{"id":1498293,"date":"2022-05-31T13:16:15","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T17:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1498293"},"modified":"2022-05-31T13:16:25","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T17:16:25","slug":"jury-acquits-clinton-lawyer-in-russia-probe-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jury-acquits-clinton-lawyer-in-russia-probe-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury Acquits Clinton Lawyer in Russia-Probe Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/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%2Fjury-acquits-clinton-lawyer-in-russia-probe-investigation%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=1498293&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><\/div>\n<p>By Sarah N. Lynch<\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON (Reuters)\u2014A jury in Washington on Tuesday found a former attorney for Hillary Clinton&#8217;s U.S. presidential campaign not guilty of lying to the FBI when he met with the bureau in September 2016 to share a tip about possible communications between Donald Trump&#8217;s business and a Russian bank, spokespeople for the defense team and government confirmed to Reuters.<\/p>\n<p>The verdict to acquit attorney Michael<span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\"> Sussman<\/span>n was a blow to Special Counsel John Durham, who was appointed by former Attorney General William Barr during Trump&#8217;s administration to probe any missteps in the FBI&#8217;s investigation into whether Trump&#8217;s campaign was colluding with Russia.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While we are disappointed in the outcome, we respect the jury\u2019s decision and thank them for their service,&#8221; Durham said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\">Sussman<\/span>n was accused of lying to the FBI&#8217;s former top attorney James Baker at a Sept. 19, 2016, meeting when he said he was not representing any clients as he passed along technical data and white papers that claimed the Trump Organization was secretly communicating with Russia&#8217;s Alfa-Bank.<\/p>\n<p>The research was later debunked.<\/p>\n<p>Durham&#8217;s team, however, claimed that<span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\"> Sussman<\/span>n was actually representing two clients: Hillary Clinton&#8217;s 2016 presidential campaign and Rodney Joffe, a technology executive who personally oversaw the research into the since-debunked tip tying Trump to Alfa-Bank.<\/p>\n<p>The case against<span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\"> Sussman<\/span>n was Durham&#8217;s first to go to trial, and was seen as a crucial test because it rested on a single alleged false statement made in a room with only two people, neither of whom took any notes or recorded the meeting.<\/p>\n<p>Baker, Durham&#8217;s star witness in the trial, had previously given conflicting testimony to Congress and the Justice Department Inspector General about his recollection on whether<span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\"> Sussman<\/span>n was meeting with him on behalf of any specific clients.<\/p>\n<p>However, Baker testified during the trial that he was &#8220;100% confident&#8221;<span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\"> Sussman<\/span>n told him he was not representing any clients \u2013 a recollection that was also bolstered by a text message<span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\"> Sussman<\/span>n sent him a day before their meeting in which<span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\"> Sussman<\/span>n told Baker: &#8220;I&#8217;m coming on my own \u2013 not on behalf of a client or company.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In a statement after the trial,<span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\"> Sussman<\/span>n said: &#8220;I told the truth to the FBI, and the jury clearly recognized that with their unanimous verdict today.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am grateful to the members of the jury for their careful and thoughtful service. Despite being falsely accused, I am relieved that justice ultimately prevailed in this case,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>During the trial, prosecutors portrayed<span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\"> Sussman<\/span>n, formerly a partner with the law firm Perkins Coie, as a privileged high-powered attorney who tried to exploit his political connections by planting damaging and false information about Trump in order to bolster Clinton ahead of the 2016 presidential election.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\">Sussman<\/span>n&#8217;s billing records, they said, also showed that he was representing the Clinton campaign on the Alfa-Bank matter.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\">Sussman<\/span>n&#8217;s defense team, however, denied that he lied to Baker, and said he was never directed by the Clinton campaign to share the Alfa-Bank tip with the FBI.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple witnesses including the Clinton campaign&#8217;s former top lawyer Marc Elias testified that<span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\">Sussman<\/span>n never sought permission to share the tip, and that doing so was not in the campaign&#8217;s best interest.<\/p>\n<p>The defense also presented seemingly exculpatory billing records which showed that<span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\"> Sussman<\/span>n billed his law firm for his cab ride to the FBI, and not the Clinton campaign.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement,<span class=\"highlight\" data-qa-component=\"highlight-text\"> Sussman<\/span>n&#8217;s attorneys on Tuesday called the case an example of &#8220;extraordinary prosecutorial overreach.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Politics is no substitute for evidence, and politics has no place in our system of justice,&#8221; they added.<\/p>\n<p>(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Mark Potter and Doina Chiacu;)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sarah N. Lynch WASHINGTON (Reuters)\u2014A jury in Washington on Tuesday found a former attorney for Hillary Clinton&#8217;s U.S. presidential campaign not guilty of lying to the FBI when he<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":2315279,"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-1498293","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\/1498293","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\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1498293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1498293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1498293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1498293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}