6. Wait! WHAT?
Near the end of the special counsel’s 19-page discovery update and extension request came the fifth takeaway: something strange is going on in the Office of Inspector General.
According to yesterday’s filing, on December 17, 2021, the OIG provided the special counsel’s office a written forensic report concerning a “cyber-related matter” that Sussmann had told an OIG special agent in charge about. Specifically, in early 2017, Sussmann told the OIG agent that one of his “clients had observed that a specific OIG employee’s computer was ‘seen publicly’ in ‘Internet traffic’ and was connecting to a Virtual Private Network in a foreign country.”
When the OIG office provided Durham’s team the “forensic report,” it represented “that it had ‘no other file[] or other documentation’ relating to this cyber matter.”
However, one week ago, Sussmann’s attorneys informed Durham’s team that Sussmann had, in fact, personally met with the DOJ’s inspector general in March 2017, when he passed on the tip about the OIG employee’s connection to a foreign VPN. While Sussmann had not told the OIG his client’s name at the time, last week his lawyers informed Durham’s team that it was Tech Executive-1, i.e., Joffe, who had discovered the OIG employee’s computer connecting to a VPN in a foreign country.
So many questions! First, why did the OIG not inform the special counsel’s office that Sussmann had met with both the inspector general and his then-general counsel? And why did the OIG falsely represent that there was no “further documentation”? Sure, it could have been accidental, but given that Durham’s attorneys publicly exposed this “mistake,” it suggests something more is afoot.
Upon learning this news, Durham’s team promptly contacted the OIG again and learned, for the first time, that Sussmann had met with both the inspector general and his then-general counsel in March 2017 about the above-described cyber matter. Since then, including over this last weekend, the OIG has been providing further documentation related to that meeting to the special counsel’s office.
Then there is the question of the veracity of the claim and what happens to the investigation. Was there really an OIG employee connecting on a foreign VPN? Who was it? Why? Did the OIG ever find out?
What about Joffe: How in the world did he discover the OIG employee’s computer connecting to a VPN in a foreign country? Was Joffe monitoring other government computers? How? Why? Was anyone else involved? Who knew?
https://thefederalist.com/2022/01/26/6-new-revelation