Defendant in Case Brought by Durham Says New Evidence Undercuts Charge

WASHINGTON — The defence squad for a cybersecurity lawyer who was indicted successful September by a Trump-era peculiar counsel asked a justice connected Monday to acceptable a proceedings day sooner than the authoritative wants — portion disclosing grounds precocious turned implicit to them that appears to contradict the charge.

The materials could marque it harder for the peculiar counsel, John H. Durham, to beryllium beyond a tenable uncertainty that the cybersecurity lawyer, Michael Sussmann, is blameworthy of the complaint against him: making a mendacious connection to the F.B.I. during a September 2016 gathering astir imaginable links betwixt Donald J. Trump and Russia.

The recently disclosed grounds consists of records of 2 Justice Department interviews of the erstwhile F.B.I. authoritative to whom Mr. Sussmann is accused of lying, each of which offers a antithetic mentation of the cardinal enactment than the mentation successful the indictment. That authoritative is the prosecution’s main witness.

The beingness of the evidence, which Mr. Durham’s squad provided to Mr. Sussmann’s squad past week, “only underscores the baseless and unprecedented quality of this indictment and the value of mounting a punctual proceedings day truthful that Mr. Sussmann tin vindicate himself arsenic soon arsenic possible,” the defence lawyers wrote.

While Mr. Durham wants to hold until July 25 to commencement the trial, they said, the defence squad urged the justice to acceptable a commencement day of May 2.

A spokesperson for Mr. Durham declined to comment.

The indictment centered connected a September 2016 gathering betwixt Mr. Sussmann and James A. Baker, who was past the F.B.I.’s wide counsel. Mr. Sussmann relayed investigation by cybersecurity researchers who cited unusual net information they said appeared to bespeak immoderate benignant of covert communications betwixt machine servers associated with the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank, a Kremlin-linked Russian fiscal institution. (The F.B.I. concisely looked into the Alfa Bank suspicions, but dismissed them arsenic unfounded.)

Mr. Durham’s indictment accused Mr. Sussmann of falsely saying helium was not determination connected behalf of immoderate client. Through his lawyers, Mr. Sussmann has denied saying that to Mr. Baker.

The indictment besides said that Mr. Sussmann was successful information representing some a exertion enforcement and the Hillary Clinton campaign. Mr. Sussmann has maintained helium was lone determination connected behalf of the executive, and not the Clinton campaign.

The recently disclosed grounds consists of partially redacted records of 2 of Mr. Baker’s interviews with the Justice Department. The tribunal filing appended copies of respective pages of a transcript and an interrogation report.

In July 2019, Mr. Baker was interviewed by the Justice Department’s inspector general astir the meeting. Mr. Baker stated, according to a two-page transcript excerpt, that Mr. Sussmann had brought him accusation “that helium said related to unusual interactions that immoderate fig of radical that were his clients, who were, helium described arsenic I callback it, benignant of cybersecurity experts, had found.”

The recently disclosed grounds besides includes a leafage of a study Mr. Durham’s squad made to summarize an interrogation they conducted with Mr. Baker successful June 2020. According to that report, Mr. Baker did not accidental that Mr. Sussmann told him helium was not determination connected behalf of immoderate client. Rather, helium said the contented ne'er came up and helium simply assumed Mr. Sussmann was not conveying the Alfa Bank information and investigation for immoderate client.

“Baker said that Sussmann did not specify that helium was representing a lawsuit regarding the matter, nor did Baker inquire him if helium was representing a client,” the Durham team’s study said. “Baker said it did not look similar Sussmann was representing a client.”

Mr. Baker aboriginal told Bill Priestap, past the F.B.I.’s apical counterintelligence official, about the meeting. According to the indictment, Mr. Priestap’s handwritten notes database Mr. Sussmann’s sanction and instrumentality steadfast and then, aft a dash, states “said not doing this for immoderate client.” (It is not wide whether specified notes would beryllium admissible astatine a trial.)

The erstwhile Trump medication lawyer general, William P. Barr, appointed Mr. Durham to scour the Russia probe for grounds of wrongdoing by authorities officials pursuing it. The Sussmann indictment, however, portrayed the F.B.I. arsenic a victim.

Mr. Durham utilized the constrictive complaint against Mr. Sussmann to enactment out, successful a 27-page indictment, ample amounts of different information.

He showed that Mr. Sussmann had interacted astir Alfa Bank with a workfellow astatine his instrumentality steadfast who represented the Clinton campaign, and that successful accounting for his ain clip connected the Alfa Bank substance successful instrumentality steadfast billing records, Mr. Sussmann listed the run arsenic the client. (Mr. Sussmann had represented the Democratic Party astir Russia’s hacking of its servers.)

Mr. Durham besides enactment retired important amounts of accusation astir the exertion enforcement and 3 different cybersecurity researchers who had discovered the unusual net information and developed the mentation that it reflected immoderate benignant of hidden communications, including mining emails successful which they discussed what it mightiness mean.

Although Mr. Durham did not complaint the researchers with immoderate crime, helium insinuated that they did not truly judge what they were saying. Mr. Trump and his supporters seized connected the indictment, saying it showed the Alfa Bank suspicions were a hoax by Clinton supporters and portraying it arsenic grounds that the full Russia investigation was unwarranted.

Lawyers for those information scientists person pushed back, saying their clients believed their mentation was a plausible mentation for the unusual information they had uncovered — and inactive do. They person besides accused Mr. Durham of putting guardant a misleading portrayal successful his indictment by selectively excerpting fragments of their clients’ emails, omitting portions that showed their clients enthusiastically supported the last analysis.

The transcript and connection adhd to materials already successful the nationalist record, successful which Mr. Sussmann and Mr. Baker recalled that gathering successful sworn grounds successful ways that bash not intelligibly dovetail with the indictment’s accusation.

In a deposition earlier Congress successful 2017, Mr. Sussmann testified that helium had sought the gathering connected behalf of a lawsuit who was a cybersecurity adept and had helped analyse the data. And successful a deposition to Congress successful 2018, Mr. Baker said helium did not retrieve Mr. Sussmann “specifically saying that helium was acting connected behalf of a peculiar client.”