If there was no intentional tying former Presidential candidate Donald Trump to Russia, then why are Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, the Democratic National Committee, Fusion GPS and Perkins Coie all fighting John Durham’s request to turn over documents?
Durham made the request earlier this month because of the Michael Sussmann case. Sussmann, a Clinton campaign ad Democratic cybersecurity lawyer, was indicted on charges of “concealing his clients, the Clinton campaign and ‘tech executive’ Rodney Joffe, from FBI general counsel James Baker when he pushed since-debunked claims of a secret back channel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa-Bank” reports The Washington Examiner.
In February, the Federal Election Commission ruled there was “probable cause” to believe Hillary for America and the DNC violated federal laws by “misreporting the purpose of certain disbursements” and fined them.
Everyone is claiming client-attorney privilege to avoid handing over documentation. In a court filing Monday, Sussmann accused Durham of “mounting a last-minute frontal assault on third-party assertions of attorney-client privilege and work product protection that affect what could be the production of thousands of documents, the testimony of numerous witnesses, and, most importantly, Mr. Sussmann’s fundamental defense strategy.”
On Tuesday, Perkins said it withheld documents “as protected by the attorney-client privilege and work product privilege claims” asserted by the DNC, Clinton campaign, and Joffe.
Patrick Benedict of the firm said Elias left Perkins in September, and “records in connection with the representation” of the Clinton campaign were transferred to Elias in August.
Also on Tuesday, Hillary for America said it was “asserting attorney-client privilege and work protection” related to Perkins and Fusion.
He said: “I provided Fusion direction on the research and information I thought would help me perform my job … On some occasions, Fusion’s work was distilled and incorporated into my judgments about legal issues, while in other instances, I shared the results of Fusion’s work with my clients.”
