{"id":1478812,"date":"2022-05-17T21:59:38","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T01:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1478812"},"modified":"2022-05-17T21:59:42","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T01:59:42","slug":"sussmann-trial-opens-lawyers-spar-over-defendants-2016-lie-to-fbi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sussmann-trial-opens-lawyers-spar-over-defendants-2016-lie-to-fbi\/","title":{"rendered":"Sussmann Trial Opens, Lawyers Spar Over Defendant\u2019s 2016 \u2018Lie\u2019 To FBI"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsussmann-trial-opens-lawyers-spar-over-defendants-2016-lie-to-fbi%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1478812&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dw-wp-production.imgix.net\/2022\/05\/FBI-1.jpg?w=1200&#038;h=800&#038;ixlib=react-9.3.0\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Cybersecurity attorney Michael Sussmann\u2019s defense team dueled prosecutors in opening statements on the second day of Sussmann\u2019s trial on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Sussmann is facing up to five years in prison on a single charge of making false statements to the FBI during a 2016 meeting with the bureau\u2019s general counsel in which Sussmann made later-debunked claims of a secret backchannel between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank. The court wrapped up jury selection on Monday and launched into the first day of testimony the following day.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutor Deborah Shaw started the day\u2019s proceedings. She said the case will show in the coming weeks that Sussmann\u2019s trial is about \u201cprivilege,\u201d possibly a shaded reference to pretrial fights over what is considered protected under attorney-client privilege, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/durham-sussmann-lawyers-clash-in-opening-to-trial\">The Washington Examiner<\/a>. Prosecutors, led by special counsel John Durham, wrestled with Sussmann\u2019s defense team, Hillary Clinton\u2019s 2016 campaign, the investigative firm Fusion GPS, and the Democrat-linked law firm Perkins Coie over communications in the weeks leading up to the trial.<\/p>\n<p>Sussmann, who was an attorney at Perkins Coie in 2016, is accused of intentionally hiding from the FBI his clients: the Clinton campaign and an executive at the computer analytics firm Neustar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was not a mistake or a slip of the tongue, it was a concerted effort to conceal his clients,\u201d Shaw said, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/regulation\/3491229-sussmanns-defense-lawyer-calls-durham-prosecution-an-injustice\/\">The Hill<\/a>. \u201cYou\u2019re going to see \u2026 how it misled officials into thinking he was acting as a good citizen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe FBI should never be used as a political pawn,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Defense attorney Michael Bosworth asserted that Sussmann never lied to the FBI, and even if he did, it would not have mattered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMichael Sussmann didn\u2019t lie to the FBI,\u201d Bosworth told the jury. \u201cMichael Sussmann wouldn\u2019t lie to the FBI. \u2026 His whole livelihood depended on his credibility with these agencies and he\u2019d never throw that away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bosworth stated that Sussmann\u2019s interests were clear to the FBI from the beginning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was someone the FBI knew represented partisan clients,\u201d Bosworth said, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/russia-ukraine-government-and-politics-elections-donald-trump-campaigns-41a55261c6772127a60ad46073627369\">Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cThe FBI knew that he represented the Clinton campaign that summer. The FBI knew that he was an attorney for the DNC, the Democratic Party itself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a September 2016 meeting, Sussmann fed then-FBI general counsel James Baker data purportedly showing the Trump Organization secretly communicating with Russia\u2019s Alfa Bank. FBI special agent Scott Hellman, who currently heads an investigative team that specializes in cybercrime, testified on Tuesday that he and a superior vetted the evidence Sussmann provided and dismissed the attorney\u2019s claims within days, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/fbi-agent-at-sussmann-trial-bureau-rejected-alfa-bank-claims-within-days\">The Washington Examiner<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhoever had written that paper had jumped to some conclusions that were not supported by the data,\u201d he said, referring to a white paper that Sussmann had presented with the data. \u201cThe methodology they chose was questionable to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was not enough data there to make the conclusion that there was any communication, or the secret communication between the Trump Organization and Russia,\u201d Hellman said.<\/p>\n<p>The agent also testified that the interests of a source impact how the FBI weighs information. \u201cThe motivation of whoever is giving me the information is very important,\u201d he testified.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cybersecurity attorney Michael Sussmann\u2019s defense team dueled prosecutors in opening statements on the second day of Sussmann\u2019s trial on Tuesday.Sussmann is facing up to five years in prison on a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":1483496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1478812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1478812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1478812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1483496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1478812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1478812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1478812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}