NBC Defends Sussmann, Hillary from Accusations of Spying on Trump

The following is the Thursday schedule NBC Nightly NewsBreaking the silence of the evening news about the shocking findings by Special Counsel John Durham that showed that Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign lawyer was spying for him, the Newscast broke it. They not only broke the network blackout but also defended Hillary Clinton as well as Michael Sussmann, the campaign lawyer.

Before even getting to any of the details of Durham’s court filing against Sussmann, senior Washington correspondent Hallie Jackson highlighted Clinton scoffing at and downplaying the accusations as if that meant anything:

CLINTON: In case you haven’t noticed, they’ve been following me around lately.

JACKSON: Referencing The unproven accusations made by some conservativesHer campaign spy on Donald Trump’s then-President.

CLINTON: It’s funny. Trump is more in trouble the more conspiracy theories and charges against him become.

“It comes after a new filing dropped from Special Counsel John Durham, who is investigating the origins of the Russia investigation with Clinton’s adversaries point out the filing to prove something wrong happened.” Jackson herself scoffed.

Umm, Hallie. Sussmann is charged with lying to federal agents. So, “something nefarious” seems to have happened. Can you explain how Sussmann’s work was being charged by the campaign in the absence of the other filing?

Ignoring that previous indictment of Sussmann that occurred months ago, Jackson suggested “[t]He whole process began last week.”

And while she did report the filing said Sussmann received “non-public data about communications between computer servers at the White House and two Trump-owned buildings in New York,” Jackson parroted Sussmann’s lawyers who tacitly admitted their client was monitoring Trump by saying, “Data collection concluded even before former President Trump took office when Barack Obama was president.”

Jackson also noted that the filing stated that the tech executive who gave Sussmann the information was “‘exploiting his access’ to that White House data to search for ‘derogatory information’ on Mr. Trump.” But according to her, that somehow meant “[t]It does not claim that hacking was a crime in the court filing. The court filing also does not mention that anything illegally spied upon..”

While Jackson was saying that, she also brought on NBC investigative correspondent Tom Winter to argue that the “[e]Unread e-mails were not allowed. They couldn’t even have read the text messages. They couldn’t even have seen the content that was on the screens.”

Now notice how Jackson’s shrewd use of the phrase “illegally spied on” is coupled with that argument about reading messages. Another tacit admission is that Trump was being monitored by someone else. Essentially, what was going on was a virtual stakeout where Sussmann was receiving reports about what was coming and going from Trump’s digitally.

There’s a conspicuous absence of journalistic curiously and skepticism from Jackson about what was going on against Trump. It’s also another example of the word games the liberal media play when the facts are not to their liking.

NBC’s gross defense of Clinton and Sussmann from the obvious truths of the case was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Aleve and Fidelity. The links below provide their contact information.

Below is the transcript. Click “expand to read:

NBC Nightly News
February 17, 2022
Eastern: 7:08 p.m.

LESTER HOLT: And tonight Hillary Clinton is firing back at former President Trump, saying he’s desperately spinning up a fake scandal with new allegations that her 2016 campaign spied on him. These claims are based upon a new filing made by a special attorney. Hallie has additional information for us.

[Cuts to video]

HALLIE JACKSON – Hillary Clinton in New York late today

HILLARY CLINTON

JACKSON: Referring the unproven claims of some conservatives that her campaign monitored then-President Donald Trump.

CLINTON: It’s funny. Trump is more in trouble the more conspiracy theories and charges against him become.

JACKSON – This is the result of a new file from John Durham (Special Counsel), who is looking into the Russia probe’s origins. Clinton’s critics point to this filing as proof that something wrong happened.

REP. JIM JORDAN(R-OH),: They were spying for the president in office of the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED WIMBER: Hillary Clinton’s campaign paid for Donald Trump’s spying.

SEN. ROBERT JOHNSON (R, WI) This silence from most media outlets is extremely telling.

JACKSON: The filing doesn’t support the claim that the Clinton campaign paid for former-President Trump to spy on. It all began last week around the case Michael Sussmann (cyber-security lawyer, with connections to the Democratic Party), which was the subject of the whole affair.

The motion says a tech executive gave Sussmann non-public data about communications between computer servers at the White House and two Trump-owned buildings in New York, describing the executive as “exploiting his access” to that White House data to search for “derogatory information” on Mr. Trump.

The filing indicates that Sussmann shared exaggerated statements with the CIA about Trump associates using Russian-made cellphones near the White House. A claim the special counsel did not find evidence of. But Sussmann’s attorneys counter that Durham well knows the data collection ended even before former President Trump took office when Barack Obama was president.

Experts have also told NBC News that the data on computers is limited.

TOM WINTER, NBC Investigative Correspondent: The email could not have been read. It was impossible to read text messages. The content on their screens could not have been seen by them.

JACKSON: This court filing doesn’t allege hacking crime. The court filing also does not claim that anything illegally spied upon was claimed. Hallie Johnson, NBC News Washington.