(FreedomBeacon.com)- A former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer is attempting to block an expert witness from discrediting computer research that claimed to demonstrate a hidden back channel between former President Donald Trump and Russia during the 2016 election.
Special counsel John Durham is reportedly planning to utilize evidence from FBI agent David Martin “to cast doubt on the specific data and conclusions that Mr. Sussmann presented to the FBI” according to court documents filed Wednesday.
Durham also appears to be planning to have Martin talk to the FBI about Sussmann’s allegedly false assertion that he wasn’t operating on behalf of the Clinton campaign and a tech-executive client at the time, according to the defense.
The efforts, according to Sussmann’s attorneys, would go beyond what the Court said it would accept and instead veer into improper testimony.
They wrote, “Such testimony should be rejected.”
According to the defense, Durham appears to be seeking to bring in through expert opinion exactly the sort of testimony that the court has excluded from fact witnesses.
Martin might testify about “spoofing,” in which the origin of computer communications is altered and made to look falsely to come from a certain IP address.
His defense lawyers argued that even though there is no evidence establishing Mr. Sussmann had any such knowledge, this would imply to the jury that the exact data Mr. Sussmann gave to the FBI may have been faked.
Sussmann is charged in connection with a meeting on Sept. 19, 2016, in which he delivered then-FBI General Counsel James Baker two thumb drives and three “white papers” relating to computer connections between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank.
Following that, the FBI launched an inquiry, which revealed that the only content transferred seemed to be commercial emails.
Sussmann’s trial in federal court in Washington, DC, is expected to begin with jury selection on Monday. He is accused of leading Baker to think that when he disclosed the material, he was acting as a solid citizen and not as an “advocate for any client.”
He may face up to five years in jail if convicted on a single count of making a false statement to the government.
