The conservative media also distorted what the filing said. For example, Mr Durham’s file never used the word ‘infiltrate’. And it was never alleged that Mr. Joffe’s company was paid for by the Clinton campaign.
Most importantly, contrary to reporting, the filing never stated that the White House data under scrutiny was from the Trump era. According to lawyers for David Dagon, a data scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology who helped develop the Yota analysis, the data came — so-called DNS logs, which record when computers or smartphones have prepared to communicate with servers over the Internet. – of Barack Obama’s presidency.
“What Trump and some news outlets are saying is wrong,” said Jody Westby and Mark Rasch, both attorneys for Mr. Dagon. “The cybersecurity researchers examined malware at the White House, did not spy on the Trump campaign, and to our knowledge all the data they used was non-private DNS data from before Trump took office.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for Mr Joffe said he was “contrary to the allegations in this recent filing”, was apolitical, did not work for any political party and had lawful access under a contract to work with others to obtain DNS data. — including from the White House — to hunt for security breaches or threats.
After Russians hacked into White House and Democrat networks in 2015 and 2016, it went on to say, cybersecurity researchers were “deeply concerned” to find data indicating that Russian YotaPhones were operating near the Trump campaign and the The White House had thus “prepared a report of their findings, which was then shared with the CIA”
A spokesman for Mr Durham declined to comment.
Mr. Durham was ordered by then Attorney General, William P. Barr, to search the Russia investigation for misconduct in May 2019 when Mr. Trump escalated his claims that he was the victim of a “deep state” conspiracy . But after nearly three years, he has not yet developed cases against senior government officials.
Instead, Mr. Durham has developed two cases against people linked to outside attempts to understand Russian election meddling, raising unproven, and sometimes flimsy or subsequently refuted, suspicions about alleged ties to Mr. Trump or his campaign.