A university researcher felt threatened when pressed by a staffer to Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) as well as a US Senate staffer, believed to be a staffer for Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI). They tried to recruit the researcher to help them spread the lie that Trump was tied in with Alpha Bank, connected to the communist leadership in Russia. According to Durham’s report, which the Justice Department released on Monday, the researcher had traveled to Washington for a meeting.
The meeting was to discuss a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) cybersecurity program with Senate Armed Services Committee staffers. Afterward, the researcher was invited to meet with staffers of the House Permanent Select Committee On Intelligence (HPSCI). At that meeting, the researcher was asked to help them find a connection between Alpha Bank and Trump. The researcher refused, stating that he thought it would be improper for a public university, believed to be Georgia Tech University, to be involved in that scheme.
That’s when the Reed staffer said:
“We are now in charge,” and “one of the HPSCI staffers said that their boss (Congressman Adam Schiff) would soon take over” HPSCI leadership.”
The researcher took that to be a threat. Durham wrote that his team “considered” whether these activities might be relevant to a prosecution for contract fraud or abuse of government resources. But, the truth is that breaking laws do not bother Democrats since their liberal privilege will always keep them out of prison. Corruption has its own rewards.
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNELThe researcher said he “dragged” his colleague out of the meeting and offered a warning. “Don’t touch this with a ten foot pole, stay away from this,” the researcher recalled saying. But, as it turned out, the second researcher had been part of an effort to mine internet data to conduct opposition research attempting to link Trump to Russia, the special counsel’s report noted. Alleged details about this effort, linked to tech executive Rodney Joffe, were laid bare during Durham’s prosecution of former Clinton campaign Michael Sussmann, who was acquitted last year by a D.C. jury on a charge of lying to the FBI.
The first researcher told Durham’s team he did not recall his colleague mentioning the work he had already done at the university regarding the Alfa Bank allegations. The first researcher also told Durham’s team that he informed a DARPA program manager of the request from the HPSCI staffers, including “his objections to the nature of the request.”
The report says when the DARPA manager spoke with Durham’s team he “denied learning of the Alfa Bank allegations other than through media reports” and “maintained that he was unaware of any role that University-I personnel played in the Alfa Bank allegations.”
At the time of the meeting, as reported by Durham, Schiff would have still been the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee. He later became chairman, a perch from which he often insisted there was evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. After Republicans won control of the House in 2022, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) booted Schiff from the panel over accusations that Schiff lied about investigations related to Trump. Schiff is now running for Senate.
In response to Durham’s report, which heavily criticized the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe, Schiff has defended the bureau’s work and argued the special counsel’s inquiry was “flawed” from the start.
