Researcher Behind Trump Alfa Bank Story Tried To Furiously Fight Off Special Counsel Investigation

New documents show the Georgia Tech researcher holds more disdain for the Special Counsel investigating the hoax than the people who got him embroiled in it.

wo days after the Clinton campaign attorney who peddled the Alfa Bank hoax to the FBI was indicted, a Georgia Tech researcher connected to the project, who admitted the team was motivated mostly by hatred of Trump, penned a secret document entitled “fallacies” to rebut the indictment’s allegations. That document and a cache of emails obtained first by The Federalist reveal that the Georgia Tech researcher holds more disdain for the Special Counsel investigating the hoax than the people who got him embroiled in it.

The documents, obtained from Georgia Tech pursuant to a Right-To-Know request, paint Manos Antonakakis, the man identified merely as Researcher-1 in the Michael Sussmann indictment, as but tangentially connected to the Alfa Bank research. Those same documents, however, reveal that Antonakakis fails to grasp how scandalous — and how dangerous to our country and her national defense — the exploitation of sensitive government and proprietary data for political purposes is.


The emails provide some of the backstory to the Special Counsel’s indictment of Michael Sussmann on one count of lying to FBI General Counsel James Baker. That indictment alleged that when Sussmann met with Baker on September 19, 2016, to provide the FBI attorney with data and “white papers” that purported to establish a secret communication channel between the Trump organization and the Russia-connected Alfa Bank, Sussmann falsely claimed he was not acting on behalf of a client, when in reality Sussmann was working both for the Clinton campaign and an unnamed “U.S. technology industry executive” since confirmed to be Rodney Joffe.

While the indictment of Sussmann came less than six months ago, the Special Counsel’s interest in the Alfa Bank hoax dates back to at least the first half of 2020, when a Department of Justice investigator contacted David Dagon, known generically in the Sussmann indictment as Researcher-2. At that time — possibly as early as March of 2020 — Dagon told the DOJ investigator that he didn’t believe Georgia Tech or the Department of Defense agency that was funding their research would allow him to talk with Durham’s team.

But in a June 29, 2020, email to Dagon, the DOJ investigator noted that neither Georgia Tech nor the DOD agency DARPA — which stands for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — objected to an interview. The email to Dagon then concluded: “As I mentioned to you previously, our investigation has found that you have knowledge relevant to it. To that end, we believe that you are a witness who can provide valuable information to advance our investigation.”

It is unclear whether Dagon responded to the Special Counsel’s request for an interview and neither Dagon nor his attorney answered a request for comment.

While the Special Counsel’s office attempted to interview Dagon as early as March of 2020, the emails obtained by The Federalist suggest that it was not until June 29, 2020, that they first contacted Antonakakis asking him to contact the DOJ about a possible interview. Antonakakis told the DOJ investigator that “at this time I am not interested in participating in...

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