Special counsel
John Durham’s
case in opposition to
Michael Sussmann
is scheduled for trial on Monday. On April 25, Judge
Christopher Cooper
barred the federal government from utilizing the majority of the Central Intelligence Agency’s info associated to Mr. Sussmann’s actions. Nonetheless, the trial ought to inform us a lot in regards to the conspiracy to create the Russia-collusion narrative and its ugly spawn, Crossfire Hurricane.
It must also function a reminder of the injury
Robert Mueller
did to the Federal Bureau of Investigation throughout his 12-year tenure as its director. Later, as particular counsel, Mr. Mueller was forged within the position of the principal protagonist pushing the collusion narrative, months after Mr. Sussmann’s fateful September 2016 dialog with FBI General Counsel
James Baker
on the bureau’s headquarters.
Mr. Mueller grew to become FBI director every week earlier than the 9/11 assaults. In their wake, he resolved to rework the FBI’s “culture” and make the bureau into an “intelligence driven” group. That entailed quite a few adjustments, a lot of which had unhealthy penalties. One was to exchange agent executives with “professionals” in key headquarters positions. Perhaps this transfer enhanced short-term technical proficiency in these positions, nevertheless it got here at a price—a lack of long-term dedication and invaluable information of the establishment and its tradition.
Hence, in the course of the tenure of Mr. Mueller and his successor,
James Comey,
we noticed non-agents working public affairs and congressional affairs and serving as normal counsel. These positions had been beforehand held by special-agent executives.
According to the September 2021 indictment of Mr. Sussmann, the FBI’s then-General Counsel Baker, a nonagent, accepted misdirection from one of many prime attorneys at Perkins Coie, the regulation agency for Hillary Clinton’s marketing campaign. An agent would have identified interview Mr. Sussmann. But Mr. Baker, sitting alone with Mr. Sussmann in his workplace within the FBI’s J.
Edgar Hoover
Headquarters Building, didn’t even assume to carry an agent into the room. Mr. Sussmann is charged with mendacity to the FBI in that assembly.
According to the indictment, Mr. Sussmann went to Mr. Baker’s workplace and spun the story that he was performing as a “good citizen,” not as a lawyer for
Donald Trump’s
election opponents, delivering info doubtlessly damaging to Mr. Trump. FBI particular brokers are educated to interview witnesses and suspects and spend most of their working careers doing so. An agent would have keyed in on Mr. Sussmann’s motivation and memorialized the interview on an FD-302 interview-report kind, the right approach to report what would possible grow to be proof.
What makes Mr. Baker’s lack of motion much more egregious is that he was advised by Mr. Sussmann a day prematurely, by textual content, that he wished the go to so he may carry delicate info to the FBI’s consideration. According to an April 4, 2022, court docket submitting by Mr. Durham, Mr. Sussmann additionally particularly mentioned, in a Sept. 18, 2021 textual content to Mr. Baker, that he was “coming on my own—not on behalf of a client.” This is the essence of his alleged lie.
Mr. Sussmann has pleaded not responsible. What might be his protection? If it had been merely his phrase in opposition to Mr. Baker’s, with solely the 2 of them within the room, Mr. Sussmann may merely deny the alleged lie. Once Mr. Durham’s investigation recovered Mr. Sussmann’s textual content, despatched the day earlier than the assembly, that avenue of protection was closed off.
But Mr. Durham’s activity would have been simpler—or altogether pointless—had Mr. Mueller not messed with the FBI’s “swear to tell the truth” law-enforcement tradition. Replacing savvy particular brokers with an alone-in-the-room lawyer has proven its shortcomings.
Mr. Baker is a retired FBI particular agent and authorized attaché.
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Appeared within the May 16, 2022, print version.
Source: www.wsj.com”