New York Post

Hill aide will skip the proof

- Bruce Golding

Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann won’t try to prove the allegation­s he passed to the FBI that former President Donald Trump had a secret back channel to a Russian bank, according to a court filing Monday.

Washington, DC, federal Judge Christophe­r Cooper has ruled that Sussmann’s defense lawyer “stated that he will not seek to affirmativ­ely prove the existence of a link between Alfa Bank and the Trump campaign.”

The defense move, announced during a pretrial hearing Thursday, came after special counsel John Durham said he wouldn’t seek to disprove the data Sussmann gave the FBI if Sussmann agreed to “concede or decline to dispute the fact that no secret channel of communicat­ions actually existed,” according to court papers.

“The court will hold the government to its word, and will not allow it to put on extensive evidence about the accuracy of the data Mr. Sussmann provided to the FBI unless Mr. Sussmann does so first,” Cooper wrote. Sussmann is charged with lying to the FBI when he turned over data he claimed would connect Trump’s 2016 campaign with Russia.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States