Former President Donald Trump pledged to “fight even harder” in the political arena after a former Clinton campaign lawyer charged with making false statements to the FBI was found not guilty.
“If anything, it makes me want to fight even harder,” the former president told Fox News on June 1 in response to a question about his future political plans after a jury found Michael Sussmann not guilty of lying to the FBI about acting on behalf of a client.
“If we don’t win, our country is ruined. We have bad borders, bad elections, and a court system not functioning properly,” Trump said, adding that “our country is being systematically destroyed.”
Michael Sussmann, the former attorney for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election campaign, alleged to the FBI in September 2016 that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian-based Alfa Bank in election interference. The FBI found the evidence Sussmann provided did not substantiate his allegations.
Special Counsel John Durham alleged that Sussmann knowingly lied to the FBI in claiming to be acting as a “concerned citizen.” The prosecution alleged that Sussmann was actually acting on behalf of Hilary Clinton’s campaign and technology executive Rodney Joffe.
A Washington-area jury, which reportedly included several Clinton donors and a woman whose daughter is on the same sports team as Sussmann’s daughter, unanimously found Sussmann not guilty on May 31.
“I told the truth to the FBI and the jury clearly recognized that with their unanimous verdict today,” Sussmann told reporters outside the courtroom after his acquittal.
Testimony made by Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, during the Sussmann trial on May 20 revealed that Clinton approved providing Trump-Russia collusion allegations to the media. Trump called Clinton’s action “treason.”
“This was totally illegal. What they did was treason, and it also put our country in a lot of danger with Russia,” the former president said in the Fox interview, “[Clinton] should be ashamed of herself.”
The Epoch Times has reached out to the Clinton Foundation for comment.
Trump commented on further revelations at the Sussmann trial that Joffe had spied on Trump’s communications at the White House and his personal residences.
“They spied on my campaign. They got caught. If a Republican would have done that, and the obvious steps forward, it would be a virtual death penalty,” Trump said.
Trump further said that then-Attorney General Bill Barr should have made Durham’s findings public before the 2020 election. Barr appointed Durham as a special counsel to investigate potential government misconduct in the investigation into Trump-Russia collusion allegations.
Durham indicted former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith in August 2020, Sussmann in September 2021, and Russian analyst Igor Danchenko in November 2021 as a part of this investigation.
Clinesmith pleaded guilty to doctoring an email from the CIA during the process of applying for court permission to wiretap Carter Page, a former affiliate of Trump, during the Russian investigation. A federal judge sentenced Clinesmith to 12 months of probation.
Danchenko will go on trial in October for allegedly making false statements to the FBI about the sources of the information he provided to former British Secret Intelligence Service officer Christopher Steele, author of the infamous 2016 “Steele dossier.”
“This should have been put out before so that the voters were able to see what was going on, and they could have voted accordingly,” Trump said. “Don’t forget: what they did had much more impact on the 2020 election than on the 2016 election, because they did much of this stuff—it was a carry on from before the 2016 election with Russia, Russia, Russia being brought up for three years,”
“Where do you get your reputation back?” Trump asked.
