A new filing from special counsel John Durham revealed a crucial piece of evidence against Hillary Clintonâs former lawyer, Michael Sussmann.
Sussmann was indicted in September for allegedly concealing his clients â Clintonâs 2016 presidential Campaign and a âU.S. technology industry executive at a U.S. internet companyâ â from FBI general counsel James Baker, the Washington Examiner reported.
The 2021 indictment from Durham alleged that Sussmann lied to Baker when he claimed he was not working for any client when he requested a meeting to present âpurported data and âwhite papersâ that allegedly demonstrated a covert communications channelâ between the Trump Organization and Alfa-Bank, which is tied to the Kremlin, Fox News reported.
Upon Sussmanâs indictment, his lawyers argued there was no evidence that he had lied.
On Monday, however, Durham revealed documents showing Sussmann related that falsehood in a text to Baker on Sept. 18, 2016, the night before the two men met at the bureau, the Examiner reported Tuesday.
According to the report, the text message read: âJimâitâs Michael Sussmann. I have something time-sensitive (and sensitive) I need to discuss. Do you have availability for a short meeting tomorrow? Iâm coming on my ownânot on behalf of a client or companyâwant to help the Bureau. Thanks.â
Durhamâs filing said the text message put âthe same lie in writingâ that the information Sussmann would share would be ânot on behalf of a client or company,â Fox News reported.
âThe defendantâs billing records reflect that the defendant repeatedly billed the Clinton Campaign for his work on the Russian Bank-1 allegations,â the filing said.
âIn compiling and disseminating these allegations, the defendant and Tech Executive-1 also had met and communicated with another law partner at Law Firm-1 who was then serving as General Counsel to the Clinton Campaign (âCampaign Lawyer-1âł),â it continued.
The tech executive is known to be former Neustar executive Rodney Joffe, the Examiner reported.
The report said this new filing from Durham about the text message was a âpotential smoking gunâ in the case against Sussmann.
Sussmannâs lawyers want the judge to block Durham from introducing this new evidence about the Steele dossier at trial. They also want to stop the prosecution from calling Christopher Steele â who authored the dossier claiming Donald Trumpâs presidential Campaign was connected to Russia â as a witness in Sussmannâs trial, which is set to take place next month, CNN reported.
âThe Special Counsel should not be permitted to turn Mr. Sussmannâs trial on a narrow false statement charge into a circus full of sideshows that will only fuel partisan fervor,â the lawyers wrote.
They claimed Steeleâs work has âno bearingâ on the case and is âinflammatory and irrelevant.â
CNN speculated that the new filing indicates Durham wonât just target Sussman in court.
âThe new filings on Monday suggest that instead of narrowly focusing on Sussmannâs alleged lie and the specific meeting where it allegedly occurred, Durham plans to describe at the trial how the Clinton Campaign tried to dig up dirt about then-candidate Donald Trump and his ties to Russia,â the outlet said.
Sussmannâs trial is scheduled to begin on May 16, according to Fox News.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
