USA v. Michael A. Sussmann "Trump Russia Russia Russia" Indictment

Michael Sussmann, a 57-year-old cybersecurity lawyer who had worked for the Democrats and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, pleaded not guilty in federal court on Friday in his first appearance following his indictment on charges of lying to the FBI in a 2016 meeting where he shared information about the Trump Organization and Russia.

Sussmann is only the second defendant in the two-and-a-half-year investigation of special counsel John Durham, which previously inspired Donald Trump and his supporters to believe a takedown of the FBI was coming for its actions investigating Trump and Russia.

But that hasn't materialized. Instead, the cases Durham has brought, both false statement charges, have focused on peripheral characters flubbing details that would not have altered the main focus of the Russia investigation, which ended in the convictions of six Trump advisers and found the Trump campaign had welcomed and exploited Russia's 2016 election interference.

Still, Sussmann's charge has some political resonance, giving the special counsel an opportunity in this week's charging papers to explain connections between the Clinton campaign and a cybersecurity research effort that made its way to the FBI.