President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is referred to in one of the indictments obtained by special counsel John Durham in his investigation into the origins of the Russia probe of former President Donald Trump, Fox News reported Tuesday.
The revelation — which echoed a September piece by Post columnist Paul Sperry — immediately raised questions about Sullivan’s future in the White House.
Sullivan is unnamed, but Fox cited two “well-placed sources” who identified him as the “foreign policy advisor” referenced in the charges against former Democratic National Committee lawyer Michael Sussmann.
The development marks the closest that Durham has come to anyone directly associated with Biden’s administration.
Sussmann’s indictment details how an unnamed Clinton campaign lawyer “exchanged emails with the Clinton Campaign’s campaign manager, communications director, and foreign policy advisor concerning the Russian Bank-1 allegations that Sussmann had recently shared” with an unnamed reporter.
There’s no indication that Sullivan is a target of Durham’s probe into the origins of the FBI investigation of suspected ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign, Fox News said.
In addition to citing sources who identified Sullivan as the unnamed Clinton foreign policy adviser, Sperry’s Post column further suggested that he may have committed perjury during closed-door congressional testimony in December 2017.
US Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) — the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, which took Sullivan’s testimony — said, “It seems like a lot of the key Russia hoaxers fell upward and got promotions in the Biden administration.”
“If Jake Sullivan was involved in the hoax, he should come clean and give a full, honest account of his role — but I won’t hold my breath for that,” Nunes added.
At that time, Sullivan reportedly denied knowing any specific details about the campaign’s opposition research efforts or that Sussmann’s law firm was working for the campaign until October of that year.
During Tuesday’s White House briefing, Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked if there’s “any conflict here that would preclude Sullivan from being able to carry out his duty.”
Jean-Pierre said she was unaware of the Fox News report — which had yet to post at the time — and declined to comment.
Jean-Pierre was also asked about the largely discredited dossier of opposition research on Trump compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, one of whose sources — Russia analyst Igor Danchenko — was arrested in connection with the Durham probe last week.
“I refer you to the Department of Justice. I’m not going to comment on that from here,” Jean-Pierre said.
Sussmann has pleaded not guilty to allegedly lying to the FBI by hiding the fact that he was working as a Clinton campaign adviser when he tipped off the feds about suspected electronic communication between Russia’s Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization.
Neither Sullivan’s office nor the Justice Department immediately returned requests for comment.