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Special Counsel John Durham argues Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann “misled” the FBI in September 2016 by “disseminating highly explosive allegations” about candidate Donald Trump on behalf of the “opposing presidential campaign,” without disclosing his connection to the Clinton campaign.
Sussmann’s actions were “capable of influencing the FBI’s decision to initiate” the Trump-Russia investigation, and its “subsequent conduct of that investigation,” Durham said Friday in a court filing.
That filing opposed Sussmann’s motion to dismiss the case against him. Sussmann has pleaded not guilty to making a false statement to a federal agent.
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Durham’s indictment alleges that Sussmann told then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016 — less than two months before the 2016 presidential election — that he was not doing work “for any client” when he requested and held a meeting in which he presented “purported data and ‘white papers’ that allegedly demonstrated a covert communications channel” between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, which has ties to the Kremlin.
Sussmann’s lawyer’s last month argued Sussmann did not make any false statements to the FBI and claimed that the false statement alleged in the indictment is “about an entirely ancillary matter” that is “immaterial as a matter of law.”
But Durham, in his latest filing, countered that Sussmann’s false statement is legally relevant.
“The defendant’s false statement was capable of influencing both the FBI’s decision to initiate an investigation and its subsequent conduct of that investigation,” Durham wrote.
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Durham wrote that Sussmann’s false statement “was anything but ancillary,” noting that the existence, or lack thereof, of attorney-client relationships “would have shed…
Source : foxnews
