Sussman has pleaded not guilty to one count of lying to the FBI — specifically that he falsely told Baker that he was not there on behalf of any agents.
“He said he did not appear before me on behalf of any particular client, and that he had some worrisome information regarding an apparently secret communications channel between something called Alfa Bank – which he described as connected to the Kremlin at CNN, a former legal analyst,” said Baker, a former CNN legal analyst. Russia is — and part of the Trump Organization in the United States.”
At the witness stand, Baker said he “trusted” Sussman’s claim that he was there alone because they were friends, and he knew Sussman as a “serious lawyer” who worked at the Department of Justice and had the cybersecurity expertise needed to understand Trump. Alpha data.
“I thought he’d come to see me as a good citizen who got some information,” Baker testified. Knowing Michael, I think he wants to help the government.
Baker’s testimony could bolster Durham, the Trump-era special counsel who has spent three years investigating possible misconduct in the FBI’s investigation between Trump and Russia. It delivered none of the surprising indictments Trump had hoped for, and Sussman’s trial is the first major courtroom test of his investigation, which has indicted three people.
But the verdict may turn out to how jurors assess Baker’s credibility. Sussman’s lawyers tried to shake it off with a zigzag questioning that highlighted how Becker’s answers to key questions turned out when testifying before Congress in 2018, to the Justice Department’s oversight body in 2019, and in his many interviews with Durham prosecutors, and on Witness . Whoa this week.
Defense attorney Sean Berkowitz called on Baker to admit that prosecutors were in fact “reminders” of what happened six years ago at the Sussman meeting. Baker said that when he met with prosecutors in recent years, they refreshed his memories by asking specific questions and showing notes an FBI official wrote about their conversations.
The judge rules against the nullity of the trial
Earlier Thursday, Judge Christopher Cooper denied Sussman’s request to annul the trial.
The prosecution summoned Elias to the stand, but it was the defense attorney who prompted him to make the comment in question. They asked if he knew if Sussman had brought Trump and Alpha’s advice to Baker “on behalf of the (Clinton) campaign”. “You should ask Mr. Sussman,” Elias replied.
Cooper ruled the bench against a wrongful trial Thursday morning, but acceded to Sussman’s request that some problematic parts of Elias’ testimony be crossed from the court record.
Defense attorneys also said Sussman has not decided whether to testify in his own defense. They are preparing to present a defense case with a handful of fact witnesses and character witnesses.
This story has been updated with additional details.