Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann was acquitted Tuesday of lying to the FBI, in the first trial of special counsel John Durham, who spent three years looking for wrongdoing in the Trump-Russia investigation, and claimed that Sussmann lied during a 2016 meeting in which he passed a tip to the FBI about Donald Trump ties to Russia.
The Washington, DC, federal jury deliberated for six hours over two days before reaching its verdict, CNN reports.
As noted by the news network, the verdict is a major defeat for Durham and Donald Trump, who has called the Russia probe a politically-motivated “witch hunt.”
The Sussmann case revolved around his September 2016 meeting with James Baker, a friend who was the FBI’s general counsel. Sussmann passed along a tip that led to a four-month FBI inquiry into a possible internet backchannel between the Trump Organization and Kremlin-linked Alfa Bank.
Durham accused Sussmann of intentionally lied to Baker by saying he came only as a concerned citizen, and not on behalf of any clients, saying Sussmann hid his ties to Democrats to “manipulate the FBI” and gin up an “October surprise” to help Clinton win.
But Sussmann said he went to the FBI with a good-faith tip, which originated from reputable cyber experts that he represented. He separately worked on Clinton’s behalf to peddle that unverified tip to the press, generating some coverage. He didn’t try to dupe Baker or hide his political ties, which were well-known at the FBI.