Key witness testifies in trial tied to Trump-Russia probe

WASHINGTON (AP) - The star prosecution witness in the trial of a Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer testified Thursday that he was 'œ100 percent confident'ť that the attorney told him he was not acting on behalf of a particular client when he presented information meant to cast suspicions on Donald Trump and possible links to Russia.

The lawyer, Michael Sussmann, is accused of lying to the FBI about the fact that he was representing Clinton's 2016 campaign interests and that of another client - although the campaign says it never authorized Sussmann to meet with the bureau.

Sussmann's lawyers deny he lied and sought Thursday to undermine the testimony of the government's key witness, James Baker, by suggesting his memory of the September 2016 meeting with Sussmann was foggy and that his accounts of it had shifted over time.

Baker was the FBI's general counsel in September 2016 when Sussmann, a friend who did legal work for the Clinton campaign, scheduled a meeting to give him computer data that Sussmann said showed a potential secret communications channel between a Russia-based bank and the Trump Organization, the company of the then-candidate.

Sussmann is accused of lying to Baker during that meeting by saying he was not presenting the computer data on behalf of a particular client. In fact, prosecutors allege, he was representing the interests during that meeting of the Clinton campaign and another client, a technology executive who had provided him with the data.

Prosecutors allege Sussmann was not forthcoming about his Clinton ties because he assumed the FBI would consider the information less credible if it thought it was being presented with a partisan intent.

The Sussmann prosecution was brought by John Durham, the prosecutor appointed as special counsel during the Trump administration to investigate potential government wrongdoing during the early days of the investigation into Russian election interference and potential ties with the Trump campaign.

Defense lawyers deny that Sussmann lied and have suggested to jurors that it's impossible to be sure exactly what he said because only Baker and Sussmann were in the meeting and neither of them took notes.

During cross-examination, Sussmann lawyer Sean Berkowitz presented Baker with excerpts of accounts of the meeting he'd provided on prior occasions in which he appeared less certain about what precisely was said or gave different accounts than what he said Thursday.

During an October 2018 interview by lawmakers, for instance, he said he did not 'œspecifically'ť recall Sussmann that he was representing the Clinton campaign at the time.

"Memories are a difficult thing, are they not sir? Berkowitz asked rhetorically.

But testifying Thursday, Baker said he was 'œ100 percent confident'ť that Sussmann told him during the Sept. 19, 2016 meeting at FBI headquarters that he was not there on behalf of any particular client.

'œMichael's a friend of mine and a colleague, and I believed it and I trusted that the statement was truthful,'ť he said.

Baker said under questioning from a prosecutor that had Sussmann told him he was seeking the meeting on behalf of the Clinton campaign, he probably would not have taken the meeting - in part because Clinton herself had been under investigation that year related to her use of a private email server she relied on as secretary of state.

Though he said that the FBI always wants to receive reports about criminal wrongdoing or national security threats, the bureau also takes into account the identity of the person or entity providing the information as it assesses the reliability of credibility of the tip.

'œIt would have raised very serious questions, certainly in my mind, about the credibility of the source, the veracity of the information," Baker said, 'œand heightened in my mind a substantial question about whether we were going to be played or pulled into the politics of it.'ť

Under cross-examination later in the day, he conceded that he did know that Sussmann and his law firm were representing the Clinton campaign in the hacking by Russia of their emails.

The data Sussmann presented purported to show furtive communications between a server of Russia-based Alfa Bank and a Trump Organization server. At the time the data was presented, the FBI was investigating whether the Kremlin and the Trump campaign were coordinating to sway the outcome of that November's presidential election.

Given the existence of that investigation, Baker said, he took the information seriously as a potential national security threat and because Sussmann told him that the news media was intent on reporting on the data. He quickly alerted the FBI's top counterintelligence official, thinking it could be another piece of evidence in the Trump-Russia probe and concerned that coverage of the cyber data could lead Russia to shift course.

'œI already knew that we had an investigation going on of that nature, and here was another set of allegations relating to a different aspect of alleged interactions or connections between the Russian government'ť and the Trump campaign, Baker said.

He later added: 'œIt seemed to me of great urgency and great seriousness that I would want to make my bosses aware of this information.'ť

Baker said he was led to believe by Sussmann that the material suggestive of a digital backchannel had been compiled by serious and respected cybersecurity specialists. The FBI assessed the data that Baker received and determined that there was no actual suspicious or secret contact between Russia and the Trump campaign.

There was, Baker said, 'œnothing there.'ť

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