Jury selection underway in trial tied to Russia probe
WASHINGTON » Jury selection got underway Monday in the trial of a lawyer for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign who is accused of lying to the FBI as it investigated potential ties between Donald Trump and Russia in 2016.
The case against Michael Sussmann, a cybersecurity attorney who represented the Clinton campaign in 2016, is the first trial arising from the ongoing investigation by special counsel John Durham, and will test the strength of evidence he and his team have gathered while scrutinizing the early days of the TrumpRussia probe for potential misconduct.
Sussmann appeared in court with his lawyers Monday as both sides worked to select jurors to hear the case, which is expected to last about two weeks. Prospective jurors who had already
filled out questionnaires filed into the courtroom to answer follow-up questions about topics including
political contributions during the 2016 election and their opinions on lawyers and the criminaljustice
system.
One potential juror who said she worked as a contractor for a firm that did the tax returns for an expected key witness in the case was excused from service; another who expressed support for Democrat Hillary Clinton was excused after saying she wasn’t sure she could be impartial.
The case alleges one false statement by Sussmann, but the stakes are high nonetheless: An acquittal is likely to hasten questions about the Durham probe’s purpose and cost to taxpayers, while a guilty verdict will almost certainly energize Trump supporters who have long looked to Durham to expose what they see as biased mistreatment of the former president.
Sussmann is accused of misleading the FBI’s thengeneral counsel during a September 2016 meeting in which he presented research showing what he said might be a suspicious back channel of communications between computer servers of the Trump Organization and Russia-based Alfa Bank.
Prosecutors allege Sussmann lied by saying that he wasn’t attending the meeting on behalf of any particular client, when they say he was acting on behalf of two clients: the Clinton campaign and a technology executive who had helped assemble the computer data.
Durham’s team says that had the FBI been told the truth, it would have factored into the bureau’s assessment of the credibility of the Alfa Bank claims as it weighed whether to begin investigating. The FBI looked into the matter but ultimately found nothing suspicious.
Sussmann’s lawyers deny he lied, but say the alleged misstatement isn’t relevant in any event, since there is no evidence that what the FBI knew or didn’t know about his political affiliations had any bearing on its decision-making.