Trump’s Latest Claim That Clinton ‘Spied’ On His Campaign, Explained

Topline

Former President Donald Trump and his supporters have been enthralled for the past week over claims Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign spied on Trump, a narrative spreading through right-wing media and arising from a court filing made Friday—here are the facts of what happened.

Key Facts

The account of Clinton’s alleged spying began with a Friday court filing from Justice Department special counsel John Durham, who was appointed by Trump administration Attorney General William Barr to investigate the origins of an FBI probe that searched for connections between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.

The filing contains a new accusation that internet traffic was accessed and “exploited” at two of Trump’s buildings and at “the Executive Office of the President of the United States,” and then used to raise questions about Trump’s alleged contacts with a Russian bank in the leadup to the 2016 election.

The filing focuses on a former federal prosecutor and Democratic National Committee attorney named Michael Sussmann, who flagged the alleged contacts between the bank and the Trump Organization to the FBI in 2016.

Sussmann has been accused of lying to the FBI for saying he was providing the information as a good citizen, and not as a lawyer working on behalf of the Clinton campaign.

Trump quickly pounced on the accusation as evidence of a serious crime committed against him, saying in a statement Saturday, “In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death,” while right-wing media figures including those at Fox News suggested Clinton’s campaign directly oversaw a spying effort.

Durham’s court filing on Friday does not actually implicate Clinton or accuse her campaign of spying; the case against Sussmann will proceed, likely with more information about his alleged role in the 2016 election, over coming months in federal district court in Washington, D.C.

News Peg 

Hillary Clinton on Wednesday blasted Trump for promoting the claims, tweeting a link to a Vanity Fair story Wednesday afternoon discrediting them. “Trump & Fox are desperately spinning up a fake scandal to distract from his real ones. So it’s a day that ends in Y,” she said.

Key Background

Barr appointed Durham in 2019 to lead a probe into the origins of an FBI investigation that looked for ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russian government, which Democrats seized on at the time as a sign of potential “Russian collusion.” Sussmann, who was indicted in September, claimed he wanted to aid the investigation by sharing the alleged ties between the Trump Organization and the Russian bank, which he reportedly obtained from Rodney Joffe, a tech executive. Joffe is at the center of the new spying accusations, which claim he led a team that “exploited” internet tracking information at the White House and Trump’s buildings. But Joffe and his associates have denied any wrongdoing, stating they were contracted to provide cybersecurity services to the White House starting during Barack Obama’s presidency in 2014, and their task ended in early 2017, perhaps before Trump even took office. Sussmann has pleaded not guilty and his attorneys say he never told the FBI he didn’t have any clients.

Crucial Quote

“The cybersecurity researchers were investigating malware in the White House, not spying on the Trump campaign,” an attorney for one of Joffe’s researchers told the New York Times.

Surprising Fact

Clinton’s campaign did try to capitalize on the alleged Trump-Russian bank connection in 2016, and the indictment says Sussmann pitched the purported link to the media, but only one outlet ended up publishing an article on the claims.

Tangent

Trump also claimed Obama spied on his campaign in 2016. Those accusations are too unfounded.

Further Reading

Here’s why Trump once again is claiming ‘spying’ by Democrats (Washington Post)

Court Filing Started a Furor in Right-Wing Outlets, but Their Narrative Is Off Track (New York Times)

Trump, Without Evidence, Claims Obama Spied On His 2016 Campaign, Elicits ‘Lock Him Up!’ Chant (Forbes)