The Russian bank swept up in debunked claims of a secret backchannel with the Trump Organization during its namesake’s 2016 campaign has dropped its defamation lawsuit against the opposition research firm that hired British ex-spy Christopher Steele.
Alfa Bank, which was sanctioned by the Biden administration as part of sweeping U.S. financial penalties against Russia just after Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine late last month, and Fusion GPS told a federal court Friday that they jointly agreed “that this action be dismissed with prejudice as to all claims.”
Alfa Bank’s wealthy Russian co-founders, Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven, and German Khan, filed a lawsuit against Fusion and co-founder Glenn Simpson in 2017. Their lawyers alleged their clients were “defamed in widely disseminated political opposition research reports commissioned by political opponents of candidate Donald Trump” and that those reports, a reference to portions of the dossier, “falsely accuse” the men “of criminal conduct and alleged cooperation with the ‘Kremlin’ to influence the 2016 presidential election.” The men said they and their bank were just “collateral damage in a U.S. political operation” run by Fusion, claims the opposition research firm denied.
Fusion sought to dismiss the long-running lawsuit on Tuesday. Its attorneys told the court the three Russian oligarchs “have now been sanctioned by the European Union” and claimed that “these sanctions are rooted in decades of widely known information” about their “mutually beneficial relationship with Putin.” Fusion added that Alfa Bank “has been sanctioned by the United States as well as by the European Union.” The opposition research firm said the reputations of the businessmen are “based on what they really have done” and “have now been condemned universally be Western Democracies with the imposition of sanctions and could not possibly have been harmed by the alleged publications.”
Michael Sussmann, a Democratic cybersecurity lawyer, was indicted last year in special counsel John Durham’s criminal inquiry for allegedly concealing his clients, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign, from the FBI in September 2016 when he shared information suggesting a secret backchannel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank. The bank has consistently denied collusion allegations, and the new U.S. sanctions make no mention of those claims. Sussmann, for his part, has pleaded not guilty.
Special counsel Robert Mueller, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, and congressional investigations did not uncover any evidence that the backchannel claims were true. The Steele dossier was used by the FBI to obtain secret surveillance authority against onetime Trump campaign associate Carter Page in its Russia investigation.
RUSSIAN BANK AT CENTER OF DEBUNKED COLLUSION CLAIMS SANCTIONED
Fridman, who had been worth $13.4 billion, according to Forbes, has voiced objections to Putin’s war against Ukraine.
“I was born in Western Ukraine and lived there until I was 17. My parents are Ukrainian citizens and live in Lviv, my favorite city,” Fridman wrote in an email to staff at his U.K. equity firm, LetterOne. “But I have also spent much of my life as a citizen of Russia, building and growing businesses. I am deeply attached to Ukrainian and Russian peoples and see the current conflict as a tragedy for them both.”
Fridman also warned that the war is splitting countries with common bonds.
“I do not make political statements, I am a businessman with responsibilities to my many thousands of employees in Russia and Ukraine,” Fridman wrote. “I am convinced however that war can never be the answer. This crisis will cost lives and damage two nations who have been brothers for hundreds of years … While a solution seems frighteningly far off, I can only join those whose fervent desire is for the bloodshed to end.”
More than three dozen representatives of Russia’s business community met with Putin just after his invasion, including Aven, according to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
The European Union on Monday sanctioned Fridman and Aven. The EU said Fridman “has managed to cultivate strong ties to the administration of Vladimir Putin, and has been referred to as a top Russian financier and enabler of Putin’s inner circle” and that Aven “is one of Vladimir Putin’s closest oligarchs.” The EU said Fridman and Aven “actively supported materially or financially and benefited from Russian decision-makers responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilization of Ukraine.”
Fridman and Aven released a statement this month saying they “are profoundly shocked by the demonstrably false and defamatory allegations made in the EU Regulation purporting to justify the basis on which we have been sanctioned” and “will contest the spurious and unfounded basis for the imposition of these sanctions.” The duo said sanctioning them “will have no impact on Russia’s actions in Ukraine because Petr and Mikhail have no financial or political relationship with President Putin.”
Mueller’s special counsel report stated in 2019 that Aven “told the Office that he is one of approximately 50 wealthy Russian businessmen who regularly meet with Putin in the Kremlin.”
Steele was working for Putin-linked oligarch Oleg Deripaska before, during, and after his time targeting then-candidate Donald Trump with research that amounted to his infamous dossier. Deripaska, also known for his prior business relationship with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and who is accused of assisting the Kremlin’s influence operations worldwide, recently averred that “we need peace” and shared a lengthy video criticizing Putin and his invasion.
The Justice Department announced Task Force KleptoCapture earlier this month, which is aimed at prosecuting Russian oligarchs and enforcing U.S. sanctions.
A court in the United Kingdom ordered Steele to pay thousands in damages to Aven and Fridman in July 2020 related to allegations about the Russians and an “illicit cash” delivery to Putin in “Memorandum 112” of his dossier. Steele testified that Sussmann first passed along to him certain Alfa Bank claims.
Steele put his research together at the behest of Fusion, funded by Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee through the Perkins Coie law firm. According to Simpson, Fusion was paid $50,000 per month from Perkins, and Marc Elias, head of the Perkins political law group and Clinton’s campaign counsel, hired Fusion, which paid Steele $168,000.
The FBI told Steele in October 2016 it was looking into a variety of Trump associates, and Steele passed along at least some of this to Fusion. The firm was simultaneously working for Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya of the now-infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting.
Durham’s investigation appears to be painting the picture that many of the biggest Trump-Russia collusion claims can be traced back to the Clinton campaign and Democratic operatives.
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Daniel Jones, lead author of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s interrogation program and a former top aide for Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein who has pushed the Alfa Bank claims, spent the post-2016 era funneling millions to Steele and Fusion to continue Russia-related research.
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, played a key role in promoting the Alfa Bank claims as a Clinton campaign adviser in 2016. Sullivan testified that he first met with Simpson in February 2017 — along with Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta.
In the closing days of the race, Clinton tweeted about Alfa Bank: “Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank.” She also shared a lengthy statement from Sullivan, who said, “We can only assume that federal authorities will now explore this direct connection between Trump and Russia.”
