Margot Cleveland: Judge Denies Clinton Lawyer Micheal Sussmann’s Motion To Dismiss Charges For Alleged Lies To The FBI
The federal judge presiding over the criminal case against Michael Sussmann denied the former Clinton Campaign attorney’s Motion to Dismiss the Section 1001 false statement charge brought against him by the Special Counsel on Wednesday.
Declaring “the battle lines” drawn, in a short six-page opinion, the court rejected Sussmann’s attempt to have the criminal case against him tossed, saying it was too early to determine if Sussmann’s alleged lie to the former FBI General Counsel was “material.”
[...]
According to the Special Counsel’s briefing, it will also present testimony from “multiple government witnesses” confirming “that understanding the origins of data and information is relevant to the FBI in multiple ways, including to assess the reliability and motivations of the sources.” Those same witnesses will likely also testify that had they known Sussmann was presenting evidence compiled on behalf of the Clinton Campaign and Joffe, they would have more fully investigated the genesis of the white papers and how the data was compiled.
Of course, knowing that Sussmann was acting on behalf of the Clinton Campaign and Joffe is unlikely to have changed how members of the Crossfire Hurricane team approached the Alfa Bank material; after all, knowing the Clinton Campaign funded Christophe Steele’s dossier, made no difference to the Crossfire Hurricane agents.
Significantly, though, the law does not care how any one specific agent would have reacted but for a lie. Rather, on the issue of “materiality,” the question is whether the lie “is capable of influencing a decision,” and the test is an objective one.
Read the rest here.
Comments