A lawyer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign lied to the FBI to "manipulate" the agency in order to win the election, a co

Michael Sussmann: Clinton lawyer 'lied to manipulate FBI over Trump'

submited by

Style Pass

2022-05-20 19:30:07

A lawyer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign lied to the FBI to "manipulate" the agency in order to win the election, a court has heard.

Arguments in the trial of Michael Sussmann have begun with prosecutors saying he hoped to create an "October surprise" in the race's final weeks.

He is the first defendant to go on trial in an investigation into the FBI's original probe to find if Donald Trump was conspiring with Russia.

Mr Sussmann presented what he claimed was evidence of suspicious internet traffic connecting the Trump Organization to Russia's Alfa Bank. The FBI looked into the allegation and found nothing suspicious.

Prosecutors say Mr Sussmann lied by not disclosing in the meeting that he was working for the Democrat's campaign. The indictment charges that he claimed not to be representing any particular client and that he presented himself purely as a concerned citizen.

A lawyer for Mr Sussmann denounced the trial as an "injustice" at Tuesday's hearing in a Washington DC federal courthouse.