Michael Sussmann Trial

[Franklin Pierce]

Judge rules Fusion GPS emails turned over in Durham probe cannot be viewed by jurors as trial looms

Michael Sussmann trial set to begin Monday

A federal judge has ruled that the 22 emails ordered to be turned over to Special Counsel John Durham are barred from jury access as the trial of Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann is set to begin Monday.

The opposition research firm Fusion GPS withheld dozens of emails from Durham and claimed they were protected under attorney-client privilege and "work-product" privilege.

But federal Judge Christopher Cooper ruled these protections did not properly apply to this case and ordered that the emails be handed over to the special counsel.

It is unclear what is included in the emails, but Cooper ruled that Durham could not show them to jurors involved in the ongoing case against Sussmann, who has been charged with one count of making a false statement to the FBI.

Two months before the 2016 election, Sussmann informed the FBI he had information linking the Trump campaign to Russia.

Judge rules Fusion GPS emails turned over in Durham probe cannot be viewed by jurors as trial looms

 

[Franklin Pierce]

Judge Allows Hillary, AOC donors in Jury Pool for ex-Clinton-lawyer’s Russia trial

As many as three Hillary Clinton donors — including one who also supported US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — are among the prospective jurors for former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann’s trial.

Special counsel John Durham’s team objected to putting one Clinton contributor on the panel after the man said he would “strive for impartiality as best I can.”

But the prosecution was overruled by Washington, DC, federal Judge Christopher Cooper, who said the man — who works in public policy for Amazon and appeared to be in his 40s — “expressed a high degree of confidence” that he could be impartial.

Cooper, nominated by former President Barack Obama, also said Durham’s prosecutors could use one of its peremptory challenges to strike him from the panel for the trial, the first to result from his three-year probe into the government’s investigations of purported ties between former President Donald Trump and Russia.

In 2016, DC voters favored Clinton over Trump, 90.9% to 4.1%, and Democrats in the nation’s capital now outnumber Republicans, 76.5% to 5.4%, according to an April 30 tally posted online by the local Board of Elections.

At least one person who donated to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is among the prospective jurors for Michael Sussmann’s trial.

Hillary, AOC donors among jury pool in ex-Clinton lawyer's trial

 

[Franklin Pierce]

Hillary Clinton lawyer 'lied to the FBI' on behalf of her campaign and wanted to spark an 'October Surprise' to embarrass Trump as voters headed to the polls, prosecutors say on first day of Durham's Russia probe trial

The first trial to emerge from Special Counsel John Durham's probe finally got underway Tuesday – as prosecutors accused former Hillary Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann of trying to engineer an 'October surprise' when he sought out a top FBI official to discuss an allegation about Trump and Russia.

The allegation didn't pan out, but the meeting itself constituted an effort to 'use and manipulate' federal law enforcement for political ends, prosecutors argued.

Sussmann's defense team argued he was forthright when he acted on his own to bring information to authorities, and said the intervention did not benefit the Clinton camp in any way.

Sussmann is charged with lying to the FBI early in the Trump-Russia probe in the final weeks of the election. Defense lawyers told jurors he never lied.

Sussmann is accused of misleading the FBI during a September 2016 meeting by telling the bureau's top lawyer that he wasn't acting on behalf of any client when he presented computer data that he said might connect Russia to then-candidate Donald Trump. In reality, prosecutors say, he was acting on behalf of the Clinton campaign and another client who had provided him with the data.

Tech executive Rodney Joffe had told Sussmann of 'communications between internet servers maintained for the Trump Organization and servers belonging to Russia’s Alfa Bank' – information he would share with a law partner and the FBI.

Sussmann went to the FBI weeks before the 2016 elections. Prosecutors say he was trying to engineer an 'October surprise' in the campaign

Prosecutors, faced with a jury in Washington, D.C. that might have existing notions about Trump, Clinton, and Russia, described Sussmann as someone who abused his 'privilege.'

'This is a case about privilege ... the privilege of a lawyer who thought that for the powerful the normal rules didn't apply, that he could use the FBI as a political tool,' Assistant Special Counsel Deborah Shaw told jurors in the case.

'The defendant lied to direct the power and resources of the FBI to his own ends and to serve the agendas of his clients.

He lied, prosecutors told the jury, in hopes of generating an 'October surprise' of FBI investigations into Trump and negative news coverage of him, and because he knew the FBI would consider the information less credible if it thought it was being presented on behalf of the Clinton campaign.

'He told a lie that was designed to achieve a political end, a lie that was designed to inject the FBI into a presidential election,' said prosecutor Brittain Shaw.

Hillary Clinton's lawyer Michael Sussmann accused of 'lying to the FBI' on day one of trial | Daily Mail Online

 

[LouderVol]

Why does it matter if an AOC donor is in this trial? That's just another dog whistle.

 

[Franklin Pierce]

FBI Agent at Sussmann Trial says he Rejected Alfa-Bank claims within days

An FBI agent involved in analyzing the since-debunked Trump-Russia collusion claims pushed to the bureau by Democratic cyber security lawyer Michael Sussmann testified that an analysis rejected claims of a secret back channel to Russia within days.

Sussmann was charged last year with concealing his clients — Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and “Tech Executive-1,” known to be former Neustar executive Rodney Joffe — from FBI General Counsel James Baker when he pushed debunked allegations of a secret line of communication between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa-Bank during a September 2016 meeting.

Scott Hellman, currently an FBI supervisory special agent leading a team investigating cybercrime, said he and a supervisor retrieved the thumb drives and other information passed to the FBI the day after the Baker-Sussmann meeting, reviewed the secret communication claims, and quickly rejected them.

Hellman said the Alfa-Bank allegations included “technical data” such as website names and domain names as well as a “narrative” about the conclusions reached by the creators of the report “based on their analysis of the data.” Hellman said he and his then-supervisor, Nate Batty, conducted an analysis and then compared the FBI’s assessment of the data to the narrative that had been pushed.

FBI agent at Sussmann trial says he rejected Alfa-Bank claims within days

 

[Franklin Pierce]

Trial Evidence Shows ‘internet phone book’ Used To Get To Trump-Russia Tale

WASHINGTON, D.C. — They let their cyber fingers do the walking.

Opposition research that found a since-debunked back channel between Donald Trump and Russia got started with a simple search of the name Trump in the “phone book of the internet.”

The misguided origin of the purported Russia-Trump cyber connection was revealed in a document entered into evidence at the trial of former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann.

The eight-page report, titled “White Paper #1 — Auditable V3,” claims that on July 28, 2016, a search of the global Domain Name System — also known as the “phonebook of the internet” — yielded 1,933 results containing the word “Trump.”

Another search turned up 3,352 domains registered by the Trump Organization, including “trump-email.com,” which was then linked to an email server named “mail1.trump-email.com” that showed “anomalous data,” according to the document.

The white paper further asserted that between May 4 and Sept. 4, 2016, the majority of online lookups for mail1.trump-email.com came from IP addresses registered or linked to Russia’s Alfa-Bank, including an “unusually configured server” run by the Spectrum Health system in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

“The only plausible explanation for this server configuration is that it shows the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank to be using multiple layers of protection in order to obfuscate their considerable recent email traffic,” according to the report’s “findings.”

Sussmann, 57, is charged with lying to the government by denying that he wasn’t “acting on behalf of any client” when he gave White Paper #1 and other material to then-FBI general counsel James Baker on Sept. 19, 2016, according to an indictment obtained last year by special counsel John Durham.

During opening statements in DC federal court Tuesday, prosecutor Deborah Brittain Shaw accused Sussmann of engaging in “a plan to create an October surprise on the eve of the presidential election.”

Shaw also told jurors that an FBI investigation of the material Sussmann gave Baker found it merely involved a “spam email server” used for marketing purposes.

FBI agent Scott Hellmann testified Monday that he disagreed with the conclusions in White Paper #1, saying they “were not supported by the technical data.”

April Lorenzen, the data scientist who reportedly “assembled” Sussmann’s data.

Trump-Russia tale began with simple 'Internet phone book' search

 

[85SugarVol]

Tale of two trials: How Sussmann is receiving every consideration denied to Flynn | The Hill

 

[85SugarVol]

Tale of two trials: How Sussmann is receiving every consideration denied to Flynn | The Hill

Hey @RockyTop85

Have you seen this opinion piece from Turley? Any comments on his views, or the Flynn/Sussman comparison in general?

 

[RockyTop85]

Hey @RockyTop85

Have you seen this opinion piece from Turley? Any comments on his views, or the Flynn/Sussman comparison in general?

Just read it. Doing my best to set aside the fact that I think Turley is an unreliable hack, here are my thoughts:

The main difference between the two is that Flynn pled guilty and the fight was over sentencing and, later, trying to get his plea thrown out. The comparison is pretty much invalid without some indication that Sussman wouldn’t be treated the same under similar circumstances.

Turley delves the potential jury bias issue. The low threshold for empaneling jurors working against the prosecution is uncommon. Usually it works the other way. Here, it hurts the prosecution because of the political composition of DC residents. The same demographics worked in favor of the prosecution in the Stone case.

I think the other thing he raised was limiting the proof. I don’t know enough about this case to really comment knowledgeably about that. There are rules to keep the parties inside the bounds of relevance/materiality. Different judges apply them differently. In the opening statements they gave context about Sussman trying to use the FBI to set up an October surprise, I haven’t seen anything about an objection to that. Beyond that, I can’t see why they would be disadvantaged by not being able to embarrass the Clinton campaign in front of a jury full of Clinton supporters.

 

[85SugarVol]

Just read it. Doing my best to set aside the fact that I think Turley is an unreliable hack, here are my thoughts:

The main difference between the two is that Flynn pled guilty and the fight was over sentencing and, later, trying to get his plea thrown out. The comparison is pretty much invalid without some indication that Sussman wouldn’t be treated the same under similar circumstances.

Turley delves the potential jury bias issue. The low threshold for empaneling jurors working against the prosecution is novel to this case because of the political composition of DC residents. The same demographics worked in favor of the prosecution in the Stone case.

I think the other thing he raised was limiting the proof. I don’t know enough about this case to really comment knowledgeably about that. There are rules to keep the parties inside the bounds of relevance/materiality. Different judges apply them differently. In the opening statements they gave context about Sussman trying to use the FBI to set up an October surprise, I haven’t seen anything about an objection to that. Beyond that, I can’t see why they would be disadvantaged by not being able to embarrass the Clinton campaign in front of a jury full of Clinton supporters.

I know you have an unfavorable opinion of Turley. Appreciate you taking the time to answer.

I guess the prosecution believes the Clinton campaign emails are material. But you make a good point about presenting that evidence to a jury of Clinton supporters.

 

[StarRaider]

FBI official James Baker testifies Michael Sussman lied

A former FBI official testified Thursday that he’s “100% confident” a Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer denied acting “on behalf of any particular client” when he handed over since-debunked information linking Donald Trump and Russia.

 

[Franklin Pierce]

Baker testified in detail about Sussmann’s alleged lie. The FBI’s former top lawyer also told the court how the defendant’s allegations created an immediate sense of urgency inside the highest levels of the FBI to investigate the Trump-Russia back channel claims, how the Alfa-Bank claims were quickly dismissed as baseless within the FBI, and how the bureau worries about reporters writing stories based on the existence of FBI investigations in situations in which the press isn’t confident about the allegations and so uses the existence of an investigation as a hook.

Durham trial: Baker '100% confident' Sussmann told him he was acting alone

 

[StarRaider]

In testimony on Tuesday afternoon, FBI Special Agent Scott Hellman also said the data revealing the alleged covert communications channel between Trump and Russia that Sussmann brought to the FBI turned out to be untrue, and said he did not agree with the narrative.

Hellman testified that whoever drafted the narrative describing the DNS data was "5150," and clarified on the stand that meant he believed the individual who came to the conclusions "was suffering from some mental disability."

 

[Franklin Pierce]

Judge in Clinton Lawyer Trial DENIES Prosecution Request to Remove Juror Over TIES to Defendant

A federal judge in the criminal trial of Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann denied a prosecution request Thursday to remove a juror whose daughter plays on the same high school sports team as the defendant’s daughter.

A woman, identified as Juror #5, came forward Thursday morning to tell the court that she only recently discovered that her daughter and Mr. Sussmann’s daughter play on the same high school crew team.

The juror told U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper that she was unaware of the connection when she filled out a jury questionnaire last week. The juror stressed that the daughters are not friends and there is at least a three-year age gap between the two.

She also said it was a large crew team with over 40 students, adding that she has never met Mr. Sussmann or his wife. She emphasized that she could still be fair and impartial and has no other ties to the defendant.

Prosecutors immediately moved to strike the juror, saying they would have asked her to be removed from the jury pool had they known of the connection.

Judge in Clinton lawyer trial denies prosecution request to remove juror over ties to defendant

 

[SpaceCoastVol]

Why does it matter if an AOC donor is in this trial? That's just another dog whistle.

Really?

 

[Franklin Pierce]

Handwritten Notes From 2017 Show FBI Agents Mislead DOJ On The Trump-Russia Investigation

Crucially, public release of the notes came after the five-year statute of limitations had lapsed in March of this year.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann is currently on trial for lying to the FBI about his role in pushing data pertaining to alleged communications between Trump and the Russian Alfa Bank. According to Special Counsel John Durham, Sussmann lied when he brought that data to the FBI’s General Counsel James Baker as part of the Clinton campaign’s efforts to trigger an FBI investigation of her opponent, Donald Trump. Specifically, Sussmann allegedly wrote Baker a text message claiming he was not representing anyone in providing the information when, in fact, he was representing the Clinton campaign.

In a surprising move, Sussmann’s defense team last week disclosed three sets of handwritten Department of Justice (DOJ) notes of a March 6, 2017 meeting between high-ranking DOJ and FBI officials. Durham gave the notes written by DOJ officials Tashina Gauhar, Mary McCord, and Scott Schools to Sussmann’s team as part of Durham’s discovery obligations.

While the notes contain a one-line hearsay suggestion that may cast doubt on Sussmann’s earlier claim that he was not representing anyone, their broader significance lies in what they reveal about the FBI’s strategy in the months leading up to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller in May 2017.

New Notes Show FBI Agents Mislead DOJ On Trump-Russia Investigation

 

[Franklin Pierce]

How FBI Bigwig Aided and Abetted Hillary Clinton Plot

Attorney Michael Sussmann is being charged with lying to the government.

Who needs to spend millions on television commercials or Facebook ads if you’ve got friends in the FBI who can pull off a political dirty trick for you?

Just look how cozy Hillary Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann and FBI general counsel James A. Baker are in text messages revealed in Thursday’s testimony at Sussmann’s trial.

Can you meet tomorrow, Sussmann asks the high-ranking government official. “OK, I will find a time,” Baker answers. Does he need help getting into the building? No, Sussmann answers, I have a badge to get into the Federal Bureau of Investigation. How convenient.

It was during this meeting that Sussmann peddled the false story that Donald Trump was secretly communicating with a Russian bank.

Sussmann obviously is guilty of the crime of which special counsel John Durham accuses him, lying to the FBI, despite his claims otherwise. He specifically says to Baker that he’s not coming in “on behalf of any client or company” when he was working for Clinton.

Former FBI general counsel James A. Baker leaves the United States District Court following testimonies on May 19.

Special Counsel John Durham revealed text messages between Clinton and Sussmann.

How FBI bigwig aided and abetted Hillary Clinton plot

 

[davethevol]

Judge in Clinton Lawyer Trial DENIES Prosecution Request to Remove Juror Over TIES to Defendant

A federal judge in the criminal trial of Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann denied a prosecution request Thursday to remove a juror whose daughter plays on the same high school sports team as the defendant’s daughter.

A woman, identified as Juror #5, came forward Thursday morning to tell the court that she only recently discovered that her daughter and Mr. Sussmann’s daughter play on the same high school crew team.

The juror told U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper that she was unaware of the connection when she filled out a jury questionnaire last week. The juror stressed that the daughters are not friends and there is at least a three-year age gap between the two.

She also said it was a large crew team with over 40 students, adding that she has never met Mr. Sussmann or his wife. She emphasized that she could still be fair and impartial and has no other ties to the defendant.

Prosecutors immediately moved to strike the juror, saying they would have asked her to be removed from the jury pool had they known of the connection.

Judge in Clinton lawyer trial denies prosecution request to remove juror over ties to defendant

That’s ridiculous.

 

[StarRaider]

Killery approved the message BIG LIE

Hillary Clinton approved dissemination of Trump-Russian bank allegations to media, campaign manager testifies

 

[StarRaider]

 

[LouderVol]

Really?

Yeah really. Is she part of the trial?

I can understand wanting the clinton donors out, since its Clinton's lawyer. But AOC?

Basically this would mean that no one of that party could be on a jury if one of their politicians, or someone connected to them, was on trial. That's an impossible standard.

 

[Franklin Pierce]

BREAKING NEWS: Hillary Clinton APPROVED sharing debunked 'covert' communications between Trump and Kremlin-backed bank with press - even though she wasn't 'totally confident' in the legitimacy, ex-campaign manager tells Durham trial

Hillary Clinton's former campaign manager Robby Mook told a court on Friday that she signed off on sharing debunked allegations linking Donald Trump and the Kremlin-backed Alfa Bank with the media in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Mook told the trial of Michael Sussman, the first to be indicted by Special Counsel John Durham in his Russia origins probe, that he was first briefed about Alfa Bank by campaign general counsel Marc Elias.

He said he also discussed it with then senior adviser Jake Sullivan - now the White House National Security Adviser- and campaign chairman John Podesta about whether to share the information with a reporter.

'I discussed it with Hillary as well,' Mook told the court.

He also admitted the campaign wasn't 'totally confident in the legitimacy of the data', but was hoping a reporter would follow it up and determine if it was 'accurate' or 'substantive.'

'I don't remember the substance of the conversation, but notionally, the discussion was, hey, we have this and we want to share it with a reporter,' Mook said.

They decided to share it with the reporter after the meeting, he testified.

'I recall it being a member of our press staff,' Mook said. 'We authorized a staff member to share it with the media.'

Hillary Clinton APPROVED plan to share Trump-Russian bank communications, campaign manager claims | Daily Mail Online

 

[davethevol]

BREAKING NEWS: Hillary Clinton APPROVED sharing debunked 'covert' communications between Trump and Kremlin-backed bank with press - even though she wasn't 'totally confident' in the legitimacy, ex-campaign manager tells Durham trial

Hillary Clinton's former campaign manager Robby Mook told a court on Friday that she signed off on sharing debunked allegations linking Donald Trump and the Kremlin-backed Alfa Bank with the media in the run-up to the 2016 election.

Mook told the trial of Michael Sussman, the first to be indicted by Special Counsel John Durham in his Russia origins probe, that he was first briefed about Alfa Bank by campaign general counsel Marc Elias.

He said he also discussed it with then senior adviser Jake Sullivan - now the White House National Security Adviser- and campaign chairman John Podesta about whether to share the information with a reporter.

'I discussed it with Hillary as well,' Mook told the court.

He also admitted the campaign wasn't 'totally confident in the legitimacy of the data', but was hoping a reporter would follow it up and determine if it was 'accurate' or 'substantive.'

'I don't remember the substance of the conversation, but notionally, the discussion was, hey, we have this and we want to share it with a reporter,' Mook said.

They decided to share it with the reporter after the meeting, he testified.

'I recall it being a member of our press staff,' Mook said. 'We authorized a staff member to share it with the media.'

Hillary Clinton APPROVED plan to share Trump-Russian bank communications, campaign manager claims | Daily Mail Online

I hope they get that Marc Elias a-hole. He and John Podesta have been behind the lawsuits forcing masks on children in schools. There’s a special place in hell for those people.

 

[Caculator]

“I discussed it with Hillary as well,” said Mook, who added “I don’t remember the substance of the conversation, but notionally, the discussion was, hey, we have this and we want to share it with a reporter.”
So yes, the fake news media colluded with the Democrats and encouraged them to impeach the president when they took over Congress in January of 2019.

 

[CagleMtnVol]