Posted on 05/31/2022 9:44:30 AM PDT by JonPreston
Michael Sussmann has been acquitted.
The acquittal is no surprise. This is a DC jury, after all. In the Roger Stone case, for example, we documented how a juror lied to get on the panel. (That judge didn’t care.) Making matters worse, the Sussmann judge wrongly allowed for a woman to remain on the jury, despite the fact that her daughter and Sussmann’s are on the same high school crew team. One can’t help but think that juror had her own daughter’s interests in mind – the cohesion of the crew team – when she reached a decision.
On the facts, there was more than sufficient evidence to prove Sussmann’s guilt. Sussmann lied to then-FBI general counsel James Baker in order to get a meeting to pass the Alfa Bank hoax materials to the FBI. Sussmann lied again during the meeting – stating he was not there on behalf of a client – in order to get the FBI to open an investigation into the Trump Organization’s purported ties with Alfa Bank. Later, during testimony to Congress, Sussmann admitted he met with Baker on behalf of a client. Billing records proved he had been working on the Alfa Bank project on behalf of the Clinton Campaign.
I won’t say the verdict doesn’t matter. Of course it matters. It would have proven that a DC jury can convict one of their own. It would have resulted in accountability for lying to the FBI. Not the gravest of crimes, but it is still a crime.
In large part, the prosecution of Sussmann was hamstrung by the FBI’s investigation into the Alfa Bank allegations. That goes to materiality. How can the lies be material if the FBI’s investigation was so sloppy? (Answer: they were material because the lies helped open the investigation in the first place.)
On the issue of materiality, look to the testimony of FBI Special Agent Curtis Heide, whose repeated requests to interview the source of the Alfa Bank information were denied by headquarters. FBI Headquarters didn’t want this thing thoroughly vetted - even though they demanded the investigation be opened. As we stated during the trial:
Relatively early on in the investigation - on September 26, 2016 - Agent Heide sent a message to Pientka, requesting an interview of the source of the Alfa Bank white papers. By that time, Heide knew the white paper was bunk. He received no response from Pientka. He repeated this request on October 3, 2016. Agent Heide’s requests were rebuffed by his liaison at FBI headquarters:
That’s not the say the public hasn’t benefited from the trial. The information disclosed during the trial was important to understand the broader Clinton/Fusion GPS/Perkins Coie effort to poison the public, the press, and the FBI with their Trump/Russia lies. This included:
Data from the Executive Office of the President of the United States, including data from the Trumansition period, was exploited by Sussmann and Rodney Joffe and then passed to the CIA.
Rodney Joffe was a longtime Confidential Human Source (CHS) – and generally a resource – for the FBI. Joffe worked with the FBI on cyber threats from countries like Russia. From former FBI Agent Grasso: “I’m sure the work that [Joffe] did touched on matters having to do with Russia.”
Joffe went to great lengths to make sure the Alfa Bank information he provided to the FBI did not go through his official FBI handler.
The decision to open the investigation came from FBI Leadership. According to one FBI Agent, “People on the 7th floor to include Director are fired up about this server.”
Perkins Coie partner Marc Elias provided updates on the Fusion GPS “research” to the Clinton Campaign.
And - Hillary Clinton herself approved of the strategy to disseminate the Alfa Bank allegations to the media. Per Robby Mook:
Q: Mr. Mook, before the break you had testified that there was a conversation in which you told Ms. Clinton about the proposed plan to provide the Alfa-Bank allegations to the media; is that correct?
A: Correct.
Q: And what was her response?
A: All I remember is that she agreed with the decision.
Where does Durham go from here? That’s the real question. We already know that the investigation into Rodney Joffe remains open and that Igor Danchenko faces trial this year. Whether there is more remains to be seen.
Agree.
As I recall, it is Trump that is playing 3 D chess /s
Yes. There has to be judicial reform that moves these FBI cases out of the District of Corruption.
I’m sorry America’s criminal justice system doesn’t convict people simply because YOU think they are guilty. Maybe we should appoint you arbiter of the courts so you can wave your hand and send people to prison even in the absence of proof.
You think in terms of an aspirin or band aid.
The continued insistence on co existence must cease. The cancer must be removed
No coexistence
“Where does Durham go from here? “
Garland now has cover to end Durham’s mandate and send him off into retirement. The press will dutifully report Durham’s investigation was political and there was nothing to see.
The federal courts are totally politicized. Thirty years of Democrats fighting conservative appointments during Republican administrations has resulted in Republicans appointing mostly moderate judges who will acquiesce under pressure. Meanwhile Republicans like Graham, Romney, Collins, Murkowski and others have voted with the Democrats to appoint leftist activists to the federal courts who do not believe in the Constitution and who lied when they took their oaths. Those activist judges use their power to rewrite the Constitution and conduct trials to achieve an outcome.
In addition the American people no longer have a commonly held standard of justice or even the meaning of right and wrong. Juries will vote political belief, not the law. The dumbing down of the education system has also resulted in citizens on juries who cannot reason, they make decisions based on emotion.
Do not expect justice from the courts.
You’re post made me sick! Not because I think you’re wrong but because I know you’re right. Only God can deliver us from this attempt to destroy our country.....we need HIS mercy.
Three Hillary Clinton donors were on the jury.
The judge’s wife was, or is, the attorney of Lisa Page, fugly girlfriend of demonic Peter Strok.
That’s like Al Capone having three members of his criminal organization on the jury when he was tried for income tax evasion.
The black robed tyrants won’t convict a DemonRAT in America. It’s unheard of. Even if they are one of Clintoon’s crooks.
Not surprising in a city filled with RATs as jury members.
The text Sussmann sent to Baker in which he clearly stated he was not representing a client wasn’t evidence?
It was fixed from the start.
Absolutely it was fixed from the start, and only the very naive among us held out hope for this dirty, rotten, stinking legal system would be responsive to we, the people.
Jeff Mordock
@JeffMordock
Juror speaks to some media after Sussmann verdict
“I don’t think it should have been prosecuted,” she said of the case. “There are bigger things that affect the nation than a possible lie to the FBI.”
And there you have it.
To say I am disappointed and mad is an understatement. However, I am not surprised. The Deep State fix was in and has been from the very start. Trump scared the Deep State to its core and they did everything they could to stop him and then to get him impeached.
The fix was in...anybody that followed the “jury instructions” by the judge knows the judge put his finger on the scales of justices....oh, and don’t forget the “insiders” that filled out the jury box.
GFY!
Durham flat out threw the case.
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