Michael Sussmann is guilty beyond any reasonable doubt. He lied to the FBI and that lie mattered. The prosecution rests. Special Counsel John Durham’s team delivered a powerful closing argument, Friday morning.
Guilty beyond doubt
It was a speedy trial for Michael Sussmann. After only 8 days of testimony the prosecution rested their case. The defendant isn’t stupid enough to take the stand so his side of it won’t take long.
The jury could get to make a decision any day now. The prosecution is confident that they convinced the jury to find Sussmann guilty. The case they laid out proved it beyond all reasonable doubt, they argue in closing.
The evidence backs it up. They proved “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Michael Sussmann “made a false statement to the FBI.” The defendant never really tried to deny that fact.
His lawyers reasoned that assuming for the sake of argument he might have lied, that lie didn’t matter so it wasn’t a crime. Wrong. Durham covered that base, too. The lie did matter. It was “material.” He’s guilty and should be punished for what he did.
What he did was a whole lot worse than it seems, when you look at the bigger picture. Durham is focusing in on the task at hand, proving Sussmann guilty of lying in a way that mattered. That will pave the way for more prosecutions.
If James Baker had known that Sussmann was working for Hillary Clinton’s campaign, he would have sent him down the hall to the team working the FBI investigation against her, “Mid-Year Exam.” If he had known about Sussmann’s other client, Rodney Joffe, he would have brought in a whole team to sit in on that interrogation.
Sussmann treated with care
By hiding his connections, Sussmann got VIP fast track processing. If he had admitted the truth, his claims would have ended up in a waste basket without going a single step further. That’s what makes his lie material.
It means he is guilty and the jury is smoking out back with Hunter Biden if they come up with any other conclusion. The allegations were “not about national security” but “about opposition research against candidate Donald Trump.”
Sussmann billed Hillary Clinton for the very flash drives the information was recorded on.
“Billing records, testimony and other written evidence prove that Sussmann was charging the Clinton campaign for his work on the matter, and has said throughout the trial that he billed the Clinton campaign for the FBI meeting.” Guilty.
“The defendant used his privilege as a high-powered Washington lawyer, a former DOJ prosecutor… to bypass normal channels and expedite a meeting with the FBI general counsel.” Guilty again.
“He knew he had to conceal his connection to the Clinton campaign and to Rodney Joffe,” Algor argued. “He knew if he told Baker he was there on behalf of the Clinton campaign, the chances of an FBI investigation would be diminished.“
