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Julia Nikhinson/Reuters
Michael Sussmann did exactly what he was accused of by Special Counsel John Durham. But the latter charged the former with lying to former FBI general counsel James Baker on the wrong day.
Durham’s team alleged that Sussmann told Baker that he wasn’t representing any client during a meeting at FBI headquarters on September 19, 2016, during which Sussmann handed over flimsy evidence of a secret communications channel between Russia’s Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization. In fact, the prosecution argued, Sussmann was acting on behalf of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and tech executive Rodney Joffe, whose firm dug up the evidence.
Sussmann very well might have lied during the meeting, but Durham had no smoking gun evidence. His star witness, Baker, was an unreliable narrator.