Why Hillary Clinton Can’t Hide 38 Documents From The Special Counsel
Part 1 of 2
Documents made public last week by the Federal Election Commission reveal that Hillary Clinton campaign payments to Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Donald Trump were not treated as legal expenses. These newly released documents eviscerate the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign’s attempts to hide behind attorney-client privilege in the special counsel’s criminal case against former Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann.
Sussmann, who awaits trial in a D.C. federal court later this month on the charge that he made a false statement to former FBI General Counsel James Baker, is currently fighting to keep prosecutors from seeing 38 documents withheld from the grand jury based on claims of attorney-client privilege. In early April, Special Counsel John Durham’s team filed a motion to compel those secreting the documents to provide them to the court to allow the judge to assess, in camera, whether they were properly withheld. In response, Sussmann argued the special counsel had waited too long to force the issue and that his criminal case was the wrong forum to litigate the question.
The day after the former Clinton campaign attorney filed his response opposing in camera review of the material, his “fellow Spygate hoaxers sought to join in Sussmann’s efforts to keep the documents concealed” by seeking to intervene in the case. Last week, the trial court granted the flurry of motions to intervene, authorizing tech executive Rodney Joffe, Fusion GPS, Perkins Coie, the DNC, and the Clinton campaign to file briefs opposing disclosure of the documents.
On Wednesday the court will hear oral arguments on the special counsel’s motion and decide whether the 38 documents must be turned over, initially to the court and then eventually to prosecutors. While Durham’s team previously had a strong case that the documents were not protected by attorney-client privilege, a document dump last week by the FEC further strengthens the prosecutor’s position.
A little more than a month ago, news broke that the FEC had fined the DNC and the Clinton campaign more than $100,000 related to those organizations’ reporting of fees paid in 2016. Those fees were paid to Fusion GPS for opposition research but marked on financial disclosures as legal expenses remitted to its law firm, Perkins Coie. Until Thursday, however, the basis for the FEC’s conclusion that probable cause existed that the DNC and Clinton campaign had misreported the purpose of those disbursements remained buried in the bureaucracy.
The now-released file about the FEC’s investigation into the DNC and the Clinton campaign contains a bevy of material. It includes, most relevantly, memoranda prepared by the FEC’s Office of General Counsel and approved by the FEC.
The memoranda conclude that probable cause supports a finding that both the Clinton campaign and the DNC misrepresented the purpose of the payments to Fusion GPS. While the political organizations reported the payments to Fusion GPS as “legal services” or “legal and compliance consulting,” the FEC concluded probable cause existed that the expenses instead related to opposition research.
The memoranda—one issued related to the DNC and the second addressing the complaint against the Clinton campaign—begin with the FEC general counsel’s office reciting the now well-known facts, beginning with the players. Perkins Coie served as general counsel for the DNC during the 2016 election cycle, the memoranda say. Then, in April 2016, Perkins Coie hired Fusion GPS to perform “a variety of research and consulting services.” The memoranda then recount the evidence the FEC general counsel reviewed, which “included invoices, account statements, copies of checks, and wire transfers.”
That evidence, the FEC concluded, showed “the DNC paid Fusion $777,907.97 for opposition research” while reporting the work as “legal and compliance consulting.” Similarly, the FEC concluded the Clinton campaign inaccurately reported $175,000 of payments to Fusion GPS for opposition research as “legal services.”
Rather than fight the FEC’s conclusion, the DNC and Clinton campaign entered settlement agreements with the agency, agreeing to pay a fine and refrain from similar violations in the future. While not conceding the violations found by the FEC, the DNC and the Clinton campaign nonetheless agreed they would “not further contest the Commission’s findings.”
Continued
https://thefederalist.com/2022/05/02/why-the-hillary-clinton-campaign-cant-hide-38-documents-from-the-special-counsel/