Durham probe: Republicans put Biden’s NSA Jake Sullivan in the hot seat over Hillary spying claims

Republicans are calling for increased scrutiny on President Joe Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan after the longtime Democratic operative’s links to Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation were revived in the wake of a bombshell new court filing.  

Durham’s probe into the origins of the Russian investigation moved closer to the White House late last year with a report that Sullivan was the ‘foreign policy adviser’ mentioned in the indictment of former Hillary Clinton presidential campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann. 

Sussmann was charged in September with allegedly lying to the FBI, and has pleaded not guilty.

But over the weekend, a new court filing by Durham emerged which alleged Clinton’s 2016 campaign paid a tech firm to infiltrate Trump Tower servers and later White House servers in a bid to establish a link between Donald Trump and Russia.

Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana told DailyMail.com Sullivan should be removed from office if the allegations were proven to be true.

‘No one who has spied on the White House is fit to serve in the White House. Jake Sullivan is already a notorious partisan and if he participated in Clinton’s illicit spying on President Trump, he must be removed from office and held responsible,’ Banks said. 

Without naming Sullivan, Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida told DailyMail.com it was ‘hard to believe’ such a high level of privacy invasion could have taken place without the Clinton campaign’s knowledge.

‘If these allegations prove true, I would find it hard to believe that there was potentially some type of collusion with a tech company that had access to servers and computers to spy on the Trump campaign – and potentially the White House – without authorization from top officials in the Clinton campaign,’ Waltz said. 

Amid outrage over the new spying allegations, a past tweet from Clinton has ignited a firestorm and renewed attention on Sullivan’s role in potentially pushing lies about then-candidate and later President Trump.

Top Republican lawmakers are demanding heightened scrutiny on Sullivan after the latest Durham probe court filing alleged that the Clinton campaign paid a tech firm to infiltrate Trump team servers. Sullivan had been a top foreign policy adviser to Clinton’s presidential bid

Clinton shared a statement from Sullivan, a top foreign policy adviser on her campaign, on October 31, 2016, just days before the presidential election. It was in response to an article in Slate covering a team of computer scientists who claimed to have discovered a link between Trump and Russia-based Alfa Bank.

‘This could be the most direct link yet between Trump and Moscow,’ Sullivan said. ‘Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank.’

He added, ‘This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump’s ties to Russia.’

Top Republicans are now questioning whether the Biden official with a heavy hand in US foreign policy knowingly promoted faulty information while hiding his boss’s link to it. The timing of the matter raises particular concerns about Sullivan’s role in the US response to the rapidly worsening crisis between Russia and Ukraine.

‘Jake Sullivan pushed the Russia hoax. He knew it was a lie. He now works in the Biden White House,’ Rep.  Jim Jordan of Ohio wrote on Twitter Monday.

Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee accused Sullivan of a ‘conflict of interest’ in his current efforts trying to de-escalate with Moscow.

‘Jake Sullivan’s involvement in the Russia collusion hoax is a clear conflict of interest, and he should not be allowed to speak on behalf of the U.S. as Russia-Ukraine tensions heighten,’ Blackburn said on Monday.

Prominent Republicans came down hard on Sullivan and his former boss Hillary Clinton

She also said Sullivan ‘lied to the American people in hopes of winning an election.’ 

Conservative Political Action Conference chair Matt Schlapp demanded that Sullivan quit his role in the Biden administration.

‘With the revelations that Trump was indeed spied on during 2016 and deep into his presidency it is time for anyone complicit in this crime resign from the Biden Administration and be charged. Jake Sullivan must step down,’ Schlapp said.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said that if proven true, the Clinton campaign’s actions are ‘unacceptable.’

‘Court filings by Special Counsel Durham suggesting the Clinton campaign may have engaged in an orchestrated effort to infiltrate the Trump campaign are unacceptable and should not be swept under the rug,’ Graham said on Tuesday. 

Texas Senator Ted Cruz called out the Clinton campaign as well as mainstream media outlets that have largely been ignoring the filing.

‘The corrupt corporate media breathlessly covered every contour of the Russia lies spread by Hillary & her cronies. Now it’s reported that Hillary’s team paid to hack the White House & Trump Tower, crickets! Zero coverage on NBC, ABC, & CBS morning shows. The silence is damning!’ Cruz said on Monday night. 

Clinton lawyer Sussman’s 27-page indictment says he told then-FBI General Counsel James Baker that he was not working for a client when he asked for a meeting in which he offered evidence of what he claimed was a secret communication channel between Donald Trump and a Russian bank. 

But the document goes on to allege in fact he was being paid by at least two clients – a U.S. technology executive and the Clinton presidential campaign. 

‘On or about September 15 , 2016, Campaign Lawyer-1 exchanged emails with the Clinton Campaign’s campaign manager, communications director, and foreign policy adviser concerning the Russian Bank-1 allegations that SUSSMANN had recently shared with Reporter1,’ it says.

Blackburn questioned the White House’s silence on the matter after the daily briefing

The foreign policy adviser is Sullivan, 44, according to Fox News, which cited two well-placed sources.

In Durham’s filing on Friday, he revealed how 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), named as Rodney Joffe, at a U.S.-based internet company (Internet Company 1) and the Clinton campaign.’  

The filing also reveals how Joffe worked with Sussman at the instruction of the Clinton campaign to ‘assemble the purported data and white papers’ – essentially to gather information that would tie Trump to Russia.   

When asked about the revelations on Monday, White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly said she ‘can’t speak to’ Durham’s filing and referred questions to the Justice Department.

Blackburn called Jean-Pierre out over it on Twitter on Monday evening: ‘Why is the White House refusing to comment about Jake Sullivan’s role in fabricating evidence against President Trump?’ 

Sullivan has been a key figure in Democratic circles since 2008 when he was foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton’s presidential run, before joining Barack Obama’s general election team. 

The Durham investigation appears to have entered a critical phase. A grand jury indictment was returned last week for Igor Danchenko, a Russian analyst accused of being a key source in the Steele dossier. 

He is charged with five counts of making false statements to the FBI.

When Clinton became Secretary of State, Sullivan joined as her deputy chief of staff, before becoming Vice President Joe Biden’s national security adviser in 2013.

There is no suggestion that Sullivan is a target of Durham’s investigation, only that he received information from Sussmann.

The White House referred requests for comment to the Department of Justice. 

‘I’m not going to comment on that from here, from the podium,’ said White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. 

Trump has long denied any illegal conspiracy with Russia in his 2016 campaign, insisting that the allegations were trumped up by his political enemies. Likewise, Democrats claim that Durham’s probe is a political hatchet job.

The Steele dossier ‘source’, an attorney linked to Hillary and a lawyer in Mueller’s probe: The accusations in Durham’s investigation

HILLARY CLINTON 

A recently revealed filing from Special Counsel John Durham alleged Hillary Clinton paid a lawyer to infiltrate Trump Tower and White House servers in the 2016 campaign and after. It claims she was seeking to fabricate a link between Trump and Russia’ Alfa Bank to distract from her email scandal at the time. 

Igor Danchenko

IGOR DANCHENKO

The 43-year-old Russian-born analyst was arrested in November 2021 in Virginia by federal agents assigned to Durham’s special counsel and charged with five counts of lying to FBI agents about the sources he used in collecting information for Michael Steele, who is identified in the indictment only as ‘UK Person-1’.

Danchenko was the primary researcher for Steele’s opposition research dossier alleging that Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign conspired with Russia in a covert operation to beat Clinton. He also informed Steele that Russia had the infamous ‘golden showers’ tape that could be used to blackmail Trump.  

Michael Sussmann

MICHAEL SUSSMANN 

In September 2021, Durham indicted the cybersecurity lawyer, accusing him of lying to the FBI during a September 2016 conversation when relaying concerns about potentially suspicious cyber contacts between a Trump Organization server and the server of a Russian bank.

When bringing the concerns to then-FBI general counsel James Baker, the indictment alleged that Sussmann lied and said he was not representing a client when he was actually hired by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign  

Sussmann has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have claimed the case is driven by politics. 

Kevin Clinesmith

KEVIN CLINESMITH

The first criminal charges in Durham’s probe were against Kevin Clinesmith, an FBI attorney assigned to the Robert Mueller probe. 

Clinesmith, 38, pleaded guilty to altering an email during the process of acquiring a wiretap warrant renewal on former FBI lawyer Lisa Page. 

He was sentenced to probation.

JOHN BRENNAN

 The Obama-era CIA Director was questioned by Durham’s team for eight hours in August 2020 as part of the ongoing investigation. Specifically the special counsel was interested in whether Brennan pushed for a more blunt assessment of Russia’s motivations

Trump-era Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Monday that Brennan did brief then President Barack Obama and Vice President at the time Joe Biden in 2016 about the allegations Clinton was trying to ‘fabricate’ a link between Trump and Russia.

Rodney Joffe

RODNEY JOFFE 

While a ‘key player’ in the Durham investigation, Rodney Joffe is not officially indicted or accused of any wrongdoing as of yet. He is, however, referred to as ‘Tech Executive-1’ in Sussmann’s indictment for allegedly lying to the FBI by withholding his connections to Clinton’s 2016 campaign. 

The indictment for Sussmann notes that Joffe ‘retained Sussman as his lawyer’ in February 2015 in connection with an unspecified ‘matter involving an agency of the US government.’ 

Former President Donald Trump this week praised Durham’s work, claiming ‘it all leads back to the Democrats, Hillary [Clinton] and the dirty lawyers’ during an interview with Fox News

Durham was appointed as special counsel by Trump administration Attorney General Bill Barr in October 2020, and tasked with investigating whether the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe, code-named ‘Crossfire Hurricane,’ was opened and conducted legally.

The first criminal charges in Durham’s probe were against Kevin Clinesmith, an FBI attorney assigned to the Robert Mueller probe, who altered an email during the process of acquiring a wiretap warrant renewal on Page.

Igor Danchenko was arrested last week by US federal agents

Clinesmith pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation. 

Last week, a key source who provided information to British ex-spy Christopher Steele for his ‘dirty dossier’ of allegations against Donald Trump was been arrested in the US. 

Igor Y. Danchenko, a Russian-born analyst living in the United States, was arrested on Thursday in Virginia by federal agents assigned to Durham’s investigation, according to the Justice Department. 

He is charged with five counts of lying to FBI agents about the sources he used in collecting information for Steele, who is identified in the indictment only as ‘UK Person-1’. 

Danchenko, 43, was the primary researcher for Steele’s dossier alleging that Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign conspired with Russia in a covert operation to beat Hillary Clinton, and that Russia had salacious videos that could be used to blackmail Trump.

Trump himself has praised Durahm’s effort multiple times. 

The former president, 75, predicted that Durham’s investigation, which he was first assigned to in April 2019, will show that ‘it all leads back to the Democrats, Hillary [Clinton] and the dirty lawyers.’

‘It really has come out,’ Trump said to Fox after Durham produced his second of two indictments.  ‘In all fairness, while it has taken a long time, hats off to John Durham.’ 

‘Hats off, because, it’s coming out, and it is coming out at a level – Durham has come out with things that are absolutely amazing.’