Closing arguments have wrapped up in the trial of former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann. The jury is now deliberating. In an unusual twist, trial Judge Christopher Cooper said if a verdict arrives today, he will withhold reading the outcome until Tuesday due to prior commitments.
Despite the evidence that Michael Sussmann lied to FBI officials about the reason for him bringing the Clinton campaign manufactured false information about a Trump-Russia connection via Alfa-Bank in Trump Tower, it is highly unlikely Sussmann will be found guilty. The reason is simply that regardless of whether he told FBI officials the material came from Hillary Clinton’s campaign; the FBI knew Sussmann was an operative of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. It’s an issue of materiality.
Top leadership at the FBI concealed Sussmann as the Alfa-Bank source from the FBI investigators who were given the information. Whether Sussmann lied about bringing the false evidence on behalf of the Clinton campaign was immaterial to how the evidence was handled. Again, as CTH has said for the past two years, the background of Durham investigating the ‘outsiders’ is filled with pretending. Even Andrew McCarthy, a defender of the institutions, outlined the FBI playing pretend as a “bad look.”
The New York Post has a solid article outlining all the pretending – “What we learned at the trial this week is that, notwithstanding Baker’s insistence that he believed Sussmann’s cover story, FBI headquarters officials fully realized they were acting on highly political information and took steps to conceal that fact.
First, a decision was made to treat Sussmann, the source, as a confidential informant. This was not done to protect Sussmann’s security. It was done to protect the FBI’s reputation. The informant pretext enabled headquarters to conceal Sussmann’s identity from the line agents in Chicago who were tasked to assess the Alfa-Bank information.
As good investigators, the agents wanted to know the source of the information so they could assess the purveyor’s motive and thus the data’s likely reliability. They were frustrated and annoyed that headquarters would not identify the source and allow him to be interviewed.
If they had been told Sussmann was behind the data, they would instantly have known that the information was political. As it was, they quickly concluded that the information was nonsense, that it did not come close to establishing a Trump-Kremlin communications channel, and that it probably came from someone with an anti-Trump agenda.
Second, the headquarters effort to cover up Sussmann’s identity reached such absurd heights that the FBI itself made false statements in documenting the investigation. In the “electronic communication” by which the bureau opens cases, agents claimed that the information had come not from Sussmann, not even from a confidential source, but from … wait for it … the US Department of Justice. This was so ridiculous that, embarrassingly, none of the agents involved could explain how that happened.
Third, the FBI’s brass was so hot to nail Trump for supposedly being a clandestine agent of Russia that the line agents’ rejection of the evidence made no difference. “People on the 7th floor to include the Director are fired up about this server,” said headquarters agent Joe Pientka in a message to one of the Chicago agents.
The 7th floor houses the suite of top executive offices at FBI headquarters, including that of Director Comey. When the Chicago cyber investigators found no basis for criminal charges, they were told to keep the case open as a counterintelligence matter. “Priestap says it’s not an option — we must do it,” admonished Pientka, referring to the bureau’s top counterintelligence official. (read more)
The NY Post reaches the same conclusion CTH highlighted years ago. “In fact, if Sussmann is acquitted, that will have a lot more to do with the bureau’s machinations than Sussmann’s innocence,” they write.
The DOJ, FBI and everyone associated with the information knew they were receiving opposition research from the Clinton campaign. However, the FBI had to pretend they didn’t know in order to use the false information to start another Trump investigation.
The media were then told by the Clinton campaign that the FBI had the Alfa-Bank material under investigation, that FBI involvement gave the illusion of credibility. The media then asked the FBI if they did have an investigation of the material and wrote their articles accordingly.
The media articles carried additional weight because the suspicions existing connected to actual material within an FBI investigation gave the suspicions more credibility.
This is the exact same reason why several months later, March 2017, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), Vice-Chairman Mark Warner, told the SSCI security director James Wolfe to leak Carter Page FISA application to journalist Ali Watkins. Same approach as Sussmann.
In 2016 Michael Sussmann wanted media articles verifying Donald Trump as an investigative target of the FBI to help Hillary Clinton.
In 2017 Mark Warner wanted media articles verifying Donald Trump’s campaign officials as investigative targets of the FBI to get a special counsel appointed.
In both examples the primary motive was to use the media to get an outcome.
Michael Sussmann was the delivery agent to the FBI so that the Perkins Coie law firm to lean on their media allies to spread the Trump-Russia collusion conspiracy. Sussmann had a pre-existing relationship with FBI Counsel Jim Baker that would be useful for that purpose. Hence, the origin of the contact that was argued in court.
It was the media angle that was more important to the Clinton campaign; the FBI angle was only to bolster the credibility of the Trump-Russia accusation, and the FBI were more than willing to use the material and try to help Hillary Clinton.
The entire media system knew along with everyone else inside and outside of government, that their efforts to create the Trump-Russia conspiracy and collusion narrative were based on fraudulent pretext manufactured by the Clinton campaign.
They all knew it.
They all acted collaboratively, and they all engaged purposefully.
The same can be said for the Mueller/Weissmann investigation that followed. There was not a single person in Washington DC who did not know the Mueller special counsel was appointed entirely to hide all of the preceding government corruption. However, as typical within the last decade of DC corruption, everyone keeps pretending.
From the claim of men having babies, to denying the entire apparatus of the U.S. government weaponized to target a political opponent, we are a nation pretending.
Is this the judicial equivalent of Al Capones vault ?
Or the Muller Investigation, Hillary, anything she ever did and so on.
I think it’s sort of the opposite. People thought or hoped that the vault would be full of interesting finds but instead it was dirt and a couple of beer bottles. In this case, it’s full of interesting finds but there may be only shoulder-shrugging at the end.
In other words, there is no such thing. It is all a big farce. Don’t hold your breath cause you might pass out if you do till things go right.
So , a weekend of distractions before Tues. then , got it.
Monday will be another Fed inspired mass murder by a white Supremist.
At least that’s what they will say. Even if it isn’t. They all lie a lot.
Yeah, I immediately wondered, what’s happening Tuesday?
Taiwan invasion?
The fix is in.
Yep. Welcome to our two tiered system of justice. If you’re a connected insider you can lie to the FBI and wont go to prison because the FBI knew you were lying. The FBI knew you were lying because they were in on it. What a messed up system we have.
Do not lose heart in all this. In the end, we know God wins. I pray these fools will have to go thru the 7 years of the tribulation and suffer God’s wrath on earth. If they’re already dead before the tribulation , I know my Lord will judge them and sentence them to eternal life in the lake of fire. No earthly justice can come close to that! God’s will be done!
God will win in the end. Doesn’t matter what we ask for or want. He will have his way, and I say (again) God is angry at the way the world has become. He, not Jesus is the one who will turn His wrath upon this world. Not just the U.S. but the whole world. Like i t or not….HE will win.
did we not see the very same thing with that little wiesel clindesmith??
Aeems like cardnial comey has been rather quiet huh??!!
And cue the mistrial on Tuesday in 3..2…1
Worse….acquittal.
And cue the denial of mistrial in 3…2…1
But worst of all will be the words that appear at the end of the denial of mistrial: “not guilty verdict stands.”
Lastly, we’ve seen this sick movie before, i.e., judges who could have and should have ruled in open court as is regular practice but preferring instead to put cases over under circumstances that are very suspect, to say the least.
In this instance, this creep of a human being knows very well that the long weekend will allow corrupt actors the opportunity to attempt to contact jurors, or, at the very least, that the jury will be subjected to organized media campaigns to present legal arguments attacking any possible verdict of guilt, not to mention the Memorial Day gatherings of friends, some of whom will be cheeky enough to try to sway a friend they know to be on that jury.
With this shocking development, we’re again left with the demoralizing realization that our endangered ship of state continues to take on water, while at the same time we observe that obvious solutions are being deliberately avoided.
It thus goes without saying that most of us would prefer jumping overboard as close to shore as possible, but there again, as in other instances of past recklessness, our wayward ship refuses (above all!) to change course (note Mitch McConnell’s current outreach to Dems to weaken our 2A )and is moving headlong to open seas…greater safety there, I guess.
well, we KNOW at least 3 “Not Guilty” votes are on that jury….The judge made sure of it
Sounds like a weak case to start with. If Durham isn’t going after the heads of this criminality (the kenyan and the evil hag with the blue dress staining husband) the whole thing seems like eye wash
Exactly, Durham is dancing on the head of a pin!
He has never been a heavy weight. He is the one that started me to asking why Trump wasn’t asking for better input. Why is he listening to these people who keep pushing him in other directions. He needs to listen to his thoughts, not the other guys. They don’t have the brain power to think like he has…all his life.
Where does Elias fit into this burrito of corruption?
Gotta give the covert embeds in the jury time to persuade the others into a “not guilty” verdict or end up deadlocked….
They’re not even covert! They came right out and said they worked for the Clinton Campaign!
Still say WHY BOTHER? Never seen a one of them have to pay for their crimes. The people don’t matter, we never have and never will. So just forget these mock trials.
Some facts and details were revealed in the trial which had not previously been revealed or were suspected but not confirmed.
Otherwise your cynicism is understandable.
It will be leaked out anyway whether the judge is in or not, too many non-reclused participants from judge to jury members for this to be kept quiet, they want all Sussman/Clinton affiliates to know beforehand that their fix was in their favor from the start. And the leaker will never be brought before the judge or uncovered by the “msm”, just like the Supreme Court leaker. We now live completely in a 3rd world banana country.
DC jury. What a joke! 95% of DC voted for Hillary and Biden. Durham will never get a criminal conviction, especially with Hillary’s involvement with Sussmann.
He was never supposed to. He was a fraud just like Barr, and the entire DC group including Mike Pompeo, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson, Louie Gomert, Jim Jordan. What do you really think is going through Trump’s mind as he reads SD???
He might even be t rying to figure out why the Heck he listened to the people he did listen to….instead of himself. He has been more right than most folks.
not sure PDJT reads CTH but we do KNOW some of his staff do so
Spoiler Alert: he’s playing a role. It was never about justice.
The lie is material, even important. The FBI needed Sussman to lie in order to move forward. Had Sussman said he was working for Joffe and Clinton, Baker would be screaming, “NaNaNa, don’t say that!”
I believe Baker told Sussman he would not get the meeting unless he lied.
Sometimes I think the primary purpose is to get them on a lie so they cannot be used as a witness elsewhere. Dewitnessing the problem people. Seems they are always happy if you just sign on the dotted line that you lied, and everything goes away.
Baker works at Twitter now
https://nypost.com/2020/06/16/twitter-hires-former-fbi-chief-counsel-as-deputy-lawyer/
Create the crime, then fill in the blanks after. What, you say the blanks don’t corroborate each other? No worries; we’ll create more blanks to cover those other blanks we didn’t cover to begin with. If that fails, we’ll classify it. It gets declassified? No worries; DC is neatly tucked in our back pocket.
Waiting, Dear Lord!
It may not suit your tastes, but it’s apropo:
Its perfect, thank you!
So, SCOTUS decision on abortion and Sussman verdict on the same day. Can we stand the strain?
The FBI is a fraud wrapped in a hundred fabrications inside a thousand lies.
From the claim of men having babies, to denying the entire apparatus of the U.S. government weaponized to target a political opponent, we are a nation pretending.
Sadly, all the pretending has dangerous real-world consequences for all of us.
today, Tuesday, who cares. / sarc. the media will completely ignore reporting on the verdict no matter what day it drops.
The judge has holiday commitments i.e. the Eastern Shore of Delaware or Maryland or Virginia. Tough life for these DC types.
No, the judge is spending the holiday weekend in Martha’s Vinyard! Guess where? LOL
Don’t ya mean “WHO WITH?”
Exactly!
Maybe he and Amy Jefferrs are hanging out with Lisa Page and Joseph Burrows this weekend. Bff’s and all
Withhold the verdict due to prior commitments??
More like didn’t want to disturb his Memorial Day weekend.
I see were all of one mind on this.
What does Durham do if he loses this case, his first case? Where does he go, who does he seek and why? This handoff case is that fork in the road for Durham, one road is conviction of Sussman, the other acquittal, which would look like a dead end unless Durham has some rabbits in his hat.
Might be wise for Durham to send some undercover agents to the local Washington, DC country clubs to spy on the big shots who fear nothing of consequence from Durham to see how they are behaving, with or without fear of being indicted by Durham.
If Durham folds up shop, I would expect him to shave out his “tough guy” facial hair once and for all…
Clinesmith was his first case.
And he got a conviction in that one!!!!! Eleventy! LOL
“It is highly unlikely Sussmann will be found guilty. The reason is simply that regardless of whether he told FBI officials the material came from Hillary Clinton’s campaign; the FBI knew Sussmann was an operative of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. It’s an issue of materiality.” Sundance
I don’t know what the jury instructions are or what statutes the jury is ruling on. I do know that giving false information to a law enforcement officer is a crime at the local level. Unfortunately, Sundance is very probably correct here.
Put another way, if you or I walked into the police station and reported a false crime with accompanying false evidence and an investigation was carried out based on your false statements, you would be charged with a crime. The key is intent. Was Durham able to show malicious intent on the part of Susssman? I know! A lawyer with malicious intent seems like an oxymoron. But what does the jury think?
Finding an impartial jury in Washington DC is quite another issue. Virtually ‘everyone’ in DC is afilliated with the US government. I believe the venue should be changed when the crime involves government officials or agencies. There’s just too much influence and potential for prejudice. Try something like West Virginia or North Carolina.
So when all is said and done, this is just another waste of tax payer funds, as Hillary and every other leftist criminal laughs at us. How many millions did it cost us to find him not guilty? I’m sick and tired of reading about BOMBSHELLS!!!!! that come to nothing.
Just wait for Trump and his military tribunals! They’re coming! They got them all! LOL
The fix was in from at least the day of jury selection.
Probably even earlier than that . . .
Since Durham was hired to do the “deed.”
One or more of the jurors have probably been coached to perform nullification via a not guilty vote. It will be interesting to see how the Demedia spins a NG verdict:
“See, Hillary has been exonerated yet again!”
Will NPR pronounce that this proves Trump was a Russian agent all over again?!
Will judge Cooper consult with the judge that carried out a multi-travesty with Roger Stone’s fake case? Amy Berg Johnson is her name.
All the players here are professional scumbag DC lawyers. They know how to side step landmines. Nothing is coming of this as previously predicted by many.
Ah but business has been booming for them! They have paid off their Beach Homes in Bethany Beach and funded their kids college funds just off Durham alone!
but let’s be sure to hold those rabid insurrectionists in our DC dungeon until we have ‘cooked the books’ enough to insure long, bitter prison sentences for them because they questioned our governmental integrity!
The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.
James Madison.
Hmmmm, How did Durham not know that the FBI did know Sussmann was an operative of the Clinton campaign? Seems that it should not have come as a surprise in the waning hours of the trial. Could Durham also be on pretending not to know?
Durham has been a pretender since day one. He was never a serious problem.
As to the evidence that Sussman lied, we have both the email, plus we have Baker’s testimony that it caused him to handle the matter differently, plus Priestap’s note – past recollection recorded – that he was there not on behalf of any client. So there is strong evidence that the lie occurred – evidence justifying a conviction. What others in the FBI might have thought or believed should be outside the jury’s purview. It seems to me that voting to acquit would require the jurors to decide to join in the collusion among HRC and SOME BUT NOT ALL FBI people to create the false narrative that Trump was colluding with Russia. Politically, they may be okay with this dirty trick, because the outcome was to undermine their opponent.
But as a sworn juror, it means abandoning civic duty to join in an illegal conspiracy. I predict either a conviction or a hung jury.
Maybe if he loses, he can use the result to get a change of venue for future cases. The theory being, despite overwhelming evidence that he lied, the jurors en masse decided to join in the mass conspiracy to accept that the entire FBI was in on a frame job, so Sussman’s lie didn’t matter.
Please tell me Durham can appeal this case. The judge should be impeached.
No appeal from jury verdicts.
Not true – numerous points of law can be appealed – the judge barred a fair amount of evidence proffered by Durham and his team.
I hope none of the jurors who may be considering a guilty verdict don’t commit suicide over the weekend.
Tragic untimely accidents can happen. See Patton.
We are a nation inside The Truman Show set up by the Democrat party for over a century. Even if many modern day Republicans decided if you can’t beat them, join them, it is still a Democrat party of mafia crime families show.
More like Hunger Games
The FBI knew in January 2017 that the Russian Collusion Dossier was a hoax because the guy who wrote it told them. In addition the FBI knew that the Alfa Bank and secret Russian phone were hoaxes because the CIA told them yet they continued to frame the President of the United States for a crime that never even happened for an additional THREE YEARS! What is Durham doing about that crime???
NOTHING……would one expect anything else? He couldn’t do a thing while Trump was in office, I personally would expect nothing else from him…..nothing.
We always knew it would come to this. All efforts would be better spent fixing the election fraud. Otherwise we will be unable to peacefully stop the corruption we see happening in plain sight.
This trial is emblematic of the fraudulent system of justice we have. From judge to jury and everything in between. We are all pretending.
Exactly, if a court can be set up to swing in this direction, it can be set up to swing in the other direction. President Trump’s future show trial, the one that the dims plan on bringing against him, will most likely be in a jurisdiction that favors a commie kangaroo court.
What’s the point of the trial? To punish Sussmann or expose the FBI’s corruption and perfidy?
If the latter, it’s a win for us. The Post article is the win.
Bill Barr’s comment on this is that Hillary is guilty of “sedition.” Way to throw Jan 6 back in their face!
The gov’t is like the media. It won’t be long before there is literally nobody left who believes them. That’s how we win (see Soviet Union.)
(oh, and the judge’s prior committment is likely Memorial Day weekend.)
It’s to distract and also say a big FU to your (the patriot collective) face
I often read that we are the majority but if we don’t act like the majority then effectively we’re the minority. Hence, the government runs roughshod over us, elections are stolen, and we, decent/honest Americans, are castigated.
So much corruption, so little justice.
It’s the Reverse Castanza defense: “It’s not a lie if they know I’m lying!”
It’s not a lie if they needed me to lie!
Well, lots of dirty facts now exposed.
Attorney Margo Cleveland believes Team Durham overwhelmingly proved their case, but jury bias will likely give Sussman a pass.
“but jury bias will likely give Sussman a pass.”
Very helpful for our side. (see O.J.)
Someone thinks Sussman is going to be acquitted. They don’t want the news to be buried on Friday of a holiday weekend. They want it to be noticed for political gain. They probably have the jury room bugged or a mole on the jury or bailiff’s office.
The acquittal of Sussman is a huge victory for the “Bad Guys”. I mean how is it any “Bad Guy” is ever accountable? How is it anyone is ever accountable for a fraudulent election?
The Nation remains a Communist/Fascist/ Totalitarian government. The citizens are merely subjects and slaves to the State.
They KNOW he will be acquitted.
I disagree. The lie was what enabled them to do the investigation.
If they ever admitted the truth, then they couldn’t have gone forward.
He lied.
They knew he lied.
He knew they knew.
They knew he knew that they knew.
And so forth.
It was a lie to enable their participation. Very material.
Trump was briefed at/around inauguration that this Russia business was all bunk.
I wonder what was said the lunch between Biden and Slick Willy recently?
Okay. Everyone who thinks a guilty verdict will be returned, raise your hand. (My hand is not raised.)
This circular game of pretend that lacks any form of accountability is why no one believes Joe Biden is President. Lies, more lies, obfuscation, look shooter.. more shooters..squirrel..SCOTUS leak..more shooters..and on and on. The FBI needs to be dismantled. Period.
Julie Kelly has written STOLEN ELECTIONS: A TALE OF TWO DC COURTROOMS in American Greatness today. Julie juxtaposes the Sussman trial with that of a January 6 attendee two floors down. I know Sussman will not be punished.
I also know the J6 attendee (Mr. Hale) who picked up a MAGA flag from the ground and entered an open door, conversed with the cops and left to return to his job in New Jersey WILL be convicted of voting for TRUMP and jailed for life. I would be proud to be jailed for voting for TRUMP.
also, FBI paid Mr. Hale’s roommate $4000 to tape and testify Mr. Hale talking about how much he admires TRUMP.
What were the headlines this week? School massacre by an unemployed school dropout who somehow got enough money to buy 2 AR-15’s, over 300 rounds of ammo, vest, etc. and police stood down while massacre occurred.
Coincidence?
nope….not . There are no coincidences.
There are coincidences, but they are very rare.
I ran into a classmate from high school (150 grads) at an ATM in Manhattan. So out of 300 million US citizens, I met 1 out of 150. Had not seen him in nearly 20 years.
Even bigger coincidence – I ran into a fraternity (100 members) brother from the university of Miami at a beer bar in Dallas. Had not seen him in nearly 30 years.
An acquaintence of mine ran into his high school classmate (1 of 27) at a hotel in Singapore.
Coincidences do happen, but in politics nothing is a coincidence.
fingers crossed that the SMO defeats the Ukrain proxy army soon and the deep state gets a stake through the heart.
The risk is they escalate cus they don’t want to go down and have no problem doing the rest of us. Truly the evil empire of lies.
If true, this would be Durham’s first and only ever federal prosecution case loss.
Durham knows he’s hamstrung…he’s just letting us know we were right all along. The criminals won’t prosecute themselves.
Just another obama boy protecting his massa…
If we lose this case, it will represent one of the highway markers posted along the road to the final end of a once great nation.
And … we are close to the end of the usefulness of language as a means of communication.
“There was not a single person in Washington DC who did not know the Mueller special counsel was appointed entirely to hide all of the preceding government corruption.”
That would include the jurors in this case. So they know the Sussman case was to further the Russia hoax and destroy Trump. The question is will they finally stand up and officially admit the truth and start the accountability or will they continue the crime and thus become criminals themselves.
This is a big moment for them.