Lawyer charged in Durham probe demands more info about case

WASHINGTON – Lawyers for a cybersecurity lawyer charged in a unique counsel’s probe into the Trump-Russia investigation questioned federal prosecutors Wednesday to supply much more information and facts about the indictment, contacting the allegations vague, sick-defined and confusing.

The motion by lawyers for Michael Sussmann previews the lines of assault they intend to use in defending him on a charge of making a untrue statement to the FBI 5 years back.

The scenario was brought very last thirty day period by John Durham, the prosecutor tasked with examining the U.S. government’s investigation into ties between Russia and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Sussmann has pleaded not responsible, and his legal professionals have attacked the circumstance as driven by politics alternatively than facts.

Sussmann is accused of lying to the FBI all through a September 2016 discussion in which he relayed fears about most likely suspicious cyber contacts involving a Trump Corporation server and the server of a Russian financial institution. The indictment alleges Sussmann informed the FBI’s then-common counsel, James Baker, that he was not bringing the fears to the FBI on behalf of any particular shopper when he was in fact symbolizing the Hillary Clinton marketing campaign and a technologies govt.

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In a movement filed Wednesday, Sussmann’s attorneys observe that the alleged false assertion was unrecorded and that there are no contemporaneous notes about it. Baker, the sole witness, has “already disclaimed memory of the statement” and has testified in strategies that help alternatively than cut against Sussmann’s account, in accordance to Sussmann’s lawyers.

Sussmann, they say, has constantly managed — including in testimony to Congress — that he fulfilled with the FBI on behalf of a cyber pro customer. His lawyers say he satisfied with Baker to suggest the FBI about a forthcoming information media report describing probable cyber contacts in between the Trump server and the Russian lender. The FBI eventually examined the issue, but found no proof of a communications backchannel.

The movement for what’s identified in the legislation as a “bill of particulars” seeks added details about the allegations, such as the exact words and phrases of Sussmann’s alleged false statement, the context in which it was created, what part of it was bogus and why it was product.

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“While the Indictment in this make any difference is 27 webpages long, the the vast majority of the allegations are not relevant to the crime the Unique Counsel has decided on to charge,” states the motion from Sussmann’s lawyers.

“And on that demand, a single alleged phony statement, the Indictment plainly fails to present Mr. Sussmann with the detail and clarity that the law necessitates and that is vital in enabling Mr. Sussmann to put together his defense,” the attorneys included.

A spokesman for the Justice Division declined to comment Wednesday evening.

Durham, a longtime federal prosecutor who served for many years as the U.S. lawyer in Connecticut, was tapped in 2019 by Lawyer Common William Barr to take a look at any probable misconduct in the federal investigation into opportunity coordination between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign. An investigation by unique counsel Robert Mueller specific considerable contacts involving Russians and Trump associates, but did not allege a legal conspiracy to suggestion the outcome of the presidential election.

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Barr appointed him past 12 months as a unique counsel, supplying him additional security supposed to guarantee that he could full his operate without the need of staying fired in a new administration.

The case against Sussmann is only the second criminal prosecution Durham has brought in approximately two and a fifty percent many years of do the job. Past yr, he secured a responsible plea from a former FBI law firm, Kevin Clinesmith, on a charge that he altered a govt e-mail. Clinesmith was sentenced to probation.

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Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP