John Durham may be quiet and reserved, and he doesn’t speak to the press very often at all.
However, his filings are public information, and most times, that’s the only way the public has knowledge of the proceedings of the Durham investigation into the origination of the now-debunked Steele dossier.
Even Durham’s critics have called him “press shy” and “apolitical.”
So why did Hillary Clinton tell a Democratic National Committee gathering in New York on Thursday that the latest filing by John Durham is “a conspiracy theory”?
Clinton not only brushed off the latest Durham filing, which appears to tie the Clinton campaign with a technology company that was engaged in data mining regarding the Trumps, as “a new right wing lie on Fox or Facebook . . .they are after me again lately, by the way.” The crowd chuckled at her remarks; she would then say, “The more trouble Trump gets into, the wilder the charges and conspiracy theories about me seem to get.”
Durham’s February 11 filing purports that a person only named as “Tech Executive – 1” carried out data mining of servers, first at the Trump Organization, and later at the White House. According to the filing, which is public knowledge, the executive then gave this information to Michael Sussmann, then a partner with Perkins Coie, a law firm hired by the Clinton campaign.
Sussmann has already been indicted on charges of making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. At the time he brought this data information to the FBI, Sussmann said he had no professional interest in the case, but that he had been provided this supposed connection between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank. Durham filed charges against Sussmann in late 2021, and a grand jury indicted Sussmann; however, Sussmann has pled not guilty to the charges.
The latest filing claims that Sussmann obtained this mined data from “Tech Executive – 1,” then took said data to the FBI “as a good citizen” and that he had no other motivation than that in bringing the information to the FBI.
In an op-ed last week, The Wall Street Journal says that “Tech Executive – 1” is a man named Rodney Joffe. Joffe is a South African entrepreneur who has worked with the FBI in the past; he is credited with finding the Mariposa botnet. While the Journal and the New York Post have named Joffe as the tech executive, this has not been confirmed by the filing.
Although the method by which Sussmann obtained the data and his actions regarding the data are laid out in the Durham filing, Clinton spoke very convincingly to the New York Democratic Convention attendees. She inferred that Fox News Network could be sued for reporting the filing’s findings: “they (Fox News) are getting awfully close to actual malice in their attacks.” Clinton then repeated to the audience: “Don’t get distracted.”
Clinton referred to Republicans as coup plotters and claimed the party is “curbing voting rights.” One political pundit said Clinton’s remarks conjured up images of Hillary’s “deplorables” comment during the 2016 presidential campaign. Many Americans said the description of average Americans as such is likely what cost her the presidency.
Clinton and her camp have traditionally been quiet regarding any Durham filings or indictments in the last six months. After the details of the filing went public on February 11, a Daily Mail reporter attempted to ask Clinton her thoughts as she entered a builing in New York. Clinton ignored the question at the time, choosing to make a statement at the Democratic Convention on Wednesday, five days after the filing was reported.
Clinton directed most of her attacks at Fox News, likely because most major news networks have said little – if anything – regarding the Durham filing. Clinton accused Fox News of “desperately spinning up a fake scandal to distract from his (Trump’s) real ones.”
