Late in the summer of 2016, Hillary Clinton’s then-lawyer Michael Sussmann alleged to FBI general counsel James Baker that Donald Trump had a secret backchannel to the Kremlin via the Russia-owned Alfa Bank. That claim was, according to the CIA’s assessment in early 2017, not “technically plausible.” In other words, early on, and months before Robert Mueller was named special counsel to investigate the Russian collision hoax, individuals within the CIA knew the story was bunk.

Last Friday, John Durham revealed that, even as the FBI had at the time not reached “an ultimate conclusion regarding the data’s accuracy or whether it might have been in whole or in part genuine, spoofed, altered, or fabricated,” the CIA had “concluded in early 2017 that the Russia Bank-1 (Alfa Bank) data and the Russian Phone Provider-1 (YotaPhone) data” were not “technically plausible” and did not “withstand technical scrutiny.” Furthermore, the CIA concluded that the data was “user created and not machine/tool generated,” that it “contained gaps,” and that it “conflicted” with itself. The FBI eventually came to a similar conclusion, as did Mueller in 2019, when he stated regarding the Alfa Bank backchannel, “My belief at this point is that it’s not true.”

Durham has charged Sussmann for lying to the FBI. Sussmann claimed that he was not working for any campaign when he gave the false and misleading data to Baker; he was, in fact, working for Clinton. But Durham is also apparently working to prove that Sussmann not only lied about not working for Clinton but that he knew the information he was giving to the FBI was itself false.

Meanwhile, the waters surrounding Clinton appear to be getting hotter. The latest evidence of this is that five Clinton associates have invoked the Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination and have refused to cooperate with the ongoing investigation.

As Durham states: “The only witness currently immunized by the government, Researcher-2, was conferred with that status on July 28, 2021 — over a month prior to the defendant’s Indictment in this matter. And the Government immunized Researcher-2 because, among other reasons, at least five other witnesses who conducted work relating to the Russian Bank-1 allegations invoked (or indicated their intent to invoke) their right against self-incrimination. The Government therefore pursued Researcher-2’s immunity in order to uncover otherwise-unavailable facts underlying the opposition research project that Tech Executive-1 and others carried out in advance of the defendant’s meeting with the FBI.”

Any notion that there was ever any credible element to the Russia collusion hoax has been increasingly exposed for being nothing less than an absolute fraud. The claim that Trump was secretly communicating with the Kremlin was a lie. Not only was this claim entirely baseless, but the Clinton camp sought to manufacture evidence in order to deceive the American public and also the federal government. The trouble is, it appears that even though almost immediately the CIA and the FBI smelled a rat, they did little to stop the false allegations. In fact, many key figures even played along.