一名律师的公司在2016年总统大选期间代表希拉里·克林顿竞选选举周四被起诉由特别顾问约翰·达勒姆被指控向联邦调查局提供虚假陈述。
珀金斯·科伊律师事务所的律师迈克尔·苏斯曼(Michael Sussmann)此前曾在2016年竞选期间俄罗斯黑客入侵民主党全国委员会的服务器后代表该委员会，他被指控在2016年9月会见该局的一名高级律师时，对“他向联邦调查局提供指控的能力”撒谎，并向他提供了一家俄罗斯银行与特朗普组织计算机服务器之间潜在联系的信息。
检察官在起诉书中写道:“具体来说，苏斯曼谎称他没有“为任何客户”从事上述指控的工作，这使联邦调查局总法律顾问(詹姆斯·贝克)明白，苏斯曼只是作为一个好公民传递信息，而不是作为一个有偿的倡导者或政治特工”。
相反，他们指控苏斯曼故意误导联邦调查局总法律顾问，因为他当时代表一名未透露姓名的科技高管、“美国互联网公司”和希拉里·克林顿的总统竞选团队行事。
在周四被起诉之前，苏斯曼的律师向美国广播公司新闻提供了一份声明，坚称自己是无辜的。
“苏斯曼先生没有犯罪，”律师事务所莱瑟姆和沃特金斯的律师肖恩·伯克维茨和迈克尔·博斯沃思说。“这里的任何起诉都将是毫无根据的、前所未有的，也是对司法部本应开展工作的非政治性和原则性方式的无端偏离。”
他们补充说:“我们相信，如果苏斯曼先生被指控，他将在审判中获胜，并证明他的好名声是正确的。
达勒姆是由前任任命总检察长威廉·巴尔于2019年5月开始调查联邦调查局和情报部门成员在调查俄罗斯和前总统唐纳德·特朗普2016年总统竞选之间的潜在联系时的不当行为指控。辞职前，巴尔任命达勒姆为特别顾问，延长其在拜登政府的任期。
虽然杜伦的调查早就超过了前特别顾问罗伯特·穆勒的调查总时间，但在周四之前，他只对一名联邦调查局低级律师提出了一项指控，该律师承认篡改了一封用于寻求监控特朗普竞选团队前助手的电子邮件。该律师凯文·克莱恩斯米斯今年早些时候被判缓刑。
达勒姆已被要求撰写一份概述其发现的报告，不过是否将这些发现公之于众将取决于司法部长梅里克·加兰。加兰曾公开表示，他无意干涉达勒姆的工作。
起诉书指控，苏斯曼于2016年开始与一名美国科技高管和其他网络研究人员合作，与克林顿竞选团队协调，就特朗普组织和俄罗斯拥有的阿尔法银行之间的潜在沟通渠道收集“白皮书”。萨斯曼后来在2016年9月19日的一次会议上向贝克提供了这些文件，据称他在会上就当时代表谁发表了虚假声明。
联邦调查局后来审查了这些联系，但没有得到证实。
在2017年对众议院议员的证词中，苏斯曼表示，他代表一名网络安全专家客户要求召开这次会议，他说，该客户持有的数据显示阿尔法银行和特朗普组织之间有联系。据一位知情人士透露，他的法律团队在与达勒姆团队的会面中否认他与贝克的会面是经过协调的，或是代表克林顿竞选团队的成员。
苏斯曼和贝克的会面发生在联邦调查局“交叉火力飓风”调查于7月31日开始一个多月后——调查与特朗普竞选团队有关联的人是否有意或无意地与俄罗斯政府干预2016年竞选的努力相协调。
几天前，2016年7月27日，当时的候选人特朗普在一次竞选活动上公开表示，“俄罗斯，如果你在听，我希望你能找到丢失的3万多封电子邮件。”这显然是指克林顿担任国务卿期间存储在私人服务器上的电子邮件。
2016年春天，俄罗斯军事情报部门入侵了民主党国会竞选委员会和民主党全国委员会的计算机网络。俄罗斯人窃取的电子邮件和文件已经在2016年6月和7月被泄露，特朗普继续鼓励更多的泄露，因为这些泄露在整个竞选期间都在继续。
《纽约时报》首先报道了达勒姆计划寻求起诉苏斯曼的消息，同时报道加兰拒绝推翻达勒姆的决定。
一位消息人士称，萨斯曼的法律团队已经与达勒姆的团队沟通，他们认为他的案件将因几个不同的原因在审查中破裂。他们注意到，苏斯曼所谓的对贝克的陈述是近五年前在没有证人的私下会面中做出的。他们认为，达勒姆确定的陈述无关紧要，因为它们可能对当时联邦调查局正在进行的任何实际调查没有重大影响。
然而，在起诉书中，检察官辩称，这份声明是实质性的，“因为除其他原因外，苏斯曼的虚假声明在他工作的政治性质方面误导了联邦调查局总法律顾问和其他联邦调查局人员，并剥夺了联邦调查局可能允许其更全面地评估和揭示相关数据和技术分析的来源的信息，包括苏斯曼客户的身份和动机。”
Lawyer whose firm represented Clinton campaign indicted by special counsel investigating Russia probe
A lawyer whose firm represented Hillary Clinton's campaign during the 2016 presidentialelectionwas indicted Thursdayby special counselJohn Durham on a single charge of making a false statement to the FBI.
Michael Sussmann, an attorney for the Perkins Coie law firm who previously represented the Democratic National Committee following the hacking of its servers by Russia during the 2016 campaign, is accused of lying "about the capacity in which he was providing allegations to the FBI" when he met with a top lawyer from the bureau in September 2016 and provided him information about potential ties between a Russian bank and computer servers in the Trump Organization.
"Specifically, SUSSMANN state falsely that he was not doing his work on the aforementioned allegations "for any client," which led the FBI General Counsel (James A. Baker) to understand that SUSSMANN was acting as a good citizen merely passing along information, not as a paid advocate or political operative," prosecutors write in the indictment.
They allege instead that Sussmamn intentionally misled the FBI general counsel because he was acting at the time on behalf of an unnamed tech executive, an "U.S. internet company" and Hillary Clinton's Presidential Campaign.
Prior to his indictment Thursday, Sussmann's attorneys provided a statement to ABC News maintaining his innocence.
"Mr. Sussmann has committed no crime," attorneys Sean Berkowitz and Michael Bosworth of the law firm Latham and Watkins said. "Any prosecution here would be baseless, unprecedented, and an unwarranted deviation from the apolitical and principled way in which the Department of Justice is supposed to do its work."
"We are confident that if Mr. Sussmann is charged, he will prevail at trial and vindicate his good name," they added.
Durham wasappointed by formerAttorney General William Barr in May 2019 to investigate allegations of misconduct by members of the FBI and the intelligence community in their investigation of potential ties between Russia and former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign for the presidency. Before his resignation, Barr appointed Durham as special counsel extending his tenure into the Biden administration.
While Durham's probe has long since lapsed the total duration of former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, prior to Thursday he had yielded only one indictment against a lower-level FBI lawyer who admitted to doctoring an email used in seeking surveillance against a former aide to Trump's campaign. That lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, was sentenced to probation earlier this year.
Durham has been tasked with creating a report outlining his findings, though it will be up to Attorney General Merrick Garland to determine whether to make those findings public. Garland has said publicly he has no intention of interfering in Durham's work.
The indictment alleges Sussmann began in 2016 working with a U.S. tech executive and other cyber researchers in coordination with the Clinton campaign to assemble "white papers" on a potential communications channel between the Trump Organization and Russian-owned Alfa Bank. Sussmann later provided Baker with the documents in a Sept. 19, 2016 meeting where he is alleged to have made the false statement about who he was acting on behalf of at the time.
The connections were later examined by the FBI, but not substantiated.
In a 2017 deposition with House lawmakers, Sussmann said that he requested the meeting on behalf of a client who was a cybersecurity expert that held data he said showed ties between Alfa Bank and the Trump Organization. According to a source familiar with the matter, his legal team denied in meetings with Durham's team that his meeting with Baker was coordinated or on behalf of members of Clinton's campaign.
The meeting between Sussman and Baker occurred more than a month after the FBI's "Crossfire Hurricane" investigation -- looking into whether people associated with the Trump campaign were coordinating, wittingly or unwittingly, with the Russian government's efforts to interfere with the 2016 campaign -- was opened on July 31.
Days earlier, on July 27, 2016, then-candidate Trump said publicly at a campaign event, "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the more than 30,000 emails that are missing." This was an apparent reference to Clinton emails that had been stored on a private server during the time she had served as secretary of state.
In the spring of 2016, Russian military intelligence had hacked into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee. Emails and documents stolen by the Russians had already been leaked in June and July of 2016 and Trump continued to encourage more leaks as they continued throughout the campaign.
The New York Times, which first reported news of Durham's plans to seek an indictment against Sussmann, also reported that Garland has declined to overrule Durham's decision.
Sussmann's legal team has communicated to Durham's team that they believe his case will fall apart under scrutiny for several different reasons, a source said. They have noted that Sussmann's alleged statement to Baker was made nearly five years ago and in a private meeting with no witnesses. And they argue the statements identified by Durham are immaterial in that they likely had no significant impact on any actual investigation being conducted by the FBI at the time.
In the indictment, however, prosecutors contend the statement was material "because, among other reasons, Sussmann's false statement misled the FBI general counsel and other FBI personnel concerning the political nature of his work and deprived the FBI of information that might have permitted it more fully to assess and uncover the origins of the relevant data and technical analysis, including the identities and motivations of Sussmann's clients."
