At his military tribunal on 22 June, former Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann said in an opening statement that he thought he was “home free” after a Federal D.C. jury acquitted him of lying to the FBI about having knowledge of a computer server that linked President Trump to a Moscow Bank and to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Sussmann, representing himself, accused the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps and Office of Military Commissions of malicious prosecution, saying they had become Donald Trump’s personal police force— “A Gestapo Trump uses to settle vendettas against anyone he doesn’t like.” He likened Trump to Joseph Stalin, whose People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) had a monopoly on Soviet law enforcement through the end of World War II. The NKVD was infamous for making Stalin’s enemies—and their families—disappear.
When Vice Adm. Darse E. Crandall accused Sussmann of grandstanding, the latter grew visibly angry, calling both the admiral and the 3-officer panel “Donald Trump’s personal bitches.”
“We’ve heard this nonsense time and time again, detainee Sussmann,” Vice Adm. Crandall said calmly. “You’re here today because of your crimes, not President Trump. He had nothing to do with our investigation, or your arrest. You can conduct yourself civilly, or we can gag you.”
“This is double jeopardy,” Sussmann cried out. “A jury of my peers found me not guilty!”
Sussmann’s statement referred to a clause in the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution that prohibits anyone from being prosecuted twice for substantially the same crime. For a lawyer, though, he had poor understanding of the law. Exceptions to the Double Jeopardy clause state an individual can be tried twice based on the same facts if the elements of each crime are different, and different jurisdictions can charge the same individual with the same crime based on the same facts without violating Double Jeopardy.
And Vice Adm. Crandall had a different reason. “Maybe you’re confused, detainee Sussmann. We’re not charging you with lying to the FBI. We’re charging you with treason, and conspiracy to commit election fraud, for which you were well paid,” he said.
He entered into evidence Sussmann’s banking records for September 2016. On the 16th of that month Sussmann received a deposit for $1,400,000. It had come from Act Blue, a seedy American nonprofit technology organization established in June 2004 that enables left-leaning nonprofits, Democratic candidates, and progressive groups to raise money from individual donors on the Internet by providing them with online fundraising software. Three days later, Sussmann told former FBI official James Baker that computer data showed secret communications between Trump, the Trump Organization, and Russia-based Alpha Bank. Four days afterward, Sussmann got another sizable deposit, this time from the Clinton Foundation for $2,220,000.
Neither payout was mentioned at his federal trial.
https://realrawnews.com/2022/07/military-convicts-and-executes-michael-sussmann/