FBI official testifies Michael Sussman deceived agency about links to Clinton campaign

The former FBI official who met former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann testified on Thursday he is “100% confident” the defendant denied being connected to any campaign or client when he gave him now-discredited data purportedly linking Trump to Russia’s Alfa Bank in 2016.

Sussmann is accused of acting on behalf of the Clinton campaign and Rodney Joffe, a tech executive, when he told then-FBI General Counsel James Baker that the Trump Organization had a secret communications channel with the Kremlin through the bank.

The now-debunked allegations helped fuel the Trump-Russia collusion narrative that pestered Trump through his campaign and presidency.

“It was a plan to create an October surprise on the eve of the presidential election,” prosecutor Deborah Brittain Shaw told the jury.

“He told a lie that was designed to achieve a political end, a lie that was designed to inject the FBI into a presidential election.”

Prosecutors have charged Sussmann with one count of lying to the government during their meeting in Sept. 2016 as part of a “joint conspiracy theory” to scuttle then-candidate Trump’s campaign.

Baker told the jury that Sussmann said in the meeting that “he was not appearing before [him] on behalf of any particular client,” adding he would not have agreed to meet if he had known he was acting on behalf of the Clinton campaign.

The FBI was wary of “being played,” especially after investigating Clinton’s use of a private email server.

Sussmann has fiercely disputed this and has plead not guilty to charges of lying to Baker about his motivation.

The FBI also raised how Sussmann’s deception meant he was treated as a confidential FBI source, meaning analysts of the two thumb drives he handed over could not ID who provided them.

The trial is the first resulting from Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the discredited Trump-Russia collusion allegations.