Durham Is Said to Seek Indictment of Lawyer at Firm With Democratic Ties
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 3 years ago • 25 commentsBy: Charlie Savage, Adam Goldman, Michael S. Schmidt and William K. Rashbaum (nytimes)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The lawyer, Michael Sussmann, is accused of lying to the F.B.I. in a 2016 meeting about Trump and Russia. He denies wrongdoing.
Sept. 15, 2021Updated 8:01 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — John H. Durham, the special counsel appointed by the Trump administration to scrutinize the Russia investigation, has told the Justice Department that he will ask a grand jury to indict a prominent cybersecurity lawyer on a charge of making a false statement to the F.B.I., people familiar with the matter said.
Any indictment of the lawyer — Michael Sussmann, a former federal prosecutor and now a partner at the Perkins Coie law firm, and who represented the Democratic National Committee on issues related to Russia's 2016 hacking of its servers — is likely to attract significant political attention.
Donald J. Trump and his supporters have long accused Democrats and Perkins Coie — whose political law group, a division separate from Mr. Sussmann's, represented the party and the Hillary Clinton campaign — of seeking to stoke unfair suspicions about Mr. Trump's purported ties to Russia.
The case against Mr. Sussmann centers on the question of who his client was when he conveyed certain suspicions about Mr. Trump and Russia to the F.B.I. in September 2016. Among other things, investigators have examined whether Mr. Sussmann was secretly working for the Clinton campaign — which he denies.
An indictment is not a certainty: On rare occasions, grand juries decline prosecutors' requests. But Mr. Sussmann's lawyers, Sean M. Berkowitz and Michael S. Bosworth of Latham & Watkins, acknowledged on Wednesday that they expected him to be indicted, while denying he made any false statement.
"Mr. Sussmann has committed no crime," they said. "Any prosecution here would be baseless, unprecedented and an unwarranted deviation from the apolitical and principled way in which the Department of Justice is supposed to do its work. We are confident that if Mr. Sussmann is charged, he will prevail at trial and vindicate his good name."
A spokesman for Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, who has the authority to overrule Mr. Durham but is said to have declined to, did not comment. Nor did a spokesman for Mr. Durham.
The accusation against Mr. Sussmann focuses on a meeting he had on Sept. 19, 2016, with James A. Baker, who was the F.B.I.'s top lawyer at the time, according to the people familiar with the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity......
.....Mr. Durham has been under pressure to deliver some results from his long-running investigation, which began when then-Attorney General William P. Barr assigned him in 2019 to investigate the Russia inquiry. Out of office and exiled from Twitter, Mr. Trump has issued statements fuming, "Where's Durham?"
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Durham is going to indict someone that no one has ever heard of , on a charge that no one gives a shit about.
On something the R's are doing every day, obfuscating the truth and taking advantage of every dumpster fire to deflect.
I suppose after a couple of million dollars and one low level charge against an FBI lawyer who was already fired by the FBI
we will get to drag some other former prosecutor through the mud and see
if this grand jury has a stronger stomach than the one that refused to indict Andrew McCabe for doing his " fill in the blank" JOB!
Ya know if ya prosecute enough government types you will scare any worthwhile candidates away from taking federal positions.
Wait, I remember working at the IRS and NLRB as an intern 50 years ago and that's the impression I had then. Losers.
That's sad.
Well, look at it this way: Sussman worked alongside Marc Elias over at Perkins Coie. In addition to running the Democrats' (and media's) damaging 2016 Russia collusion hoax, Elias also ran the Democrats' (and media's!) 2020 operation to water down or get rid of as many state rules and procedures that ensure election integrity as possible. That may add a little context.
No one has ever heard of him.
But who knows, maybe Durham has stumbled onto who ordered a street thug to murder Seth Rich. /s
No thinking person would accept that fantasy.
We're still waiting on those indictments for the entire Obama administration!
I guess keep going until you find something....
Said every TDS leftist about Trump.
Oh the hypocrisy of the left.
You can take the tds bullshit and shove it where the sun don't shine.
I think that should be a CoC violation.
I await the RW outcry over 'deep state' FBI 'entrapment'. /s
"I await the RW outcry over 'deep state' FBI 'entrapment'. /s"
I heard the FBI have infiltrated the upcoming J6 domestic terrorist scum 'rally'.
So Biden's Justice Department saw fit to make this public? Why would they do that?
Maybe to make it less of a news story once the Report is completed.
If this is all Durham has to show after two or three years of investigating "the deep state" he will be the deserving recipient of ridicule.
If he was appointed by the trmp admin, why is he still there?
I expect Durham to reach China soon with all the
Merrick Garland has allowed him to finish his "work".
Doesn't sound like he's getting a whole lot of work done
I know your aversion to answering questions but I have to ask how you came to that unfounded conclusion Vic.
The HUGE irony of Durham's pursuit of Sussman is that he wants to indict him for committing a crime against the very deep state actors that Barr and Trump appointed him to investigate.
After seating a Grand Jury, all Durham has is an allegation that Sussman lied in a 2016 FBI interview. That's IT!
Oh and BTFW, if you want to actually READ Durham's report, you will have to rely on 'Biden's Justice Department' to release it. Bet you what them to see fit to make THAT public...
How many of those that were super okay with Barr not releasing the full Muller report will be howling for a full release of the Barr report? Personally I hope they do as it seems so far to be nothing of real interest other than politics as usual. I would go so far as to say the things Barr is reporting should be stopped going forward. They are sneaky underhanded things going on behind closed doors, but none of it is earth shaking.
Considering the "secret client" has already come forward and announced himself (hint: it's not Hillary Clinton) I don't see much of a case here even if an indictment goes through. Also the information was never investigated by the FBI or the Muller investigation.