Judge in Sussmann Case Limits Evidence of Clinton ‘Conspiracy’

U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper ruled Saturday that while Special Counsel John H. Durham may introduce some email evidence regarding efforts to spread the “Russia collusion” hoax, it will exclude others attempting to show the existence of a “conspiracy” involving Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

The ruling came in the trial of Michael Sussmann, a Clinton campaign lawyer accused of lying to the FBI when he gave it alleged information about then-candidate Donald Trump’s supposed connections to Russia via Alfa Bank, by hiding the fact he was working for Hillary Clinton.

Last week, as Breitbart News reported, Durham won a fight to compel the production of communications that Sussmann, the Clinton campaign, the Fusion GPS opposition research firm, and others claimed were covered by attorney-client privilege.

Durham had earlier alleged that the Clinton campaign was involved in a “conspiracy” to spread the fake Alfa Bank story.

But he ran into a rule of evidence known as the hearsay rule, which prevents out-of-court statements from being offered into evidence under certain circumstances.

Judge Cooper ruled that Durham would be allowed to introduce evidence in the form of emails from Fusion GPS to the press, attempting to disseminate the false story: “These emails are admissible as non-hearsay because the Special Counsel does not appear to be offering them for their truth, but rather to demonstrate that Fusion GPS and the researchers shared the ultimate goal of disseminating the Alfa Bank allegations to the press.”

However, he excluded evidence of a conspiracy: “The Court will exercise its discretion not to engage in the kind of extensive evidentiary analysis that would be required to find that such a joint venture existed, and who may have joined it. … because no conspiracy is charged in the indictment, this undertaking would essentially amount to a second trial on a non-crime.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.