The 'Tech Executive-1' whom John Durham says coordinated with the Clinton campaign to push claims of Trump-Russia collusion says he will plead the Fifth.
Michael Sussmann was indicted last year on charges of concealing his clients — Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and the tech executive known to be Rodney Joffe, formerly of the company Neustar — from FBI general counsel James Baker when he pushed since-debunked claims of a secret back channel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank.“The Special Counsel has made Rodney Joffe a cornerstone of its case against Mr. Sussmann.
They argued the judge should dismiss the false statements charge against Sussmann if Durham won’t grant Joffe immunity.Sussmann’s team argued Joffe “would offer critical exculpatory testimony” if called to testify, including that Sussmann and Joffe “agreed that information should be conveyed to the FBI and to Agency-2 to help the government” and not to benefit Joffe.
Durham noted in March that Joffe “had a history of providing assistance to the FBI on cyber security matters, but decided in this instance to provide politically-charged allegations anonymously through the defendant and a law firm that was then-counsel to the Clinton Campaign." Durham has said Sussmann told a government agency, believed to be the CIA, about the dubious Russian bank connection in a February 2017 meeting, in which Sussmann again allegedly misled about who his client was. The special counsel said Sussmann also claimed data he had access to “demonstrated that Trump and/or his associates were using supposedly rare, Russian-made wireless phones in the vicinity of the White House and other locations.