A federal grand jury has returned an indictment against cybersecurity attorney Michael Sussmann, who represented the Democratic National Committee in connection with the 2016 Russia hack, accusing him of lying to the FBI about who he was representing.
The grand jury indictment accuses Sussmann of lying when he “stated to the General Counsel of the FBI that he was not acting on behalf of any client in conveying particular allegations concerning a Presidential candidate, when in truth, and in fact, as the defendant well knew, he was acting on behalf of specific clients, namely, Tech Executive-1 and the Clinton Campaign.”
The indictment, as The New York Times reported yesterday, was sought by John Durham, whom the Trump administration named special counsel to investigate the Russia probe. The indictment was returned just before the five-year statute of limitations expired.
In a statement to the Times ahead of the indictment, Sussmann’s attorneys said he “has committed no crime” and that a prosecution “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,” they said.
Read the indictment below.