A Washington, D.C, jury on Tuesday acquitted former Hillary Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann of lying to the FBI, but the most important outcome of …
A Washington, D. C, jury on Tuesday acquitted former Hillary Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann of lying to the FBI, but the most important outcome of the case for special counsel John Durham was the confirmation of Hillary Clinton’s role in a plot to weaponize the FBI to launch an investigation of her Republican opponent in the 2016 election. The jury saw compelling evidence that Sussmann falsely presented himself as a concerned citizen rather than as a member of Clinton’s campaign when he gave the FBI data to support the bogus claim that Donald Trump had a secret communications channel with the Kremlin through computer servers owned by a Russian bank. The jury foreman told a reporter after the verdict that she didn’t think the case should have been prosecuted.
«There are bigger things that affect the nation than a possible lie to the FBI», she said. But during the trial, former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook testified that Hillary Clinton «agreed with the decision» to feed the evidence-free Trump-Russia claim to the FBI. In Durham’s indictment of Sussmann, he said the evidence against the Clinton lawyer reveals «a scandal much deeper than merely Sussmann’s role in a second Russian hoax — a scandal that entangles the Clinton campaign, multiple internet companies, two federally-funded university researchers, and a complicit media.»
The prosecution said during the trial that the material Sussmann gave to the FBI was «pure opposition research» for the purpose of concocting an «October Surprise» in the 2016 election. The case also revealed that the FBI’s top brass were excited about Sussmann’s claim. An agent told a colleague in a text, «People on 7th floor to include Director are fired up about this server», referring to James Comey and the bureau’s top brass. And further, the Sussmann prosecution confirmed the Clinton campaign paid the opposition research firm Fusion GPS to produce the infamous dossier of unverified and now debunked claims against Trump compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.
