Sussmann Attorneys Make Big Move in Durham Case – Opinion

If the latest actions are any indication, it is clear that Clintons must be in panic mode.

Michael Sussmann, a Clinton campaign lawyer, has filed a motion for dismissal of the case against him in which he made a false statement about the FBI. They are claiming that the case is “extraordinary prosecutorial overreach,” and that the indictment “fails to state an offense.”

Translation? Too much information is coming out connected to the Clinton campaign in the filings — and that can’t happen.

Fox News

Durham’s indictment against Sussmann, says he told then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016, less than two months before the 2016 presidential election, that he was not doing work “for any client” when he requested and held a meeting in which he presented “purported data and ‘white papers’ that allegedly demonstrated a covert communications channel” between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, which has ties to the Kremlin.

However, the indictment revealed that Sussmann was in fact acting on behalf a Clinton campaign and an internet company.

Sussmann’s attorneys claim in the motion, in part:

“It has long been a crime to make a false statement to the government. But the law criminalizes only false statements that are material—false statements that matter because they can actually affect a specific decision of the government,” the lawyers wrote, adding that, by contrast, false statements “about ancillary matters” are “immaterial and cannot give rise to criminal liability.”

“Accordingly, where individuals have been prosecuted for providing tips to government investigators, they have historically been charged with making a false statement only where the tip itself was alleged to be false, because that is the only statement that could affect the specific decision to commence an investigation,” the lawyers wrote. “Indeed, the defense is aware of no case in which an individual has provided a tip to the government and has been charged with making any false statement other than providing a false tip. But that is exactly what has happened here.”

It seems material that he was working for Clinton, and the claim about the Alfa Bank — which is what he allegedly told the FBI — was debunked.

“He met with the FBI, in other words, to provide a tip,” Sussmann’s lawyers wrote. “There is no allegation in the indictment that the tip he provided was false. It is not stated that Sussmann believed the tip was false. Rather, Mr. Sussmann has been charged with making a false statement about an entirely ancillary matter—about who his client may have been when he met with the FBI—which is a fact that even the Special Counsel’s own Indictment fails to allege had any effect on the FBI’s decision to open an investigation.”

“Mr. Sussmann did not make any false statement to the FBI,” the lawyers wrote.

“Allowing this case to go forward would risk criminalizing ordinary conduct, raise First Amendment concerns, dissuade honest citizens from coming forward with tips, and chill the advocacy of lawyers who interact with the government,” his lawyers argued.

“The Special Counsel’s unprecedented and unlawful overreach should not be countenanced, and the single count against Mr. Sussmann should be dismissed…,” they added.

Nice try, guys; this move isn’t likely to fly — but it’s clear this is making a lot of people nervous.