Clinton Lawyer Marc Elias Sings Like a Canary at Sussman-Durham Trial

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Marc Elias was a former Clinton campaign lawyer and testified for more than three hours during the trial of Michael Sussmann. He was his ex-partner at Perkins Coie.

Sussmann is accused in lying to the FBI. He brought the agency fake information on Donald Trump. He claimed to be acting as a concerned citizen and not for a client. Sussmann claimed that Trump used an Alfa Bank secret communication channel to communicate with the Kremlin. FBI agents did not find any evidence of such a channel.

John Durham, the special counsel, has long claimed that Sussmann worked for the Hillary campaign and Rodney Joffe, the technology executive. He presented fake information on Trump to James Baker, FBI General Counsel. One of the evidences was that Sussmann charged Hillary’s campaign for his services.

Elias testified that he hired Fusion GPS for opposition research to support Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. He also stated that he would share the “fruits of their work with Clinton campaign officials” and that Fusion GPS was working for Hillary’s campaign as part of its support.

Elias also disclosed that several Clinton campaign officials knew about the opposition research Fusion GPS was doing against Trump. This included campaign manager Robby Mook and campaign chairman John Podesta. Policy director Jake Sullivan and communications official Jennifer Palmieri.

The report states that Sussmann charged the Clinton campaign nearly five hours of work on September 17, 2016. Elias testified that Sussmann was unable to recall the amount billed, but he admitted that he checked in with Sussmann occasionally about the false allegations against Alfa Bank.

Elias tried to distance himself from Sussmann, claiming that he didn’t direct Sussmann not to give the fake dirt on Trump to FBI. He did admit that Fusion GPS had been hired by his firm to find dirt on Trump and that the dirt was shared with Clinton campaign officials.

Durham has receipts showing that Sussmann worked for a client, even though he claims he wasn’t. Marc Elias now has testimony that Sussmann was involved with opposition research.