Durham Is Said to Seek Indictment of Lawyer at Firm With Democratic Ties
Source: New York Times
The lawyer, Michael Sussmann, is accused of lying to the F.B.I. in a 2016 meeting about Trump and Russia. He denies wrongdoing.
WASHINGTON John H. Durham, the special counsel appointed by the Trump administration to scrutinize the Russia investigation, has told the Justice Department that he will ask a grand jury to indict a prominent cybersecurity lawyer on a charge of making a false statement to the F.B.I., people familiar with the matter said.
Any indictment of the lawyer Michael Sussmann, a former federal prosecutor and now a partner at the Perkins Coie law firm, and who represented the Democratic National Committee on issues related to Russias 2016 hacking of its servers is likely to attract significant political attention.
Donald J. Trump and his supporters have long accused Democrats and Perkins Coie whose political law group, a division separate from Mr. Sussmanns, represented the party and the Hillary Clinton campaign of seeking to stoke unfair suspicions about Mr. Trumps purported ties to Russia.
The case against Mr. Sussmann centers on the question of who his client was when he conveyed certain suspicions about Mr. Trump and Russia to the F.B.I. in September 2016. Among other things, investigators have examined whether Mr. Sussmann was secretly working for the Clinton campaign which he denies.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/15/us/politics/durham-michael-sussmann-trump-russia.html
msongs
(67,347 posts)Alien Life Form
(370 posts)Comfortably_Numb
(3,789 posts)I just cannot listen to the same ol phrase or fact repeated 19 times in a soliloquy.
dem4decades
(11,269 posts)PatSeg
(47,239 posts)I rarely watch her anymore. She literally repeats the same phrases over and over again. I have actually skipped forward numerous times while watching her and it still feels like it takes forever. I start to long for a commercial.
Comfortably_Numb
(3,789 posts)PatSeg
(47,239 posts)Too often it feels like she uses a lot of filler words to expand a five or ten minute segment into 20 or 30 minutes. I lead a fairly dull life, but I really do have better things to do than listen to the same thing repeated over and over again. Plus it insults my intelligence.
Comfortably_Numb
(3,789 posts)The shame is she does tackle stories that interest me, but then the repetition overwhelms me. I played a count the number of times she says the same thing out loud and my wife was even amazed at how high the count went .its like how to use 11 minutes of original content to fill a 21 minute block. Sorry, not sorry.
PatSeg
(47,239 posts)If it had been just once and awhile, I wouldn't have paid that much attention, but more and more it was happening pretty much every night.
I agree, there have been stories I was and still am interested in, but 20 to 30 minutes of meandering and repetition is just too much. This sort of approach probably works very well in a high school or college classroom, but not on a news show. It is also commonly used on news magazine shows like Dateline, where they stretch a 30 minute story into one hour.
As for the "turn the channel" folks, obviously that is what we are doing. Still I feel like it is a loss, as there was a time when I really enjoyed Rachel's show, a time when there was less repetition, giggling, and animated hand gestures. Sometimes, I really want a professional, polished delivery, plus some actual news. The rest of the time, I can watch Stephen Colbert or Seth Meyers.
Comfortably_Numb
(3,789 posts)that repetition style I would have lost most of those folks within minutes. I always try to make the point one time clearly, and then maybe BRIEFLY touch on it for context through the class. And you called it, the giggling and histrionics are insufferable. Its Chris Hayes, Brianna Keiler, and Nicole Wallace for me. It doesnt matter how important your topic, if your delivery alienates your listeners.
PatSeg
(47,239 posts)is a fleeting thing. I can imagine it can be hard to hold it for very long.
I believe it is important that a journalist or host's appearance and delivery should not distract from what they are actually saying. Not only is the giggling unprofessional, I've found it is often at the most inappropriate times. The first time it jumped out at me was election night 2016, when the networks were about to call the election for Trump. Rachel laughed and at that moment I thought I might not be able to watch her again. I later forgave her, thinking it was just a nervous laugh, but still a little more self control on such an important occasion is not too much to ask of such a highly regarded news host. The viewers were devastated, many in tears. It was no time for laughter.
Over time, I found her doing it more and more, as if she was hosting a late night talk show, not a news show. I don't watch MSNBC to be entertained, I watch it to be informed.
I watch less cable news these days, but I usually try to catch Brian Williams. His delivery is practically flawless, his occasional dry wit priceless, and he never waves his arms about or giggles. Sometimes I watch Chris Hayes or Lawrence O'Donnell and if it is daytime, no one tops Nicole Wallace.
Comfortably_Numb
(3,789 posts)PatSeg
(47,239 posts)Corgigal
(9,291 posts)wants to keep the Federal money vein open.
Just tell him to stop. We have hurricane and fire storm victims to assist.
JohnSJ
(92,060 posts)SheltieLover
(57,073 posts)AZSkiffyGeek
(10,961 posts)JohnSJ
(92,060 posts)Lying to the FBI
It is a gift o conspiracy kooks to imply Clinton was somehow involved in falsely accusing trump of Russian connections
monkeyman1
(5,109 posts)Celerity
(43,068 posts)Ford_Prefect
(7,868 posts)False accusation and misrepresenting evidence is quite unprofessional enough.
Or the old favorite "he fell down a flight of stairs" could work... Sauce for the gander too, they say. Incapacitated by serious injury works for me. Durham is a nasty piece of work: a hammer in search of a nail. I imagine that his email and phone logs would make for very interesting reading.
monkeyman1
(5,109 posts)JohnSJ
(92,060 posts)the previous administration
That he filed this two days before the statue of limitations expires is suspicious indeed, and implies he wants to keep this going indefinitely
joetheman
(1,450 posts)JohnSJ
(92,060 posts)without any evidence
They did so well with the email lie, er, story
onecaliberal
(32,774 posts)Self inflicted nothing-burger as usual.
JohnSJ
(92,060 posts)onecaliberal
(32,774 posts)would you like to be thrown in this mess & this short of time make a judgement call like this ! just short of nine month's & this mess billy barr left for the D.O.J. ! nobody is a damn miracle worker . give the man a break & back him . Jeeze , arm chair lawyers!
JohnSJ
(92,060 posts)monkeyman1
(5,109 posts)JohnSJ
(92,060 posts)monkeyman1
(5,109 posts)JohnSJ
(92,060 posts)Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)gab13by13
(21,234 posts)this is a big nothingburger. Merrick Garland had the authority to dismiss this, but declined.
Based on what Barbara McQuade on Rachel said.
Response to Zorro (Original post)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
onecaliberal
(32,774 posts)Response to onecaliberal (Reply #23)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
onecaliberal
(32,774 posts)BlueIdaho
(13,582 posts)Runs out this weekend. This is a Hail Mary attempt to file something anything before that Bozo Durham loses his Special Council standing.
Response to BlueIdaho (Reply #15)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
JohnSJ
(92,060 posts)Response to JohnSJ (Reply #19)
Chin music This message was self-deleted by its author.
former9thward
(31,925 posts)He has been there for 38 years. He is not going anywhere until he decides to go. The AG does not have the power to "let go" career employees.
gab13by13
(21,234 posts)no attention is being paid to why Putin's bank was apparently communicating with Trump Tower?
So what if Hillary was the client, what difference does that make? I want to know about Trump's server.
Democrats are terrible at controlling the narrative.
BlueIdaho
(13,582 posts)While everyone is distracted by the bright shiny object, the Trump/Putin/AlfaBank connection gets swept under the carpet.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,710 posts)He'll spend a lot of money and won't get a conviction.
Oh and BTW Durham, your goatee looks like a patch of pubic hair.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,710 posts)A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted attorney Michael Sussman on a charge of lying to the FBI during the 2016 campaign, marking the second prosecution brought by John Durham, the special counsel tapped by former President Trump to investigate the FBI's probe into Russian interference.
The indictment alleges that Sussman, an attorney at the firm Perkins Coie with ties to the Democratic Party, misrepresented who he was working for when he presented evidence to the FBI in 2016 of a link between the Trump Organization and the Russian financial company Alfa Bank.
-snip-
Two attorneys representing Sussman did not immediately respond when asked for comment, but issued a statement earlier Thursday in anticipation of the indictment.
"Michael Sussmann is a highly respected national security and cyber security lawyer, who served the U.S. Department of Justice during Democratic and Republican administrations alike," attorney Michael Bosworth and Sean Berkowitz said in the statement. "Mr. Sussmann has committed no crime. Any prosecution here would be baseless, unprecedented, and an unwarranted deviation from the apolitical and principled way in which the Department of Justice is supposed to do its work. We are confident that if Mr. Sussmann is charged, he will prevail at trial and vindicate his good name."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/attorney-indicted-on-charge-of-lying-to-fbi-as-part-of-durham-investigation/ar-AAOwzvd