Just days before jury selection was to start, a former Hillary Clinton campaign attorney set to go on trial for allegedly lying to the FBI, that notes from a top former FBI official undercut the case against him.<\/p>\n
In 2016, attorney Michael Sussmann allegedly told James Baker, an FBI attorney, that he was bringing allegations concerning then-presidential candidate Donald Trump to the agency on his own accord, not on behalf of a client.<\/p>\n
Prosecuting the case in April, Special counsel John Durham, revealed that Sussmann told Baker as much in a text before they met.<\/p>\n
This is what Sussmann told Baker: \u201cJim\u2014it\u2019s Michael Sussmann. I have something time-sensitive (and sensitive) I need to discuss. Do you have availability [sic] for a short meeting tomorrow? I\u2019m coming on my own\u2014not on behalf of a client or company\u2014want to help the Bureau. Thanks,\u201d as reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since then, Sussmann\u2019s attorneys have said the message was legitimate, but they shared new information in a new filing on May 8, which they said contradicted Durham\u2019s core allegation. They obtained the information just recently through discovery from prosecutors.<\/p>\n The new information’s key piece is in a set of notes said to have been taken during a meeting in March 2017 that included Baker and top Department of Justice officials, as well as then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.<\/p>\n McCabe said that the Trump\u2013Russia allegations were sourced from an \u201cattorney\u201d who \u201cbrought [them] to [the] FBI on behalf of his client,\u201d the notes state.<\/p>\n \u201cThis new information directly contradicts the special counsel\u2019s core allegation in this case: that Mr. Sussmann falsely told Mr. Baker that he was not meeting with Mr. Baker on behalf of any client,\u201d said Sussmann\u2019s attorneys.<\/p>\n They said that the previously revealed text \u201crepresents just one moment in time,\u201d before noting that the actual meeting between Sussmann and Baker wasn\u2019t recorded, nor were several phone calls held after the meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd yet, at some point between September 18, 2016, and March 6, 2017, the FBI apparently came to believe that Mr. Sussmann did have a client in connection with his meeting with Mr. Baker and that the Alfa allegations were provided \u2018on behalf of his client,’\u201d Sussmann\u2019s attorneys added.<\/p>\n The notes show that Baker \u201cwas silent\u201d when McCabe said Sussman brought the allegations on behalf of a client, they claim, and also that the notes cast doubt on the reliability of Baker, who has said Sussmann told him he wasn\u2019t bringing the information on behalf of a client.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just days before jury selection was to start, a former Hillary Clinton campaign attorney set to go on trial for allegedly lying to the FBI, that notes from a top former FBI official undercut the case against him. In 2016, attorney Michael Sussmann allegedly told James Baker, an FBI attorney, that he was bringing allegations … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12807,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendingviews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}