[RETRACTED] Durham: Hillary Clinton Asked the CIA for a Special Favor After Campaign Hacked Trump's WH Files
RETRACTION, Feb. 21, 2022: The Western Journal has retracted this story because of several inaccuracies caused, in part, by a general failure to abide by our editorial standards. Contrary to our headline, Hillary Clinton did not ask the CIA for anything. An attorney who represented her campaign met with the CIA, but the motion filed by the special counsel’s office doesn’t state or even imply that he asked for anything . In addition, the motion specifically stated that the attorney, Michael Sussmann, was representing not Clinton, but “Tech Executive-1,” identified in media reports as Rodney Joffe, during that meeting. Moreover, the computer files were not hacked, as we claimed, but “exploited” by Joffe . As he had access only because his company had an unrelated contract with the federal government, it is possible that this exploitation was illegal or unethical, but it should be noted that Joffe has not been criminally charged. As opposed to having been directly engaged by Clinton or her campaign, Joffe apparently hoped for some sort of government appointment in a future Clinton administration, and was therefore “seeking to please certain ‘VIPs'” in the Clinton campaign and Sussmann’s law firm. The general counsel for the Clinton campaign “met and communicated with” Sussmann and Joffe with regard to the data in question, but there is no indication in Durham’s filing that the campaign funded the activity or that Hillary Clinton herself was even aware of it. Based on sworn testimony, if Sussmann did ask the CIA for a “special favor” as our headline stated, he did so on behalf of Joffe, not Clinton or the Clinton campaign.
The Western Journal deeply regrets the numerous errors in this commentary, and is taking steps to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
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