A close ally of the Clintons is facing a criminal trial for alleged lies about Trump.
The Russian collusion hoax has completely backfired on Democrats.
Hillary Clinton went pale with horror at the case this judge allowed to proceed.
Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann filed a motion in February to try and dismiss the case against him in Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation, claiming a case of “extraordinary prosecutorial overreach.”
Sussmann claimed in the motion to dismiss that the Durham indictment “fail[s] to state an offense.” He has been charged with lying to the FBI during a 2016 meeting surrounding alleged links between the Trump organization and Russia.
“Mr. Sussmann did not make any false statement to the FBI,” Sussmann’s defense team claimed. “But in any event, the false statement alleged in the indictment is immaterial as a matter of law. Furthermore, allowing this case to go forward would risk criminalizing ordinary conduct, raise First Amendment concerns, dissuade honest citizens from coming forward with tips, and chill the advocacy of lawyers who interact with the government.”
Durham called the motion to dismiss “absurd.”
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled on Wednesday that the case will be allowed to proceed.
Cooper wrote in his ruling that Sussmann failed to provide any “legal authority” proving he did not give a materially false statement.
“While Sussmann is correct that certain statements might be so peripheral or unimportant to a relevant agency decision or function to be immaterial under § 1001 as matter of law, the Court is unable to make that determination as to this alleged statement before hearing the government’s evidence. Any such decision must therefore wait until trial,” Cooper ruled.
Durham’s indictment alleges that Sussmann told then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016 that he was not doing work “for any client” at a meeting right before the 2016 presidential election where he presented “purported data and ‘white papers’ that allegedly demonstrated a covert communications channel” between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, which has ties to the Kremlin.
Durham also alleged in a court filing that Sussmann worked with a tech executive during the summer of 2016 to gather “data” on behalf of the Clinton campaign.
The filing alleged that they “exploited” access to internet traffic linked to several Trump properties.
“In connection with these efforts, Tech Executive-1 exploited his access to non-public and/or proprietary Internet data,” the filing states. “Tech Executive-1 also enlisted the assistance of researchers at a U.S.-based university who were receiving and analyzing large amounts of Internet data in connection with a pending federal government cybersecurity research contract.”
“Tech Executive-1 tasked these researchers to mine Internet data to establish ‘an inference’ and ‘narrative’ tying then-candidate Trump to Russia,” Durham states. “In doing so, Tech Executive-1 indicated that he was seeking to please certain ‘VIPs,’ referring to individuals at Law Firm-1 and the Clinton campaign.”
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