Former President Donald Trump reacted with fury to a bombshell Fox News report that the 2016 Hillary Clinton paid tech firms to “infiltrate” internet servers at Trump Tower and the White House with the objective of establishing a “narrative” linking him to Russia.
“The latest pleading from Special Counsel John Durham provides indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign in an effort to develop a completely fabricated connection to Russia,” Trump said in a statement.
“This is a scandal far greater in scope and magnitude than Watergate and those who were involved in and knew about this spying operation should be subject to criminal prosecution.”
“In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death,” Trump continued. “In addition, reparations should be paid to those in our country who have been damaged by this.”
The revelation was made in a court filing late last week by special counsel John Durham that centered on potential conflicts of interest connected to the representation of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman, who has been charged with allegedly lying to the FBI.
Fox News :
The indictment against Sussman says he told then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016, less than two months before the 2016 presidential election, that he was not doing work “for any client” when he requested and held a meeting in which he presented “purported data and ‘white papers’ that allegedly demonstrated a covert communications channel” between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, which has ties to the Kremlin.
But Durham’s filing on Feb. 11, in a section titled “Factual Background,” reveals that Sussman “had assembled and conveyed the allegations to the FBI on behalf of at least two specific clients, including a technology executive (Tech Executive 1) at a U.S.-based internet company (Internet Company 1) and the Clinton campaign.”
The filing says that Sussman and the tech executive had met and been in contact with another lawyer who was working for the Clinton campaign. In addition, it says that during the summer of 2016, the tech executive worked with Sussman, an investigative firm retained by a law firm on behalf of the Clinton campaign, and employees at tech companies to gather “data.”
“In connection with these efforts, Tech Executive-1 exploited his access to non-public and/or proprietary Internet data,” the filing states. “Tech Executive-1 also enlisted the assistance of researchers at a U.S.-based university who were receiving and analyzing large amounts of Internet data in connection with a pending federal government cybersecurity research contract.”
“Tech Executive-1 tasked these researchers to mine Internet data to establish ‘an inference’ and ‘narrative’ tying then-candidate Trump to Russia,” Durham states. “In doing so, Tech Executive-1 indicated that he was seeking to please certain ‘VIPs,’ referring to individuals at Law Firm-1 and the Clinton campaign.”
Fox News added:
Durham also writes that during Sussman’s trial, the government will establish that among the Internet data Tech Executive-1 and his associates exploited was domain name system (DNS) internet traffic pertaining to “(i) a particular healthcare provider, (ii) Trump Tower, (iii) Donald Trump’s Central Park West apartment building, and (iv) the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP).”