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Special counsel John Durham filed a 23-page motion in DC on Wednesday. He is claiming the DNC, the 2016 Hillary campaign for president, Fusion GPS, and Democrat law firm Perkins Coie holding back relevant documents relevant to the investigation. 

Durham first requested the documents in February, and they are being withheld on claims for attorney-client privilege.

Durham’s filing claims that out of 1,455 documents withheld by Fusion GPS only 18 emails involve an attorney. And that any claim of attorney-client privilege or work-product protection is not valid.

The filing notes that the DNC and Hillary for America are even trying to withhold communications between a Fusion GPS employee and tech executive.  “Despite the fact that no one from either the DNC or HFA is copied on certain of these communications.”

Durham is asking for an “in-camera review” of the documents.

Hilary campaign “joint venture” to smear Trump

The special counsel filing comes in advance of the trial of Perkins Coie attorney Michael Sussmann. It is alleged that in 2016 he passed information about then-candidate Donald Trump to the FBI. And Sussmann allegedly was pushing the false narrative that the Trump Organization was secretly communicating with servers at Moscow-based Alfa-Bank.

Some of the team was aggressively planting stories to willing media. And the Hillary campaign and DNC were suggesting Trump was colluding with Russia.

Durham’s filings have also claimed Sussmann, Rodney Joffe (tech executive) and the campaign took part in a “joint venture” to gather and spread dirt about Trump. And they paid Fusion GPS, hired by Perkins Coie.

 Then Fusion paid ex-MI6 spy Christopher Steele to create the Steele dossier. Which has contained completely debunked allegations about Trump’s links to the Russian government.

“Instead, contemporaneous communications and other evidence make it clear that the primary purpose of the [Fusion GPS’] work related to the [Steele] dossier, the [Alfa-Bank] allegations, and the other issues was to assemble and publicize allegations that would aid the campaign’s public relations goals.” 

“When [Fusion GPS] employees communicated with [Joffe], they were doing so in furtherance of collaborating and promoting the [Alfa-Bank] allegations, not facilitating legal advice,” the filing reads. 

“Simply put, these were communications related to political opposition research and were not made ‘in confidence for the purpose of obtaining legal advice from the lawyer.’”

Durham alleges that Fusion GPS’ primary purpose in working with the DNC and Clinton campaign “was to generate opposition research materials that the firm then shared widely with members of the media, the U.S. State Department, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, members of Congress, and others.”

Sussman trial 

Michael Sussman was indicted in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in September. He is charged with lying to the FBI. Sussman claimed that he did not work for the Hillary campaign when he did. His Democrat-linked firm worked for the DNC and the Hillary Presidential campaign of 2016.

 The FBI asked him the question when he was peddling the 2016 false narrative that Trump was affiliated with Russian banks.

The Sussman trial is set for early May.