WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal investigation into Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign lawyer, who was accused of lying to the FBI during a 2016 investigation into possible ties between Donald Trump and Russia, begins Monday.
The case against Michael SussmanThe cybersecurity attorney, who represented the Clinton campaign in 2016, is the first investigator to emerge from Special Adviser John Durham’s current investigation, and will examine the strength of the evidence he and his team gathered when examining the early days of the Trump-Russia investigation. For possible misconduct.
A criminal verdict to free up questions about the purpose of the Durham investigation and the cost to taxpayers would certainly inspire Trump supporters who have long been watching Durham to expose what they see as the former president’s biased behavior.
At the September 2016 meeting, Sussmann was accused of misleading the then FBI’s public adviser, presenting research showing that he could be a suspicious backslider of communications between the Trump organization’s computer servers and Russia-based Alfa Bank.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online.
Durham’s team says that if it had told the FBI the truth, it would have contributed to the Bureau’s assessment of the credibility of Alfa Bank’s claims. The FBI investigated the matter, but eventually found nothing suspicious.
Sussmann’s lawyers deny he lied, but say the alleged misrepresentation does not apply in any case because there is no evidence that what the FBI knew or did not know about his political connections had any bearing on its decision.
Jurors will be elected in Washington’s federal court on Monday. Given the political significance of this case, questions are being asked as to whether future jurors voted in 2016 and whether they or those close to them were involved in exploring possible links between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Durham was appointed by then-Attorney General William Barr in 2019 to detect any misconduct that could mark the outcome of the election, as the US government is exploring possible coordination between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. An investigation by former special adviser Robert Mல்லller did not find any criminal conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign, although it did find that Russia was trying to help Trump’s election campaign.
Durham’s work resulted in three criminal cases, but only the case against Sussman has come to trial.
In 2020, former FBI attorney Kevin Klinsmith Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page has pleaded guilty to altering an email related to a secret FBI surveillance. In applying for warrants for patching up on the page, the FBI relied on an anti-Trump research document called the “Steel Document” that contained rumors and unsubstantiated claims.
Last year, Durham accused the Russian analyst He lied to the FBI about his own sources of information and was the source of that document – among them, a longtime Hillary Clinton supporter. Igor Tansenko pleaded not guilty. The case is pending and will come up for hearing in October.
____
Follow Eric Tucker at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP
“Total coffee junkie. Tv ninja. Unapologetic problem solver. Beer expert.”