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Exclusive — Amanda Milius: Marc Elias Leaving Perkins Coie 'Signifies They Know Something Is Up' with Durham Investigation

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Marc Elias’s recent departure from the Perkins Coie law firm is related to an investigation by special counsel John Durham into the origins of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) surveillance of former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, Amanda Milius, director of The Plot Against the President, said on Monday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.

Durham’s investigation led to a grand jury’s indictment of Michael Sussman, another lawyer who also recently resigned from Perkins Coie, for making a false statement to the FBI. Sussman is alleged to have lied about his representation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign when he requested a meeting with the FBI’s general counsel to accuse the Trump Organization of “covert communications” with a Russian bank.

“Democrat election lawyer Marc Elias, a key figure in the ‘Russia collusion’ hoax, has parted ways with the Perkins Coie law firm, ahead of the anticipated release of Special Counsel John Durham’s report into the origins of the Russia inquiry,” Breitbart News reported August 22.

Milius told Breitbart News Daily, “Durham is finally coming out with some stuff, and anybody that’s confused or wants some clarity on why the first indictment is so huge about Perkins Coie — the law firm that represents the DNC — our movie, The Plot Against the President, literally outlines this entire thing. I’m actually extremely excited about the Durham stuff.”

“I had some conversations with [Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA)] about this that were very interesting. Watch the movie if you want to refresher. That’s your Russiagate refresher,” Milius continued.

“Perkins Coie, as far as non-government institutions go, [is] probably the most powerful group of people in the country. Mark Elias left a couple of weeks ago, which is very weird, and signifies that they know something’s up. I think that signals that there’s so much weight to this,” she stated.

“I don’t want to get my hopes up entirely, because everybody’s like, ‘Oh, we’ve been waiting for your repercussions for Russiagate for so long, and nothing will ever happen.’ I agree, but if guys like Congressman Nunes — who is like the guru of this whole thing, he really understands this better than anybody — if he thinks that he likes what he sees from this, and that’s kind of what I’m getting [from him], then that gives me a lot of hope. That’s a very positive sign, because there’s nobody that knows about this stuff more than he does,” she said.

“The fact that nothing has leaked [from Durham’s investigation] over the course of how long this has taken shows that the bad guys aren’t involved. At least we know that. I think that’s a sign that we can trust some of what’s coming out of this. Whether it’ll have any power or if [this indictment] will have any impact, we’ll see what happens,” Milius concluded.

Breitbart News Daily broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

Russian Communists Complain Duma Elections Are Not Being Conducted Fairly

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MOSCOW (AP) – The head of Russia’s second-largest political party is alleging widespread violations in the election for a new national parliament, in which his party is widely expected to gain seats.

Communist Party head Gennady Zyuganov said on Saturday — the second of three days of voting in the Russian election — that police and the national elections commission must respond to reports of “a number of absolutely egregious facts” including ballot-stuffing in several regions.

The Golos election-monitoring movement and independent media also reported violations including vote-buying and lax measures for guarding ballots at polling stations.

The United Russia party, which is diligently loyal to President Vladimir Putin, appears certain to retain dominance in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, but some projections suggest it could lose its current two-thirds majority, which is enough to change the constitution. The Communists are expected to pick up the biggest share of any seats lost by United Russia.

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Russian Communist party leader Gennady Zyuganov (R) walks with supporters towards the Mausoleum of the Soviet state founder and revolutionary leader Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov aka Lenin to attend a flower-laying ceremony marking the 151th anniversary of his birth, on Red Square in Moscow, on April 22, 2021. (Photo by NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP) (Photo by NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images)

Although the Communists generally support Kremlin initiatives in the parliament, their gaining seats would be a loss of face for United Russia. The Communists are seen as potentially benefiting from the “Smart Voting” program promoted by the team of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which aims to undermine United Russia by advising voters on which candidates are in the strongest position to defeat the dominant party’s candidates.

However, it’s unclear how effective the program will be after Apple and Google removed Smart Voting apps from their stores under Kremlin pressure. Authorities previously blocked access to its website. Navalny’s organizations have been declared extremist, blocking anyone associated with them from running for office, thereby eliminating most significant opposition from the election.

Zyuganov said the party has tallied at least 44 incidents of voting violations and that the party has applied for permits to hold protests during the week after the voting ends Sunday.

On Saturday, the news website Znak said a resident of the Moscow region was offering 1,000 rubles ($15) to people who voted for United Russia. The publication said it called the man, who said the payment would come if the caller provided evidence of his vote through a messaging app.

The Golos movement cited reports from its observers and local news media of an array of apparent violations, including ballots being stored overnight in a cabinet with a broken door and of envelopes for storing ballot tallies appearing to have been opened and then resealed.

On the first day of voting Friday, unexpectedly long lines formed at some polling places, and independent media suggested this could show that state institutions and companies were forcing employees to vote.

Media in St. Petersburg reported on suspected cases of “carousel voting,” in which voters cast ballots at several different polling stations. An AP video journalist saw the same voters, believed to be military school students, at two different polling stations; one of them said the group had first gone to the wrong polling station.

A local elections commission member posted video in which a man appeared to have tried to cast several ballots and then was confronted by a poll worker. The man in the video said he had obtained his ballots at a subway station.

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A woman casts her ballot at a polling station during the second day of the three-day parliamentary and local elections in Moscow on September 18, 2021. – The vote will see lawmakers elected to the 450-member lower house State Duma, where United Russia currently holds 334 seats, and to several local legislatures. After a year that saw a historic crackdown on the opposition and with President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party floundering in the polls, authorities are doing what they can to drum up interest in parliamentary elections taking place over three days from 17-19 September, 2021. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP) (Photo by ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images)

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Biden’s COVID-19 Foreign Entry Restrictions Make No Sense

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President Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin shake hands at the U.S.-Russia summit in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Shortly after taking office in January, President Biden issued an executive order to “restrict and suspend the entry into the United States, as immigrants or nonimmigrants, of noncitizens of the United States (“noncitizens”) who were physically present within the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom (excluding overseas territories outside of Europe), the Republic of Ireland, the Federative Republic of Brazil, and the Republic of South Africa during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States.”

The executive order included exemptions for foreign diplomats and certain family members of U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. But these travel restrictions are still in place, and unless a person is in those categories of exceptions, it is difficult, if not quite impossible, to legally enter the U.S. from those countries. A resident of one of the listed countries could, if they had the time and money, travel to a third country that isn’t on the list, spend two weeks there, and then fly into the U.S. with less hassle.

Biden’s list of countries appears to be based upon countries where a significant variant had emerged – the U.K., India, Brazil, South Africa, among others. But the list of countries has not been updated, and thus it is now easier to enter the U.S. from Russia than from any of the countries listed in Biden’s executive order. Even with its official figures of dubious accuracy, Russia has the fourth or fifth most cases in the world since the start of this pandemic (the United Kingdom is close). There are not similar restrictions for Turkey, which has the seventh most; Argentina, which has the eighth most, or Colombia, which has the ninth most.

This policy does not make sense, even if you look at the world’s current COVID-19 hotspots. The Philippines ranked fifth in the world in most new cases yesterday, with more than 22,000. Turkey ranked sixth with more than 20,000; Russia ranked seventh with more than 17,000, and Malaysia ranked eighth. None of these countries are covered by Biden’s executive order.

Nor do these policies make sense from the perspective of vaccination rates. The current policy of the administration is that it is easier to enter the U.S. from Egypt, where 3.5 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, than Portugal, where 76 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. It is easier to enter the U.S. from non- Schengen European countries like Albania (22.8 percent vaccinated) than it is to enter from Malta (83 percent vaccinated).

The Biden administration policy does not make sense based on case numbers, vaccination rates, or treating our allies better than we treat, say, Russia. But this is far from the first time that Joe Biden and his administration have treated Vladimir Putin’s regime nicer than it treats our allies.

Why Ukrainians Feel Betrayed by Biden

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Tthe Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project logo on a pipe at the Chelyabinsk pipe rolling plant in Chelyabinsk, Russia, February 26, 2020. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Today I reported on a forthcoming letter by dozens of Ukrainian anti-corruption leaders, across government and civil society, warning that President Biden’s approval of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is a gift to the Kremlin and harmful to counter-kleptocracy efforts.

One additional aspect that I didn’t get to convey in detail in my report (which you can see here) is just the sheer extent to which they feel betrayed by Biden, who previously pledged to stand by Ukraine and then, as president, approved a project sure to increase Vladimir Putin’s leverage over Europe and ability to destabilize their country.

Gennady Kurochka, the founder of the Ukraine Crisis Media Center and organizer of the letter I reported on, elaborated on this feeling of betrayal in a text message:

Many of the letter’s authors are representatives of the civil society in Ukraine – activists, volunteers, veterans – those who have personally met with Joe Biden when he visited Kyiv. Maintaining eye contact, he spoke about Russia, about the Nord Stream, about things which are consonant with our position. Furthermore, he later recalled these meetings with a warm attitude and the atmosphere of a mutual understanding. Now, as President of the United States, Joe Biden says and does things that are often exactly the opposite, and we would like to convey our disappointment with him and remind him of the common values and ideologies that we shared in the past.

Kurochka also offered a comment that struck me as particularly resonant in context of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan: He emphasized that Ukraine is pulling its weight and fighting its own battles. Biden’s efforts to blame the Afghan army for the country’s collapse seem to have made a significant impact on U.S. partners:

This letter is first and foremost addressed to the President of the United States, and its purpose is about shared values and interests. You can take a trillion dollars and try to instill democracy in a distant medieval country, but that would be the same as just burning the money. And at the same time refuse to support a European country, whose people, in fact, with their blood, the lives of their sons and daughters, have proven their adherence to the values  shared with the American people. A country, which for seven years now without American weapons, without American troops on its territory, which has been one-on-one defending its freedom against one of the strongest armies in the world.

Ukrainians, and many others who might depend somewhat on the U.S. for security, want to emphasize that they’re pulling their own weight, as they attempt to avoid drawing the ire of American presidents eager to end “forever wars.”