US Special Counsel John Durham wants to introduce former UK intelligence officer Christopher Steele and his dossier on the debunked Trump-Russia collusion at the upcoming criminal trial of Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, CNN has reported.
Sussmann, who pleaded not guilty, is charged with lying about a September 2016 meeting with a senior Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official, where he made a tip about suspicious cyberactivity between the Trump Organisation and a major Russian bank at the time.
According to court papers filed on Monday and seen by CNN, instead of solely focusing on Sussmann's alleged lie during the trial slated for next month, Durham plans to describe how the Clinton campaign tried to dig up dirt about then-Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump over his alleged ties to Russia.
Sussmann's lawyers have urged a judge to block Durham from introducing evidence about the Steele dossier and prevent prosecutors from calling Steele as a witness at the trial.
The special counsel should not be permitted to turn Mr Sussmann's trial on a narrow false statement charge into a circus full of sideshows that will only fuel partisan fervor, the lawyers said, adding that Steele's work has "no bearing" on the case and that it is "inflammatory and irrelevant".
CNN reported that it is Judge Christopher Cooper of the DC District Court who will decide "how much information about Steele can come up at trial". Cooper is also reportedly reviewing a motion from Sussmann to scrap the indictment altogether, in sync with legal flaws.
Durham Investigation
The developments come amid Durham's ongoing investigation that kicked off in 2019, when then-Attorney General William Barr told the special counsel to lead a review into the "Russiagate" probe launched by the FBI in July 2016 to determine if the bureau's inquiry into the allegations of Trump's "collusion" with Moscow was legal.
This was preceded by the US Justice Department releasing a redacted version of then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report, which summarised the outcome of his probe into allegations of the Trump-Russia collusion and Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 US election. According to the report, Mueller’s investigation found insufficient evidence of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Russia has repeatedly rejected allegations of its interference in the US political system, stressing that the claims were made to explain the election loss of Trump's opponent and distract public attention away from actual instances of election fraud and corruption.
Steele Dossier
The 35-page Steele dossier, published a week before Trump's inauguration in January 2017, alleged that Russian intelligence had compromising information on the then-US president and that the Kremlin and Trump had "extensive" secret back channels.
The dossier became part of the Democrats three-year campaign to accuse Trump of colluding with Russia.
The 45th president said at the time that Steele "should be extradited, tried, and thrown into jail" over his dossier which POTUS claimed was compiled at the behest of and paid for by his 2016 election opponent Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.
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