https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trial-of-clinton-campaign-lawyer-relitigates-2016-election-fights/ar-AAXjDYS?ocid=msedgntp&cvid

CNN

Trial of Clinton campaign lawyer relitigates 2016 election fights

Evan Perez - 2h ago

Michael Sussmann, a former lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, is set to go on trial Monday for a single charge of lying to the FBI, as part of Special Counsel John Durham’s three-year investigation of the Trump-Russia investigation. 

But the trial is shaping up to be about something much bigger than whether Sussmann lied about his clients while passing on a tip to the FBI alleging suspicious ties between former President Donald Trump and Russia. 

Durham’s prosecution team, in court documents and pre-trial hearings, has pursued a strategy of casting Sussmann’s actions as part of a dirty smear campaign to use political opposition research to spur an FBI investigation and to use the resulting press coverage against Trump and his campaign. 

The former President has long claimed the FBI probe into his 2016 campaign was the “crime of the century,” and pointed the finger at Clinton and an assortment of “deep state” government officials for orchestrating it. Under Trump in 2019, then-Attorney General William Barr appointed Durham to examine what Barr characterized as an unfair investigation of Trump. 

During the 2020 campaign, Trump called Durham’s investigation “one of the most important investigations in the history of our country” and publicly pushed for an October surprise – prosecutions of his political enemies in time for the election.  

Durham hasn’t delivered on either.

The special counsel hasn’t alleged Clinton and her campaign broke any laws, and he hasn’t brought any conspiracy charges to tie Clinton and her campaign to Sussmann’s alleged crime.

But Sussmann’s trial will be the first opportunity for Durham’s team to litigate some of the hotly debated questions that have hung over US politics since soon after Trump descended an escalator in New York to declare his candidacy for president. 

Was the cloud of alleged Russia ties a legitimate subject for a national security investigation – as has been established by multiple government investigations – or a political hit job, as Trump has claimed?

Special Counsel Robert Mueller spent two years investigating and produced a report detailing the Trump campaign’s myriad ties to Russia. As part of the Mueller probe, multiple Trump associates were convicted of lying to the FBI and other more serious crimes, but Mueller never charged anyone with conspiring with the Russians.