into this matter. they spent several weeks looking into the matter and ultimately concluded there could be innocuous explanations for the contacts. but that was basically that. that was basically how to resolved. alfa bank and its kremlin-connected executives have always vociferously denied the allegations that they had anything to do with the trump campaign or any kind of election interference. in fact, alpha bank claimed in a pair of lawsuits that the allegations or the intimations in this reporting were all some sort of giant frame-up. they claimed that these computer scientists, these computer researchers fabricated these server communication records in order to smear their company and smear the trump campaign. here s where we get to tonight s breaking news because that quite baroque theory that the unexplained server look-ups between this bank and the trump organization, you know, they are not evidence of a and not
the biden administration and apparently left room to roam by attorney general merrick garland is trying to criminalize that act. see something, say something? if you said something about donald trump, we ll try to put new jail. joining us now is barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney. thank you very much for being here. thank you. it s great to be with you. we started covering this five five years ago, and it never came to anything in terms of the substance of this. nobody ever seems to have figured out whether there was anything going on between alfa bank and the trump organization. because of that, the story has lingered and the loosened interest been frayed and out there in the wind all of this time. that said, regardless of the underlying suspicions that gave rise to this as a story in the first place, what is your opinion of the strength of the legal case here? the prospect of this lawyer
innocuous pings. it was fabricated, orchestrated by the clinton campaign and the democrats and the deep state to frame donald trump by inventing out of whole cloth a super hard to understand totally unclear random server ping technical conspiracy that no one understands, i mean, it sounds outlandish, sounds pointless to you and me, right? if you are going to frame somebody, this isn t how you would do it. you would make it so it was something people could understand. not this confusing bit of metadata that nobody could ever interpret, right? that s been alfa bank s theory that they ve been pursuing in the courts, and the trump justice department appears to have sort of run with that, and
baseless, unprecedented and an unwarranted deviation from the apolitical and principled way in which the department of justice is supposed to do the work. the acquisition against sussmann focuses on a meeting he had in 2016 with the fib s top lawyer at the time, james baker. at the meeting sussmann relayed data and information from cybersecurity researchers who thought that odd internet data might be evidence of a covert communications channel between computer service associated with the trump organization and those associated with alfa bank, a kremlin linked financial institution. sussmann s lawyers have told doj that he sought that meeting with the fbi because he and the cyber security researchers believed the new york times was on the verge of publishing an article
2016 with the fib s top lawyer at the time, james baker. at the meeting sussman relayed data and unless from cybersecurity researchers who thought that odd internet data might be evidence of a covert communications channel between computer service associated with the trump organization and those associated with alfa bank, a kremlin linked financial institution. sussman s lawyers have told doj that he sought that meeting with the fbi because he and the cybersecurity researchers believed the new york times was on the verge of publishing an article about the alfa bank data and they wanted to give the fbi a heads up. durham did apparently find an inconsistency as pertains to mr. sussman. james baker the former fbi lawyer is said to have told investigators that he recalled sussman telling him that he was not meeting him to convey this information on behalf of any client but in a deposition before congress in 2017 sussman testified that he did seek that fbi meeting on behalf of a