Former Clinton campaign lawyer in court for special counsel John Durham's probe
WASHINGTON (TND) — A nearly three-year investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe turned a new page Monday with its first criminal trial.
Former Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussman was in court as part of special counsel John Durham’s inquiry. The charge against Sussman is "lying to the FBI."
Prosecutors say that in 2016, Sussman passed on a tip to them about suspicious ties between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia and said he was not working on behalf of any client. Prosecutors say that in fact, he was and that those clients included the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Court filings detail a text message Sussman reportedly sent to an FBI lawyer saying, “I’m coming on my own — not on behalf of a client or company. Want to help the Bureau.”
“The best way to convict a target of an investigation, especially of a crime, is their own documentation. It’s to follow the money. John Durham followed the money and connected the Clinton campaign with the lawyers," Kash Patel, a former Department of Defense chief of staff, said in an interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures."
This case is being closely followed by many in and outside of Washington not just because of the legal ramifications but for the political ones as well.
The investigation was launched to see if another investigation conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller looking into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia was launched on a false premise.
Supporters cite the use of a still unverified dossier written by former British spy Christopher Steele to obtain a warrant to surveil Trump campaign official Carter Page.
“On Oct. 21, 2016, the FBI used one party's opposition research document as the basis to go to get a warrant to spy on the other party's campaign. That happened," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said at a May 2019 hearing of the House Judiciary Committee.
But a 2019 inspector general report — while finding some errors in the handling of surveillance orders — determined that the Trump-Russia probe was legitimately opened and was not motivated by anti-Trump bias.
