In Durham trial, former top FBI lawyer details 2016 meeting behind unsubstantiated data linking Trump to Russian bank
CBSN
Washington – When noted cyber attorney Michael Sussmann came to FBI headquarters in September 2016 to hand over now-debunked data purportedly linking Trump Tower to Russia's Alfa Bank, the FBI's general counsel, James Baker, said the information concerned him, and he viewed it as a "potential national security threat," Baker told a Washington, D.C. jury on Thursday.
Sussmann is now on trial for lying during that 2016 meeting, accused by special counsel John Durham of hiding his alleged connection to Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and the technology executive who provided him the data. He has pleaded not guilty and will call witnesses next week to help him mount a full defense against the single charge of lying.
Prosecutors say Sussmann's lie began the night before the meeting, on Sept. 18, 2016, when he texted Baker to request the meeting. He allegedly wrote, "I'm coming on my own – not on behalf of a client or company," text messages revealed during this week's trial read. "[W]ant to help the Bureau." But Durham, who was appointed during the Trump administration to investigate accusations of misconduct in the Trump-Russia investigation, alleges Sussmann came forward not to "help the Bureau," but to help two clients who had hired his law firm, Perkins Coie.
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