Sussmann Billed Clinton Campaign on Day of FBI Meeting for Work on ‘Confidential Project,’ Records Show

Billing records presented by the prosecution in Michael Sussmann’s false-statement trial indicate that Sussmann charged the Clinton campaign for work on the day he met with then-FBI general counsel James Baker in 2016 to present evidence of alleged backchannel communications between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank.

Prosecutors allege that Sussmann lied to Baker when he asked for the meeting under the pretense that he was coming forward as a concerned citizen and not on behalf of any client. At the time of the meeting, Sussmann, then a partner at Perkins Coie, was representing the Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee and tech executive Rodney Joffe, whose firm Neustar dug up the Trump-Alfa evidence in the form of Domain Name System (DNS) data.

The billing records came to light during the direct examination of the prosecution’s summary witness, a paralegal on the Special Counsel’s team.

While questioning the paralegal, Kori Arsenault, prosecutor Michael Keilty showed the jury a billing record from September 19 filed by Sussmann. It read “work and meetings regarding confidential project,” and charged the campaign for 3.3 hours of work.

Keilty also entered into the record an expense report filed by Sussmann on September 22 to the Clinton campaign through Perkins Coie for the “purchase of flash drives” as well as a receipt showing the flash drives had been purchased prior to Sussmann’s meeting with Baker.

The DNS data that served as evidence of a communications channel between Trump and the Alfa Bank was presented to Baker on flash drives.

Michael Bosworth, a lawyer on Sussmann’s defense team, cross-examined Arenault and made three points.

The first was that in other billing record entries, Sussmann specifically referred to meetings with the FBI, whereas he did not in the seemingly damning entry from September 19.

The second was that in another expense report from the 19th, Sussmann billed the firm — not the campaign — for his taxi rides to lunch, FBI headquarters, and back to Perkins Coie’s offices on that day.

The third was that neither Arsenault nor anyone else had records indicating what was said during an approximately 13 minute phone call between Baker and Sussmann on September 21.

Keilty returned for a short rebuttal to point out that Sussmann billed the firm only for the taxis, which included a detour to stop for lunch, and not for his meeting with Baker.

After Arsenault left the stand, the prosecution also read a transcript from an interview with Sussmann in which he tells the government that he met with Baker — and later the CIA in 2017 — for his client.

“It was done on behalf of my client,” he told them.

The prosecution has exhausted its witness list, and rested. Sussmann’s defense team will begin to work through its own witnesses later on Wednesday morning.