Durham Filing Reveals New Evidence against Clinton Lawyer Michael Sussmann
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Special Counsel John Durham filed new evidence Monday night in the case against Democratic Party lawyer Michael Sussmann, who has been charged with making a false statement to a federal agent during a September 2016 meeting with the FBI.
Sussmann allegedly failed to disclose his clients, including Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, to the FBI when he offered information in 2016 that he claimed demonstrated a secret channel between the Trump Organization and Kremlin-allied Alfa Bank.
During the meeting, Sussmann allegedly falsely claimed that he was not at the meeting on behalf of any client.
Durham’s latest filing shows that the evening before the lawyer’s meeting, he sent a text to an FBI official saying, “I’m coming on my own — not on behalf of a client or company — want to help the bureau.”
The text message offers new evidence outside of the one-on-one meeting that Sussmann did in fact claim he was not participating in the meeting on behalf of a client.
The new filing also includes rceferences to the dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. A number of the allegations included in the Steele dossier, which was used by the FBI to obtain surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, have since been discredited.
Steele was a subcontractor for Fusion GPS, a research firm that Sussmann’s former law firm, Perkins Coie, had hired to look into potential links between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Marc Elias, a campaign law specialist and one of Sussmann’s partners at Perkins Coie, was representing the Clinton campaign and hired Fusion GPS.
Though Sussmann’s indictment does not mention the Steele dossier, Durham’s new filing refers to the dossier and Steele, including a meeting with Sussmann that Steele has said included the alleged suspicions data scientists had about odd internet data they thought might indicate a secret channel between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank.
Sussmann’s lawyers asked the judge to block prosecutors from making arguments and introducing evidence related to the dossier.
Sussmann’s defense lawyers claimed Durham is promoting a “baseless narrative that the Clinton campaign conspired with others to trick the federal government into investigating ties between President Trump and Russia.”
“But there was no such conspiracy; the special counsel hasn’t charged such a crime; and the special counsel should not be permitted to turn Mr. Sussmann’s trial on a narrow false statement charge into a circus full of sideshows that will only fuel partisan fervor,” attorneys for Sussmann wrote.
Meanwhile, the new Durham filing asked the judge to prevent the defense from making arguments and presenting evidence “that depict the special counsel as politically motived or biased based on his appointment” by the Trump administration.
“The only purpose in advancing these arguments would be to stir the pot of political polarization, garner public attention and, most inappropriately, confuse jurors or encourage jury nullification,” it said. “Put bluntly, the defense wishes to make the special counsel out to be a political actor when, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.”
