Donald Trump has angrily responded to Hillary Clinton’s dismissal of accusations her campaign spied on him, describing her as ‘one of the most corrupt politicians ever to run for President’ and accusing her of having ‘broke into the White House’.
The latest twist in the six year drama was sparked by a legal filing on Friday by John Durham, the Trump-appointed special counsel who has been investigating the origins of the FBI’s Trump-Russia inquiry.
Durham included in his filing previously-known information about an Obama-era White House investigation into malware, which Trump’s supporters said was evidence that the Clinton campaign spied on her Republican rival.
Clinton, 74, laughed off the anger among Trump supporters on Thursday, in a speech in New York.
Hours later, Trump sent out a furious press release demanding more coverage of the ‘scandal’.
Donald Trump, seen at a January 29 rally in Conroe, Texas, reacted with fury to Hillary Clinton laughing off Durham’s filing
Clinton on Thursday addressed the New York state Democratic Convention
‘Crooked Hillary Clinton, one of the most corrupt politicians ever to run for President, can break into the White House, my apartment, buildings I own, and my campaign—in other words, she can spy on a Presidential candidate and ultimately, the President of the United States—and the now totally discredited Fake News Media does everything they can not to talk about it,’ Trump said.
He also lashed out at the New York attorney general, Letitia James, who is investigating the Trump Organization for tax issues. James on Thursday won a key battle in the case, with a New York judge ruling that Trump and two of his adult children – Donald Trump Jr and Ivanka – must comply with subpoenas that require them to answer questions under oath and turn over evidence.
Trump insisted: ‘THERE IS NO CASE!’
He added: ‘The targeting of a President of the United States, who got more votes while in office than any President in History, by far, and is a person that the Radical Left Democrats don’t want to run again, represents an unconstitutional attack on our Country—and the people will not allow this travesty of justice to happen.
‘It is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in history—and remember, I can’t get a fair hearing in New York because of the hatred of me by Judges and the judiciary. It is not possible!’
Clinton and Trump are seen on stage together during a debate in the 2016 election campaign
Earlier Clinton had claimed accusations her campaign spied on Trump are a ‘conspiracy’ tied to his mounting legal issues and slammed Republicans for backing ‘coup plotters’ and pushing the ‘big lie’.
In her major comeback speech in New York on Thursday, Clinton said: ‘We can’t get distracted, whether it’s by the latest culture war nonsense, or some new right wing lie on Fox or Facebook – by the way they’ve been coming after me again lately in case you might have noticed.’
She told the New York Democratic Convention: ‘It’s funny, the more trouble Trump gets into the wilder the charges and conspiracies about me seem to get.
‘So now his accountants have fired him. And investigations draw closer to him. And on the right the noise machine gets turned up,’ she added.
‘Fox leads the charge with accusations against me counting on audience to fall for it again.’
Clinton also introduced Gov. Kathy Hochul, after she won the Democratic nomination for the gubernatorial race.
Clinton didn’t mention if she has any intentions to run for president again in 2024 despite whirlwind speculation, but said the United States was ‘dangerously divided’.
‘I know many of us have thought that defeating Trump would start to heal our divisions – I certainly did – that maybe just maybe the madness would break,’ she said to a largely maskless crowd of Democratic electors.
On Friday, a legal filing by Durham accused Clinton’s campaign paid a tech firm to infiltrate Trump Tower and later White House servers to make a Trump-Russia link. Clinton has brushed off the charges broadly as a ‘fake scandal.’
After the speech she invited New York Governor Kathy Hochul on stage to congratulate her for winning the Democratic nomination for the gubernatorial race in November
Clinton gave Hochul as she handed over the stage in a speech where she attacked Republicans and said the U.S. was ‘dangerously divided’
‘But now it should be clear to all of us that the struggle for unity and democracy is far from where the Republican Party, is officially in races – when the violent insurrection is accepted as legitimate political discourse, when storming the Capitol, assaulting police officers trying to overturn an election are being normalized. We are in uncharted territory and make no mistake – our adversaries around the world are watching,’ Clinton went on.
The 2016 Democratic nominee said that the Capitol riot on January 6 was a ‘gift’ to Republicans.
‘Republicans are descending into coup-plotters,’ she said.
‘Right at precisely the moment where democracy needs champions, where we should be standing together against autocracies like Russia, and China.’
Clinton was met by protestors on Thursday as she entered the Times Square Sheraton ahead of her headline address at the convention.
Some protesters gathered to speak out against Clinton herself, while others were protesting New York vaccine mandates and other were demanding Hochul to do more to address climate change.
As Clinton walked from her van into the hotel, protesters shouted obscenities like ‘criminal,’ ‘b***h,’ and ‘w***e’ at her.
The former secretary of state, senator, first lady and 2016 Democratic nominee finally responded on Wednesday to the recent revelations that she hired people to spy on Donald Trump, calling it ‘desperate’ and a ‘fake scandal.’
Clinton, who held the Senate seat for New York from 2001 to 2009, has frequented the state’s conventions since, headlining for Cuomo’s nomination in 2018.
This year’s convention looks different than the last one.
Disgraced ex-governor Andrew Cuomo will not be present, having been replaced by Hochul, and New York City’s progressive-but-widely-unpopular Mayor Bill DeBlasio is out.
Eric Adams now serving in his place.
Clinton’s spot back on the main stage has sparked speculation that she may be plotting a political comeback.
Last month Democratic pollster Doug Schoen and former Manhattan Borough President Andrew Stein wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal last month that Clinton was ‘already in an advantageous position to become the 2024 Democratic nominee.’
Last week a source familiar with Clinton’s convention plans told CNBC that she is ‘beloved by the mainstream members of the Democratic Party’ and that ‘her popularity is likely higher than that of President Biden.’
Biden claims he will run aqain in 2024, but critics question whether he’ll be mentally savvy enough to handle it at age 82.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s floundering poll numbers and poor performance during a run for the Democratic nomination in 2016 could shut her out from the top spot.
But some Democrats disagree with party Chairman Jay Jacobs’ decision to bring back Clinton for the convention.
‘I do not think a resurrection of Hillary Clinton’s political ambitions is appropriate, nor do I think she’s helpful to the long-term future of the New York Democratic Party,’ Assemblyman Phil Steck, D-Colonie, told the New York Post.
‘I think we need to show people we care more about Main Street than Wall Street and Hillary Clinton does not do that for the Democratic Party.’
Committee member Patrick Nelson, who represents an upstate district near Saratoga Springs said: ‘I wish the Democratic Party leadership would have chosen someone for keynote speaker who was more forward-looking and unifying.
‘We have the youngest woman elected to Congress from New York — AOC,’ suggesting the party should have picked Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. ‘Hillary Clinton has been quite divisive.’
The only contested statewide race this year was the one for governor, with Hochul squaring off against New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Rep. Tom Suozzi. The convention also nominated candidates for Senate, lieutenant governor, attorney general and comptroller, though the incumbents faced no competition.
Hochul won the nomination after 85.6% of the vote, and Williams failed to qualify for the ballot. Suozzi was absent from the vote – hours earlier he had revealed that Clinton called him to pressure him to drop out of the race.
Hilary Clinton arrives at the New York State Democratic Committee 2022 State Nominating Convention, at the Sheraton Hotel, Manhattan, New York
Protesters shout at Clinton in the background as she enters the hotel ahead of her headline address
Clinton was surrounded by security as she stepped out of her SUV and into the hotel ahead of her speech on Wednesday
New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during the New York State Democratic Convention
Clinton’s spot back on the main stage has sparked speculation that she may be plotting a political comeback
Some protesters gathered to speak out against Clinton herself,
A man argues with anti-Vaccine mandate protestors outside of the New York State Democratic Committee 2022 State Nominating Convention, at the Sheraton Hotel, Manhattan, New York. 17 February 2022
People protest for Gov. Kathy Hochul to do more about climate change outside the NY Democratic Convention
All official elected party members can cast a vote, Candidates that secure 25% of the vote or more automatically get a spot on the ballot, while candidates that secure 50% or more of the vote are designated the nominee.
Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer addressed the crowd and predicted that Democrats will pick up two Senate seats in November.
‘I love New York. I love representing New York as Senate majority leader. I’ll love it even more when we pick up two more seats,’ he said. If Democrats picked up two seats, they would not have to cater to the whims of moderate Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic caucus chair, also gave an address, where he accused Republicans of ‘running away from democracy.’
‘They’ve doubled and tripled down on Trumpism, moved away from democracy move toward autocracy,’ he said, recalling his own experience on Jan. 6 and decrying election security bills across the country.
Mayor Adams used his address to focus on tackling public safety ‘head on’ and getting New Yorkers to return to work after Covid-19. ‘Don’t tell me you’re afraid of Covid on Monday and I see you at the club on Sunday,’ he said.
GOP gubernatorial candidate Andrew Giuliani was also seen outside the convention, where he told DailyMail.com that he thought Clinton was ‘perfect’ to headline the Democratic convention.
‘Clinton is perfect for the Democratic convention. She is a great symbol for the corruption that we’ve seen of New York politicians over the last decade and a half. The fact that she’s going to be introducing Crime Wave Kathy, I think, is perfect,’ Giuliani said, referring to the current governor.
‘It’s absolutely despicable she would bug Trump Tower,’ he said, reacting to the Durham findings. ‘We now find out that what she said Trump was doing, she actually was doing herself. In many ways the Russia collusion was actually Hillary. So I think that it’s an indictable offense. I would hope that Biden’s Justice Department would look at this unbiasedly. I’m not holding my breath.’
‘Trump & Fox are desperately spinning up a fake scandal to distract from his real ones. So it’s a day that ends in Y,’ Clinton tweeted ahead of the convention along with an article from the Democrat-friendly Vanity Fair.
‘The more his misdeeds are exposed, the more they lie,’ Clinton added. ‘For those interested in reality, here’s a good debunking of their latest nonsense.’
She linked to the Vanity Fair column filed under ‘conspiracy theories’ and titled: ‘You’ll never believe it but Hillary Clinton did not, in fact, spy on Trump’s White House.’
The article is by the magazine’s politics correspondent Bess Levin, who writes articles highly critical of the Trump’s and Republicans and serves as a mouthpiece for the Democratic agenda.
The subtitle of her article Clinton shared said: ‘In less breaking news, Donald Trump remains a moron.’
Levin claims in the piece that the findings do not prove that Clinton spied on Trump and instead that the cybersecurity researchers hired by Clinton were actually investigating malware at the White House.
‘Trump and company got the whole thing hilariously, mortifyingly incorrect,’ Levin wrote.
‘But fear not: We’re sure they’ll issue a lengthy correction and heartfelt apology to the people whose reputations they impugned—and the ones Trump suggested should be put to death—in no time,’ she sarcastically ended the article.
Donald Trump released two statements after Hillary’s tweet, accusing the Democrats of an ‘espionage campaign on his New York City apartment’ and ‘another way to undermine the 2020 election’.
Clinton refused to answer shouted questions on Tuesday about the Durham report. At approximately 3:40 PM she waved off questions from a DailyMail.com reporter as she left a Queens restaurant with daughter Chelsea
He also asked ‘who gave Crooked Hillary Clinton’s ‘plumbers’ their orders?’
‘With Hillarygate it is the Mainstream Media Coverup that is almost as big of a crime as the act of treasonous espionage itself. It is showing the world why our media is truly the enemy of the people!’ he added.
Clinton’s first response to the revelations comes after she refused to answer DailyMail.com’s questions on Tuesday about Special Counsel John Durham’s finding that allege her allies spied on the Trump campaign.
Clinton and her daughter Chelsea emerged from a Filipino restaurant in Queens after approximately three hours during which they appeared to be filming on Tuesday.
Exclusive pictures and video obtained by DailyMail.com show a stone-faced Clinton silently waving away repeated questions of whether she spied on Trump. She refused to say when or if she planned to comment.
The White House is still deferring any questions relating to the latest findings to the Department of Justice after it was revealed Clinton paid to try and find a link between Trump and Russia.
‘I would point you – any questions about this – to the Department of Justice,’ President Joe Biden’s Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during her briefing Wednesday.
Hillary Clinton finally addressed on Wednesday the latest revelations that she hired a firm to spy on Donald Trump, calling the allegations a ‘fake scandal’
Clinton linked to a Vanity Fair article by Bess Levin (pictured) that insisted Republicans and media got it wrong and Clinton did not spy on Trump. The subtitle of her article is: ‘In less breaking news, Donald Trump remains a moron’
When pushed on if ‘monitoring internet traffic’ could be defined as spying, as detailed in Special Counsel John Durham’s report, Psaki repeated her direction for reporters to take questions to the Justice Department.
Republicans are renewing their attacks against the Democrat-led Russia probe into Trump’s campaign connections following Durham’s filing last week.
They claim the latest bombshell proves Democrats will do anything to win – including illegal acts – and are demanding probes into Representative Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler so they are held accountable for being ‘complacent’ in Clinton’s spying.
Durham’s report alleged that Clinton did pay to have Trump Tower and White House servers hacked to create a fake scandal despite her lawyer Michael Sussmann telling federal officers that he was not hired by anyone specific to find the connections.
Representative Pat Fallon told Newsmax on Wednesday: ‘This will put the final nail in the Clinton candidacy coffin – once and for all.’
‘We an be sure that Hillary Clinton will be flippant about it,’ the Texas Representative said to the conservative news outlet.
‘This is a real issue. I think this is literally going to sink the Clinton political machine once and for all.’
Press Secretary Jen Psaki continues to refuse to comment on the latest revelations, referring reporters to the Justice Department for any questions relation to Durham’s report – even though there are allegations that Biden knew about the claims when he was still vice president
Arizona Representative Andy Biggs sent out a statement Wednesday saying: ‘Durham’s recent revelations show what we knew all along – Hillary Clinton and her Democrat cronies actively spied on President Trump.
‘No American should accept that a presidential candidate engaged in criminal activity and created a false scandal about their opponent to win an election.’
‘These accusations beg the question, what else will Democrats do to win an election?’ Biggs asked.
‘Hillary Clinton and the corrupt actors involved in this scheme should be prosecuted. And the media should uphold their duty and responsibility to report the truth.’
Republicans are blaming media, as well as Democrats, for allowing the truth to go uncovered until now.
‘For years the media parroted the Democrat narrative about Russia collusion. And now as we’re learning, week after week, that was a complete lie,’ Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott said on Tuesday.
‘The latest with the Durham report is that the Clinton campaign – the same group that fear mongered this Russian collusion – actually spied on the President of the United States,’ he added. ‘They spied on the President of the United States! They spied and they lied.’
‘We need accountability. We need accountability for the Clinton campaign, we need accountability for Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler because they were complicit in this,’ Scott said.
‘So the media needs to start doing their job, talk about exactly what’s coming out and hold these people accountable. On top of that, the Attorney General [Merrick] Garland – he needs to be out there making sure that Durham has all the resources he needs to do a thorough investigation.’
Trump era Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said this week that then-Vice President Joe Biden and President at the time Barack Obama knew Clinton’s 2016 campaign was trying to hack into Trump’s servers to ‘fabricate’ links to the Kremlin.
He also said Durham has ‘enough evidence’ to indict ‘multiple people’.
Clinton allegedly approved in the 2016 election a plan concerning U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server,’ according to a CIA Counterintelligence Operational Lead (CIOL) first revealed when a heavily-redacted version became declassified in October 2020.
The filing notes that ‘On or about October 12, 2018, Law Firm-1 issued a statement to multiple media outlets in which the firm stated, in part: ‘When Sussmann met with [the FBI General Counsel] on behalf of a client, it was not connected to the firm’s representation of the Hillary Clinton Campaign, the DNC or any Political Law Group client.’
It also says that the ‘then-Managing Partner of Law Firm-1 wrote a letter to the editor of a major newspaper in which he asserted, in part, ‘Mr. Sussmann’s meeting with the FBI General Counsel James Baker was on behalf of a client with no connections to either the Clinton campaign, the DNC or any other Political Law Group client.’
Durham’s filings now reveal that Clinton’s campaign did hire Sussmann and that he lied to federal officers. He has pleaded not guilty.
