LAWYER 'KNEW HE HAD TO LIE TO FBI'

Clinton ‘dirty tricks’ trial goes to jury

WASHINGTON — Former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann lied to an FBI official because he knew the bureau would have been more skeptical of since-discredited allegations of a Donald Trump link to Russia had they known he was acting on behalf of the Clinton campaign and an Internet executive, a federal prosecutor charged Friday.

“He knew he had to conceal his representation of the Clinton campaign and Rodney Joffe to push the Alfa-Bank allegations to the FBI,” prosecutor Jonathan Algor told jurors in his closing argument in DC federal court.

“The chances of the FBI investigating would be diminished, would be seriously less,” if Sussmann had been up front with former FBI general counsel Jim Baker, Algor added.

The prosecutor blasted the Trump allegations as opposition research drafted by a political campaign and passed off to the FBI under the guise of a security threat.

“It wasn’t about national security,” Algor told jurors. “It was about promoting opposition research against the opposition candidate.”

Sussmann’s two-week trial on a single count of lying to the FBI drew to a close Friday as prosecutors from special counsel John Durham’s team and Sussmann’s defense attorneys delivered their summations in the case.

The jury began deliberating Friday afternoon, but Judge Christopher Cooper said he had to leave soon after

2 p.m. In the unlikely event the panel did reach a verdict Cooper ordered it not be read until after the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

‘Overwhelming’ evidence

Before they began deliberating, Cooper warned the panelists not to discuss the case and not to read press reports about the trial over the long weekend.

The judge said the panel could deliberate until 5 p.m. Friday, leaving about 3 ¹/2 hours for their discussions on the first day.

Sussmann is accused of lying to Baker about his motivation for turning over the since-debunked information on two thumb drives and other “white papers” that purportedly showed a secret communication channel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa-Bank.

In his presentation, Algor presented the jury with billing records that allegedly show clear and “overwhelming” evidence that Sussmann was working on behalf of the Clinton campaign and Joffe as he gathered the Alfa-Bank material and turned it over to the FBI.

The records include a number of times he billed hours to the campaign in September 2016, during the weeks leading up to his meeting with Baker.

“Work on white paper,” Sussmann wrote on an 8.1-hour bill to the campaign on Sept. 5, according to evidence Algor presented.

He also highlighted flash drives Sussmann bought at a Washington, DC, Staples that is blocks away from his former law firm’s office on Sept. 13, 2016, and billed the campaign for.

The day after he purchased the drives, he billed the campaign for meetings with Joffe and others “regarding confidential project,” Algor showed jurors.

“What is the confidential project? Use your common sense: It’s the Alfa-Bank project,” he added.

Defense batters feds

To secure a conviction, Durham’s team will have to convince jurors that the alleged falsehood was “material,” meaning it had the ability to affect actions taken by the FBI.

In his closing argument, defense attorney Sean Berkowitz hammered the bureau’s investigation into the Alfa-Bank material.

“It was shoddy. It was an embarrassment,” he said, noting FBI agents in headquarters withheld Sussmann’s identity from field agents investigating the matter.

Berkowitz also showed that another agent dismissed the information off the bat as something that could’ve been written by someone with a “mental disability.”

He also showed jury instructions to the panel, which say a statement could be “relevant” but not “material.”

Sussmann’s defense has sought to undermine what effect his motivation could have had by attempting to show jurors that FBI officials already knew that he was an attorney for the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

“Mr. Sussmann had DNC and [Hillary for America] tattooed on his forehead,” Berkowitz told jurors.

If convicted, Sussmann faces a maximum of five years in prison.