Lawyer indicted in Durham probe asks court to dismiss charge

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Lawyer indicted in Durham probe asks court to dismiss charge
By John Kruzel - 02/17/22 12:57 PM EST

A lawyer who faces a criminal charge stemming from special counsel John Durham's probe into the FBI's investigation of the 2016 Trump campaign on Thursday asked a federal judge to dismiss the case against him.

Michael Sussmann requested the dismissal of his single criminal count of making a false statement to the FBI, calling it in court papers “a case of extraordinary prosecutorial overreach.”

“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,” Sussmann argued in a 29-page motion to dismiss filed in a Washington, D.C.-based federal court.

Sussmann, a national security attorney, pleaded not guilty following his indictment in September accusing him of lying during a 2016 meeting with a top FBI lawyer concerning the Trump Organization’s alleged links to a Russian bank.

Durham has alleged that Sussmann hid his relationship with the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton — the main political rival of then-candidate Trump — when he presented the FBI with findings from a cybersecurity firm alleging suspicious internet activity between Trump’s business and the Russian bank.

more
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/594749-lawyer-at-center-of-durham-probe-asks-court-to-dismiss-criminal

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BREAKING: Sussmann Attorneys Make Big Move in Durham Case
By Nick Arama | Feb 17, 2022 12:52 PM ET

From Fox News:

Durham’s indictment against Sussmann, says he told then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016, less than two months before the 2016 presidential election, that he was not doing work “for any client” when he requested and held a meeting in which 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.

But the indictment said that, in fact, Sussmann was acting on behalf of an internet company and the Clinton campaign.

Sussmann’s attorneys claim in the motion, in part:

    “It has long been a crime to make a false statement to the government. But the law criminalizes only false statements that are material—false statements that matter because they can actually affect a specific decision of the government,” the lawyers wrote, adding that, by contrast, false statements “about ancillary matters” are “immaterial and cannot give rise to criminal liability.”

    “Accordingly, where individuals have been prosecuted for providing tips to government investigators, they have historically been charged with making a false statement only where the tip itself was alleged to be false, because that is the only statement that could affect the specific decision to commence an investigation,” the lawyers wrote. “Indeed, the defense is aware of no case in which an individual has provided a tip to the government and has been charged with making any false statement other than providing a false tip. But that is exactly what has happened here.”

more
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/02/17/breaking-sussmann-attorneys-make-big-move-in-durham-case-n523620

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https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1494500485440622598