Smoking Gun: Durham Publishes Docs Showing Clinton Lawyer Sussmann Put His Lie to the FBI in Writing

John Durham released a potential smoking gun in the case against Michael Sussmann on Monday night, as he published documents showing the Democratic cybersecurity lawyer messaged the FBI general counsel that he was not working on behalf of any client, when in fact he was working for the Clinton campaign.

Sussmann was indicted last September for allegedly concealing his clients — Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and “Tech Executive-1,” known to be former Neustar executive Rodney Joffe — from FBI general counsel James Baker when he pushed since-debunked claims of a secret back channel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank.

The September 2021 indictment alleged Sussmann lied when he said he was not providing the allegations to the FBI on behalf of any client when he was in fact doing so on behalf of Joffe and the Clinton campaign. Last year, Sussmann’s lawyers attempted to argue there was no evidence that Sussmann lied to Baker.

On Monday evening, however, Durham revealed Sussmann conveyed that lie in a text message to Baker on Sept. 18, 2016 — the night before their meeting at the bureau.