New evidence was filed Monday night in the case against Hillary Clinton’s lawyer Michael Sussmann by Special Counsel John Durham. Sussmann has been charged with making false statements to a federal agent in 2016 during a meeting with the FBI.
Text messages between Sussmann and the FBI official adds new evidence outside of his one-on-one meeting with the official. In his meeting, Sussmann allegedly failed to disclose that Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign was his client when he claimed there was a connection between the Trump organization and Russia’s Kremlin-allied Alfa Bank.
“Sussmann allegedly falsely claimed that he was not at the meeting on behalf of any client” writes National Review. Durham’s latest filing shows a text message supporting that. The evening before the meeting, Sussman sent a text to an FBI official saying: “I’m coming on my own- not on behalf of a client or company – want to help the bureau.”
National Review also reports on the new evidence:
The new filing also includes references to the dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. A number of the allegations included in the Steele dossier, which was used by the FBI to obtain surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, have since been discredited.
Steele was a subcontractor for Fusion GPS, a research firm that Sussmann’s former law firm, Perkins Coie, had hired to look into potential links between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Marc Elias, a campaign law specialist and one of Sussmann’s partners at Perkins Coie, was representing the Clinton campaign and hired Fusion GPS.
Though Sussmann’s indictment does not mention the Steele dossier, Durham’s new filing refers to the dossier and Steele, including a meeting with Sussmann that Steele has said included the alleged suspicions data scientists had about odd internet data they thought might indicate a secret channel between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank.
Sussmann’s lawyers asked the judge to block prosecutors from making arguments and introducing evidence related to the dossier.
