to the FBI, Congress, and the media. Durham plans to call Fusion’s “tech maven,” Laura Seago, to testify, including Fusion’s role with a white paper Sussmann pushed to the FBI.
Sussmann lawyer Sean Berkowitz said the judge’s ruling could have a “ripple effect” and could end up calling “thousands of documents into question” related to prior privilege assertions. (they just admitted there are 1000s more documents they are hiding)
Algor countered that theprosecution had “cabined” the trial to a single Fusion witness and a few dozen documents. He said Seago had “key evidence” about the attorney-client relationships and that she would be a Fusion witness tied to Sussmann, the Clinton campaign, and Joffe.
Fusion co-founders Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch wrote in their 2019 book that they met with Elias in April 2016.
Fritsch told Elias, “We think you guys will really want to pay attention to the Russia angle.” “This angle was all new to Elias, and he loved it,” Fusion said. The judge quoted from an email by Fritsch to a reporter in October 2016 in which the Fusion co-founder said to “do the f***ing Alfa bank secret comms story." The judge said: “How is that assisting Mr. Elias providing legal advice? That is assisting a media strategy.”
Fusion’s lawyer also argued the firm had no knowledge of Sussmann’s meeting with the FBI and tried to argue it was irrelevant to the indictment. (This is going to come back and bite them, guaranteed Durham already has evidence they all knew.)
(From what I've seen Durham doesn't play his cards until they force him and then he releases enough to scare the shit out them, but not to reveal future strategy. Sussman, et al are so fucked, it's not even fucking funny)
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/justice/durham-convinces-judge-to-review-concealed-documents-in-clinton-privilege-battle