USA 2020 Elections: Thread

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Clinton Campaign Lawyer Wanted To Create 'October Surprise' With
Trump-Russia Claims: Prosecutors

https://www.theepochtimes.com/clinton-campaign-lawyer-wanted-to-create-october-surprise-with-trump-russia-claims-prosecutors_4472122.html

A Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer aimed to influence the 2016
presidential election when he conveyed allegations about
then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russia to the FBI, U.S.
prosecutors said on May 17.

Michael Sussman, the lawyer, and others were hoping to create an
“October surprise” by “using and manipulating the FBI,” Brittain Shaw,
a prosecutor with Special Counsel John Durham’s team, said during
opening arguments in Sussmann’s trial.

The government’s goal is to prove Sussmann lied to FBI general counsel
Jim Baker when he provided documents alleging a link between Trump’s
business and a Russian bank during a Sept. 19, 2016 meeting at the
FBI’s headquarters.

According to a text message Sussmann sent to Baker before the meeting,
the lawyer claimed he was bringing the information on his own accord,
not on behalf of a client.

But Sussmann, who was representing the Clinton campaign and technology
executive Rodney Joffe at the time, was actually passing along the
data on behalf of his clients, the government alleges.

The lie was material because the FBI may have chosen to act more
cautiously and probe Sussmann’s network, which included a group of
researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, prosecutors said
in the indictment against Sussmann.

The lawyer faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Jurors also heard from Michael Bosworth, who said that Sussmann did
not lie to the FBI.

The lawyer gave information to the FBI because he was legitimately
concerned as a “cyber defense attorney” in the rumors and allegations
regarding Trump and a Russian bank “owned by an associate of Vladimir
Putin,” Bosworth said.

The defense plans to argue that Sussmann was well-known, respected by
the government, and had nothing to gain on behalf of his clients by
conveying the data to Baker, who had worked with him for years at the
DOJ.

Shaw said that Sussmann wanted to use the FBI as a “political pawn”
and that he lied “for political aim.”

The case involves “a look, a leap, and a lie,” according to Shaw. The
look was meeting with Steele to look into what he had, the leap was
reaching out to friendly media outlets to publish the allegations, and
when that didn’t happen, Sussmann went to the FBI.

When the meeting happened, Trump was the Republican nominee for
president and Clinton was the Democrat nominee for president. Trump
ended up winning, but was dogged for years by the investigation by
Special Counsel Robert Mueller into alleged links with Russia.

Mueller concluded there was no coordination or cooperation between
Trump or his campaign and Russian actors.

Witnesses scheduled to testify on Tuesday included FBI cyber expert
David Martin and Marc Elias, the Clinton campaign’s general counsel.