FBI official James Baker testifies Michael Sussman lied

WASHINGTON, DC — A former FBI official testified Thursday that he’s “100% confident” a Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer denied acting “on behalf of any particular client” when he handed over since-debunked information linking Donald Trump and Russia.

“I think it was pretty close to the beginning of the meeting. Part of his introduction to the meeting,” former FBI general counsel James Baker told jurors in Washington, DC, federal court.

The testimony directly supports the sole count lodged against defendant Michael Sussmann as a result of special counsel John Durham’s probe into alleged law-breaking in connection with the FBI and Robert Mueller’s probes of purported Trump-Russia ties.

Sussmann, 57, is on trial on a single count of lying to the government during a Sept. 19, 2016, sit-down with Baker at FBI headquarters.

“He said that he was not appearing before me on behalf of any particular client,” Baker recalled.

“He had information of concern about an apparent surreptitious communications channel between Alfa Bank, which he described as being connected to the Kremlin in Russia, and some part of the Trump Organization in the US.”

Baker added that he was “100% confident that he said that in the meeting.”