Sussmann, a former federal prosecutor and former partner at legal firm Perkins Coie, was acquitted on Tuesday of a single charge of lying to federal investigators when he claimed he wasn’t “acting on behalf of any client” when he delivered to the FBI alleged evidence of a secret backchannel between the Russian Alfa Bank and the campaign of Clinton's election rival, Republican candidate Donald Trump. That claim has since been separately debunked.
The jury only took two days to arrive at a decision, having convened on Friday after hearing closing arguments but then adjourning for the long Memorial Day holiday weekend.
The May trial was the first to come about as a result of special counsel John Durham's probe into the origins of the Russiagate investigation. His probe began three years ago after then-special counsel Robert Mueller failed to find charge-worthy evidence of alleged collusion between Trump's campaign and the Russian government, which Democrats had long claimed was the reason Clinton lost the 2016 election. That failure raised the question of why the FBI had investigated Trump in the first place and whether the decision had been political.
According to the federal indictment, Sussmann "misled the FBI General Counsel and other FBI personnel concerning the political nature of his work," which "deprived the FBI of information that might have permitted it more fully to assess and uncover the origins of the relevant data and technical analysis, including the identities and motivations of Sussmann's clients."
However, the jury didn't see it that way. The ruling is seen as a setback for Durham, who during the trial characterized Sussmann's bogus intel as part of a wider attempt to frame Trump for collusion alongside other efforts, including the dossier assembled by ex-MI6 agent Christopher Steele at the behest of the FBI, Democratic Party, and never-Trump Republicans.
“I also want to recognize and thank the investigators and the prosecution team for their dedicated efforts in seeking truth and justice in this case,” Durham said in a statement following announcement of their decision.