A federal judge rejected a former Clinton campaign lawyer's request

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A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann's request to dismiss the special counsel John Durham's criminal case against him. Sussmann was charged last year with lying to the FBI during a conversation with then FBI general counsel James Baker in 2016. Durham's indictment said that Sussmann "lied about the capacity in which he was providing" allegations to the FBI about what he claimed was a "secret communications channel" between the Trump Organization and Russia's Alfa Bank. The indictment said Sussmann lied to the FBI when he told Baker he wasn't working on behalf of any client. In fact, the indictment said, Sussmann was acting on behalf of the Clinton campaign, the tech executive Rodney Joffe, and the internet company Neustar. US District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, rejected that argument Wednesday, writing in a six-page ruling that Sussmann's lawyers only addressed one part of the legal test to determine if a statement is material or not, namely if it affects the FBI's decision to start an investigation. But the defense "largely ignores the second part of the test: whether the statement could influence 'any other function' of the agency," Cooper wrote. Cooper referenced that contention in his Wednesday ruling, writing that "as the Special Counsel argues, it is at least possible that statements made to law enforcement prior to an investigation could materially influence the later trajectory of the investigation. Sussmann offers no legal authority to the contrary."