Sussmann Indictment Could Go Either Way

For John, BLUF:  Blogger Ed Morrissey is no stranger to government scandle.  In the early days of blogging his blog, Captain's Cabin, helped bring down a Canadian government.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Sussmann indictment:  "Bizarre coda," or harbinger of deep-state exposure?  Update:  Watch Sullivan?

From Hot Air, by Blogger Ed Morrissey, 20 September 2021, 2:41 PM ET.

Here is the lede plus two:

Just what does the indictment of Michael Sussmann portend? MSNBC’s Barbara McQuade called it a “bizarre coda” to John Durham’s investigation, which seems to be the most unlikely bet on this last-minute action by the special counsel.  To get there, McQuade tries to shift focus to an early-on debunked part of the overall-debunked Russia-collusion theory, and overlooks Sussmann’s links at the same time:

It is hard to see how the case Durham filed on Thursday against Washington lawyer Michael Sussmann meets Justice Department standards.  The indictment alleges that Sussmann met with FBI General Counsel Jim Baker in September 2016 to provide information about connections between a Russian bank and the Trump Organization.  The FBI was unable to substantiate any links between Alfa Bank and former President Donald Trump’s businesses, but the charge against Sussman — making false statements to the FBI — doesn’t allege that the substance of the information was false.  Instead, Sussman is accused of having misrepresented on whose behalf he was providing it.

Well, yes, and that misrepresentation turned out to be highly material.  Sussmann at the time represented the DNC and had been providing assistance to the Hillary Clinton campaign, a connection that Sussmnan kept hidden from the FBI.  Sussmann passed along the rumor that Vladimir Putin-connected Alfa Bank had a server dedicated to Donald Trump’s finances to Fusion GPS and Christopher Steele, which had the effect of laundering that claim right back into the Steele dossier.  He also passed that information to the FBI, without informing agents that he was working for Trump’s opponent at the time, as the indictment alleges:

At the end Mr Morrissey rings in President Biden's National current Security Advisor, Mr Jacob "Jake" Sullivan.

This looks ugly.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff