Correction: A previous version of this article, based on an incorrect report, stated that Special Counsel John Durham used the word “infiltrate” to describe the actions. The filing used the word “exploited.” The headline has been changed.
Former President Donald Trump issued a new statement on Sunday in response to the bombshell report involving Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe, saying that the latest news to come out of one of the court filings proved that what happened was “a far bigger crime than Watergate.”
Durham said in the court filing that operatives linked to Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaign “exploited” Internet data linked to Trump Tower and the Executive Office of the President in an effort to establish a “narrative” tying President Donald Trump to Russia.
In a new statement on Sunday, Trump said:
What Hillary Clinton and the Radical Left Democrats did with respect to spying on a President of the United States, even while in office, is a far bigger crime than Watergate. It will be interesting to see how it was covered by the media and what Mitch McConnell and the RINOs will be doing about it. This is an insult to the Republican Party, but a far greater insult to our Nation.
Trump suggested in an initial statement that those responsible for what is being alleged should potentially face the death penalty.
“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. “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 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 reported:
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.
The filing 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).”