US Court Indicts Lawyer For Perjury In 2016 Presidential Election Meddling Case

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th September, 2021) A Federal grand jury in the US District Court for the District of Columbia has charged lawyer Michael Sussmann, who previously represented the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton Presidential Campaign, for making a false statement to the FBI about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The indictment, issued on September 16, was published on Tuesday on popular Russian VK social network by Concord Company, owned by Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was also charged with the election meddling and faced sanctions.

"On or about September 19, 2016, within the District of Columbia, MICHAEL A.SUSSMANN, the defendant, did willfully and knowingly make a materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement or representation in a matter before the jurisdiction of the executive branch of the Government of the United States," the court said in the indictment.

In the fall of 2016, Sussmann handed over to the FBI agents false materials prepared by Mrs. Clinton's campaign about the alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election. These materials also included a fake dossier by ex-MI6 employee underlying the illegal charges against Prigozhin of interference in 2016 US presidential election.

"All this confirms both the illegality of the accusation against Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin of interfering in the election of the President of the United States, and the illegality of the sanctions imposed on him," Concord stated on its VK account.

Prigozhin sent a statement to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at the US Treasury over three months ago, demanding that all sanctions restrictions be lifted and the evidence on the basis of which he was included in this list should be disclosed. No response has been received from OFAC, Concord stated. The businessman and his lawyers are reportedly preparing an additional statement.

Relations between the United States and Russia sank in 2014 under the administration of then-US President Barack Obama during the crisis in Ukraine, when Washington imposed sanctions on Moscow. Since then, the United States has expanded and tightened the sanctions regime following accusations of Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. Moscow has repeatedly denied interfering in Ukraine and the US political system.