A researcher tasked by tech executive Rodney Joffe with mining internet data to create a “narrative” of Trump-Russia collusion expressed doubt about the Hillary Clinton campaign project in an August 2016 email cited by Special Counsel John Durham — writing at one point, “This will not fly,” according to court documents.
The message emerged in an explosive motion filed late Monday, in which Durham alleged that Joffe, Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and attorney Michael Sussmann took part in a “joint venture” to gather and spread damaging information about then-Republican nominee Donald Trump.
In the filing, Durham argued that communications between Joffe and online sleuths should be admitted as evidence in Sussmann’s upcoming trial on a charge of lying to the FBI about his work for the Clinton campaign while suggesting that the Trump Organization had ties to a Russian bank.
According to prosecutors, Joffe told his subordinates that “VIPs” — a phrase Durham says refers to Sussmann, Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias, and the campaign itself — were “looking for a true story that could be used as the basis for closer examination.”
“Trump has claimed he and his company have had NO dealings with .ru [web domains] other than the failed Casino, and the Miss universe [sic] pageant,” Joffe allegedly wrote. “He claims absolutely NO interaction with any financial institutions. So any potential like that would be jackpot.”
A couple of days later, the researcher responded to Joffe that his ask was all but impossible.
“[Y]ou do realize that we will have to expose every trick we have in our bag to even make a very weak association?” wrote the person, identified only as Researcher-1. ” … [U]nless we get … traffic collected at critical points between suspect organizations, we cannot technically make any claims that would fly public scrutiny.”
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https://nypost.com/2022/04/06/tech-exec-was-warned-smearing-on-trump-will-not-fly-durham-says/
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