Durham Expected to Indict Hillary Clinton-Linked Lawyer in Trump-Russia Probe
Attorney Michael Sussmann linked to Clinton campaign
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Special counsel John Durham is expected to indict Clinton-connected attorney Michael Sussmann for allegedly lying to the FBI during a meeting regarding issues connected to Trump and Russia.
Sussmann was linked to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, according to reports.
The New York Times reported that the case against Mr. Sussmann focuses on who his client was when he raised suspicions about Donald Trump and Russia to the FBI.
Investigators have also examined if Sussmann was secretly working for the Clinton campaign, although he denies this.
Sussmann's lawyers say they expect him to be indicted and claim that he is innocent.
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Durham will bring the charges in the next few days because of a five-year statute of limitations on such cases.
According to The New York Times, in the meeting with James Baker, "Sussmann relayed data and analysis from cybersecurity researchers who thought that odd internet data might be evidence of a covert communications channel between computer servers associated with the Trump Organization and with Alfa Bank, a Kremlin-linked Russian financial institution."
But eventually, the FBI ultimately decided such concerns held no merit.
The matter was ignored by Robert Mueller, who took over the Russia investigation.
Durham discovered that in a 2016 meeting, Sussmann told Baker he was not representing any client when he sought the meeting.
But in a 2017 deposition before Congress, Sussmann testified he did seek the meeting on behalf of an unnamed client specializing in cybersecurity.
"Moreover, internal billing records Mr. Durham is said to have obtained from Perkins Coie are said to show that when Mr. Sussmann logged certain hours as working on the Alfa Bank matter — though not the meeting with Mr. Baker — he billed the time to Mrs. Clinton's 2016 campaign," the report continued.
"In their attempt to head off any indictment, Mr. Sussmann's lawyers are said to have insisted that their client was representing the cybersecurity expert he mentioned to Congress and was not there on behalf of or at the direction of the Clinton campaign."
"They are also said to have argued that the billing records are misleading because Mr. Sussmann was not charging his client for work on the Alfa Bank matter but needed to show internally that he was working on something.
"He was discussing the issue with Mr. Elias, and the campaign paid a flat monthly retainer to the firm, so Mr. Sussmann's hours did not result in any additional charges, they said."
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The report claimed Durham's actions convinced outsiders he was pursuing the theory that the Clinton campaign used Perkins Coie to inform the FBI on Trump and Russia to damage his campaign.
Last month, Neon Nettle reported that Democrat election lawyer Marc Elias, a prominent figure in the debunked "Russia collusion" claims, left his law firm ahead of the "Durham Report."
Elias was Perkins Coie's attorney who arranged for the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) to hire the Fusion GPS opposition research firm to create the now-debunked anti-Trump "Steele dossier."
Some personal news.@EliasLawGroup pic.twitter.com/2R2PLT6fmY
— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) August 22, 2021
The Washington Post exposed Elias's involvement, despite his past denials, in an October 2017 investigative report:
The Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund research that resulted in a now-famous dossier containing allegations about President Trump's connections to Russia and possible coordination between his campaign and the Kremlin, people familiar with the matter said.
Marc E. Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the DNC, retained Fusion GPS, a Washington firm, to conduct the research.
After that, Fusion GPS hired dossier author Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer with ties to the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community, according to those people who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law scholar, called Elias's departure significant as it came "before the release of the John Durham report."
