John Durham is now expected to indict lawyer Michael Sussmann, who was connected to Hillary Clinton during her 2016 campaign, for lying to the FBI at a meeting about the Trump-Russia hoax.
“The case against Sussmann is focused on the issue of who his client was when he revealed certain suspicions about Trump and Russia to the F.B.I. in Sept. 2016,” The NY Times reported. “Among other items, investigators have looked at whether Sussmann was secretly partnering with the Clinton campaign — which he denies.”
Sussmann’s attorneys told The NY Times that they expect their client to get indicted and say he is innocent. Durham will need to bring the charges within the next two days because a five-year statute for such cases.
In his meeting with James Baker, “Sussmann gave information and analysis from a cybersecurity team who believed that odd internet data could be evidence of covert communications between computer servers connected with the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, which is a Kremlin-linked Russian bank,” The NY Times reported. “The F.B.I. eventually said those concerns were not true. The special counsel who then took over the investigation, Robert S. Mueller III, ignored the issue in his report.”
Durham reportedly revealed that Sussmann informed Baker during the meeting back in 2016 was not representing a client when he pushed for the meeting. However, in a 2017 testimony before Congress, Sussmann said he wanted the meeting for an unnamed client who worked within cybersecurity.
“Moreover, internal billing Durham got from Perkins Coie show that when Sussmann logged certain hours as being about the Alfa Bank issue — though not the speaking with Baker — he billed this time to Clinton’s campaign,” the report said. “In their attempt to prevent any indictment, Sussmann’s attorneys insisted their client was representing the cybersecurity firm he spoke about to Congress and was not there for the Clinton campaign. They also argued that the billing documents are misleading since Sussmann was not charging his client for the Alfa Bank work, but had to show internally he was working. He was speaking about the matter with Elias and the campaign gave a flat retainer to the firm, so Sussmann’s hours did not lead to any new charges, they reported.”
The report stated that Durham’s actions caused outsiders to think he is pursuing the idea that the Clinton campaign used Perkins Coie to give suspicious data to the FBI in order to hurt Trump’s campaign.
Author: Blake Ambrose
