{"id":1499209,"date":"2022-06-01T08:00:17","date_gmt":"2022-06-01T12:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1499209"},"modified":"2022-06-01T08:00:26","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T12:00:26","slug":"the-special-counsel-proved-the-fbi-belongs-to-the-swamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-special-counsel-proved-the-fbi-belongs-to-the-swamp\/","title":{"rendered":"The Special Counsel Proved The FBI Belongs To The Swamp"},"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\">20<\/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%2Fthe-special-counsel-proved-the-fbi-belongs-to-the-swamp%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=1499209&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:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2020-08-05-at-3.50.51-PM.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Yesterday, after less than one full day of deliberations, a D.C. jury stacked with pro-Hillary Clinton jurors acquitted former Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann, proving the FBI is not \u201cours\u201d but the swamp\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Just more than two weeks ago, prosecutor Brittain Shaw began opening statements in <em>United States v. Sussmann, <\/em>by stating the obvious: \u201cSome people have very strong feelings about politics and about Russia, and many people have strong feelings about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut we are not here because these allegations involve either of them,\u201d Shaw continued. \u201cNor are we here because the defendant\u2019s client was the Clinton campaign.\u201d Rather, \u201cwe are here because the FBI is our institution that should not be used as a political tool for anyone; not Republicans, not Democrats, not anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But after hearing overwhelming evidence that Sussmann lied when he told the then-FBI General Counsel James Baker he was providing data and whitepapers about a supposed secret communications channel between Trump and the Russian-based Alfa Bank on his own behalf, when in fact Sussmann was representing both the Clinton campaign and tech executive Rodney Joffe, the 12 D.C. residents found Sussmann not guilty.<\/p>\n<p>It was not the verdict, however, that confirmed that the FBI belongs to career bureaucrats, high-powered D.C. elites who revolve in and out of the government as political appointees, and the families and friends of all the above. Rather, it was the speed with which the acquittal came, coupled with the in-court testimony and other evidence exposed by the special counsel throughout the prosecution that proved the FBI isn\u2019t America\u2019s anymore.<\/p>\n<p>After hearing from some 20 witnesses, all but a few testifying for the prosecution, the jury spent a couple of hours on Friday deliberating before the long Memorial Day weekend. Tuesday morning, the 12 jurors returned to the D.C. federal courthouse to continue deliberations. But after requesting to see a copy of Sussmann\u2019s taxi receipt and one of the whitepapers Sussmann peddled to Baker, they delivered their verdict of \u201cnot guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In total, then, the jury did not even deliberate for a full day, which means not one of the 12 jurors pushed the other 11 to wade through the detailed evidence presented by the special counsel\u2019s office. Who could blame them, though, if the government\u2019s own witnesses registered more offense at Congress for investigating the Russia-collusion hoax than they did at Sussmann for misleading the FBI.<\/p>\n<p>Consider Baker, to whom Sussmann was charged with lying. The former FBI general counsel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2022\/05\/19\/james-baker-fbi-michael-sussmann-00033963\">testified<\/a> he was \u201c100 percent confident\u201d Sussmann said during their September 19, 2016 meeting that he was not representing a client. Baker also told the jury he likely wouldn\u2019t have taken the meeting if he knew Sussmann represented the Clinton campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Yet Baker blamed himself for throwing Sussmann \u201cinto a maelstrom\u201d and expressed outrage at how the congressmen investigating the investigation into Trump and his campaign behaved when they questioned Baker about his meeting with Sussmann. Baker displayed not even a sliver of the same distress over his friend lying to him.<\/p>\n<p>To the contrary, when asked why he had just discovered the text message Sussmann sent him the night before their meeting, in which Sussmann wrote, \u201cI\u2019m coming on my own \u2013 not on behalf of a client or company. [W]ant to help the Bureau,\u201d Baker told prosecutors: \u201cI\u2019m not out to get Michael. This is not my investigation. This is your investigation. If you ask me a question, I answer it. You asked me to look for something, I go look for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Baker may no longer work for the FBI, he did at the time Sussmann fed him the Alfa Bank folly. As an American, he should have been appalled that the former Clinton campaign attorney would play the law enforcement and intelligence communities for political purposes. Also, had Baker pulled his cell phone records earlier, the text could have served as a separate false statement charge\u2014one proven in black-and-white\u2014but the delay in Baker finding the text allowed the statute of limitations to expire.<\/p>\n<p>Bill Priestap, the assistant director of the Counterintelligence Division for the FBI in 2016, likewise displayed a grudging demeanor when testifying on behalf of the special counsel. When asked whether it was \u201cimportant\u201d for Sussmann \u201cto fully disclose his ties to the Clinton campaign\u201d rather than provide a straightforward answer, Priestap\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2022\/may\/23\/fbi-official-struggles-recall-key-details-sussmann\/\">sparred<\/a>\u00a0with the prosecutor, first saying it \u201cwould have been part of several factors.\u201d Then, when pushed, Priestap said, \u201cI\u2019m struggling on your use of the word \u2018important.\u2019 It\u2019s a motivation that is relevant, but not the only factor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors, however, had ample other evidence that established the materiality of Sussmann\u2019s misrepresentation to Baker. But the jurors didn\u2019t care because the jury, in the truest sense, was a jury of Sussmann\u2019s peers. Just as his actual colleagues, Baker and Priestap, shrugged off the Section 1001 false statement offense, so did the jury, who could easily envision their neighbors and friends sitting in his stead.<\/p>\n<p>But the proof that the FBI is no longer \u201cours\u201d came even before the jury verdict\u2014months earlier, when Special Counsel John Durham revealed in a discovery update that the Department of Justice\u2019s Office of Inspector General withheld evidence from Durham\u2019s team.<\/p>\n<p>The DOJ\u2019s OIG is charged with conducting independent investigations related to DOJ employees and programs, including alleged misconduct by FBI agents. In preparing for the Sussmann trial, the special counsel\u2019s office met with the OIG in October 2021 \u201cto discuss discoverable materials that may be in the OIG\u2019s possession.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even though the OIG possessed two of Baker\u2019s FBI cellphones, prosecutors were not told of the phones\u2019 existence by the OIG. Rather, the special counsel only <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/01\/31\/special-counsel-clarification-reveals-the-dojs-inspector-general-is-not-a-team-player\/\">learned<\/a> of the two cellphones on January 6, 2022, when another FBI employee mentioned them.<\/p>\n<p>The same discovery update that revealed the OIG had failed to mention Baker\u2019s cell phones also noted that the OIG had falsely told Durham\u2019s team that \u201ca written forensic report\u201d was the only information it possessed concerning a meeting between Sussmann and the OIG.<\/p>\n<p>That meeting had occurred in early 2017, when Sussmann, on behalf of an unnamed client now known to be Joffe, went to the IG with a report that his client \u201chad observed that a specific OIG employee\u2019s computer was \u2018seen publicly\u2019 in \u2018Internet traffic\u2019 and was connecting to a Virtual Private Network in a foreign country.\u201d The OIG provided the special counsel with the forensic report, but in doing so, also represented to prosecutors that it had \u2018no other file[] or other documentation\u2019 relating to this cyber matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, after Sussmann\u2019s defense team informed Durham that Sussmann had personally met with the IG, the special counsel\u2019s office circled back and amazingly, the OIG discovered additional documentation related to Sussmann\u2019s meeting with the IG.<\/p>\n<p>That the OIG\u2014the entity charged with investigating FBI misconduct\u2014withheld not one, but two pieces of evidence from the special counsel\u2019s office until cornered should crush any remaining faith our country holds in the FBI.<\/p>\n<p>And there was little trust left after the FBI launched Crossfire Hurricaneon the most ridiculous of pretexts; after text messages revealed Lisa Page and Peter Strzok\u2019s anti-Trump sentiments drove the Crossfire Hurricaneteam members; after the FBI and DOJ obtained four court surveillance orders based on fraud and then illegally surveilled Carter Page; after fired FBI Director James Comey leaked to the press, via an attorney friend, memos he had written following meetings with then-President Trump, to prompt the appointment of a different special counsel; and after FBI agent William Barnett <a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/fbi-agent-flynn-case-believed-133344598.html\">told<\/a> investigators that he believed Special Counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s office used the prosecution of Gen. Michael Flynn \u201cto get Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The special counsel\u2019s prosecution of Sussmann offered an opportunity for the country to see at least a small acknowledgement that the politicization of the FBI would not be tolerated. Instead, Americans witnessed confirmation by former FBI agents, the OIG, and the DC jury that the FBI is theirs, not ours.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Margot Cleveland is The Federalist&#8217;s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. <\/p>\n<p>Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. <\/p>\n<p>As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday, after less than one full day of deliberations, a D.C. jury stacked with pro-Hillary Clinton jurors acquitted former Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann, proving the FBI is not \u201cours\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"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-1499209","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\/1499209","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\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1499209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499209\/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=1499209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1499209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1499209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}