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One of the many subplots of the 2016 election was the mystery of whether Russia’s Alfa Bank was secretly communicating with a Trump Tower server, an apparent connection discovered by four computer researchers who passed their data to the FBI in September 2016. Five years later, “the data remains a mystery”, The New York Times reports, but Special Advisor John Durham, appointed under former President Donald Trump to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia inquiry, questioned researchers and their analysis in an indictment he issued in mid-September.
Data researchers fought back on Thursday, saying that despite deceptive and handpicked snippets from their emails that Durham included in his 27-page indictment against cybersecurity attorney Michael Sussmann, they maintain their analysis that Alfa Bank and Trump’s company were communicating and trying to cover it up, their lawyers told the Times and CNN.
Sussmann, then with the Perkins Coie firm, brought the findings of the four researchers to the FBI in September 2016. At the time, his clients included both the Hillary Clinton campaign and Rodney Joffe, an Internet entrepreneur and the one of four data researchers. The Durham grand jury indicted Sussmann of lying to the FBI for allegedly failing to have links to the Clinton campaign. Sussmann says he only represented Joffe at the meeting and denies lying to the FBI.
It’s unclear why Durham, whose investigation is shrouded in secrecy, included the long sections on Alfa Bank’s research in his Sussmann indictment. But “more than two years after being commissioned by then Attorney General William Barr to investigate whether federal authorities mis-targeted the Trump campaign, Durham has little to show for his efforts.” , recaps CNN. “His special advocate’s investigation, which has taken longer than Special Advocate Robert Mueller’s investigation, has so far brought only two false accusations against little-known figures, including the case against Sussmann , who pleaded not guilty. “
Since Sussmann’s indictment, Durham has cited more information from Perkins Coie, CNN and the Times report.
The Sussmann case has been assigned to US District Judge Christopher “Casey” Cooper in Washington, DC Cooper “will likely assess during court proceedings before trial whether Sussmann disclosed his client to the FBI mattered,” CNN reports. “If Cooper allows the case to move forward, he could refer this matter to a trial jury.”
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