Declassified evidence unveils a calculated plot by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign to tarnish Donald Trump with baseless Russia ties. The scheme, detailed in then-special counsel John Durham’s 2023 report, exposes a web of political deceit aimed at sinking Trump’s candidacy, as Just the News reports. It’s a stark reminder of how far some will go to cling to power.
Durham’s report reveals Clinton’s team, including Marc Elias, Robby Mook, and Jake Sullivan, orchestrated a smear campaign linking Trump to Vladimir Putin to distract from Clinton’s email scandal. This coordinated effort leaned on fabricated claims, such as the debunked Alfa Bank story, to paint Trump as a Kremlin pawn. The audacity of this ploy is almost admirable -- if it weren’t so cynical.
In late July 2016, the Intelligence Community caught wind of Clinton’s alleged plan, dubbed the “Clinton Plan intelligence,” which suggested her campaign sought to vilify Trump with Russian interference claims. Intercepted communications, possibly from a George Soros ally, hinted at expectations that the FBI would amplify these accusations. Yet, the FBI, under James Comey, sat on its hands.
Then-CIA Director John Brennan briefed then-President Barack Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden, and others in August 2016 about Clinton’s supposed approval of the smear on July 26. The CIA referred the matter to Comey and agent Peter Strzok, but no serious investigation followed. Apparently, some scandals are too inconvenient to probe.
Clinton’s campaign poured over $12 million through Perkins Coie to Fusion GPS, which paid ex-spy Christopher Steele $168,000 for his now-discredited dossier. This dossier, filled with unverified gossip, was peddled to outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post. The media lapped it up, no questions asked.
Marc Elias, fully aware of Steele’s work, briefed campaign leaders and met with Steele during the campaign. Elias later testified that payments to Perkins Coie were mislabeled as “legal services,” earning a 2022 FEC fine for violating federal law. Transparency, it seems, wasn’t their strong suit.
Clinton herself greenlit pushing the Alfa Bank tale, a fabricated story about a supposed secret Trump-Russia server, to the press in October 2016. “Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server,” Clinton tweeted, amplifying a claim Slate and The New York Times ran with—before it was debunked. The desperation to smear Trump reeked of political panic.
Jake Sullivan, ever the loyal operative, declared, “This could be the most direct link yet between Trump and Moscow.” His fervor to tie Trump to Putin ignored the lack of evidence, a pattern for the campaign. Facts were optional when the narrative was at stake.
Robby Mook, in a July 2016 CNN interview, claimed “experts” saw Russian state actors leaking DNC emails to help Trump. This conveniently timed accusation followed the campaign’s strategy to frame Russia as Trump’s puppet master. It’s almost as if truth were an afterthought.
Jennifer Palmieri admitted in 2017, “We were on a mission to get the press to focus” on Russia’s alleged role in helping Trump. She and Sullivan scurried around the 2016 DNC, pitching the Russia story to network tents. The press, predictably, ate it up like candy.
Clinton’s tweets, like “Why do Trump’s foreign policy ideas read like a Putin wish list?” in August 2016, fueled the narrative. Her campaign seized on an October 2016 ODNI and DHS statement about Russian hacking to double down. The timing was impeccable, if not suspiciously convenient.
A second dossier, crafted by Clinton ally Cody Shearer and funneled through Sidney Blumenthal to Steele, echoed the same unverified claims. This redundant smear effort showed the campaign’s obsession with tying Trump to Russia, no matter the cost. Redundancy, it seems, was their brand of creativity.
The FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane probe, targeting Trump associates like Carter Page and Michael Flynn, shared details with Steele in October 2016. Yet, when it came to investigating Clinton’s alleged plot, the FBI dragged its feet. Durham’s findings suggest a double standard that’s hard to ignore.
Clinton ally Chuck Dolan, linked to Steele’s dossier source Igor Danchenko, even cozied up to Russian officials whose names popped up in the dossier. “To my good friend… A Great Democrat,” Dolan wrote in a book inscription to a Russian contact. The irony is thicker than a Moscow winter.
After Trump’s 2016 victory, Clinton’s team kept blaming Russia, with no evidence of collusion ever surfacing. “Putin was actively trying to derail my candidacy,” Clinton wrote in her book, doubling down on a narrative Durham found baseless. The refusal to let go of a losing script is almost tragic.
