Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe dissected the left’s victory lap on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” after former Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann’s acquittal.
Sussmann was indicted by Special Counsel John Durham in 2021 with one count of lying to the FBI after he presented the agency with alleged evidence of a secret communications channel between then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and a Russian bank, claiming to be a private citizen in 2016. A federal jury acquitted the former campaign lawyer after nearly six hours of deliberations May 31.
Ratcliffe said the verdict was “contrary to the evidence,” given that Sussmann’s own text messages confirmed that he hid his role in the political realm and pushed the now-debunked claim that the Trump campaign colluded with Alfa Bank. He said the judge would not allow certain evidence to be included in the trial, and allowed both Clinton and Democratic donors to serve on the jury.
“Unfortunately, it wasn’t a just verdict,” he said. “We have a great jury system in this country, but doesn’t always get it right. This jury found Michael Sussmann not guilty, as you recall another jury found OJ Simpson not guilty. I think most Americans that would have paid attention to both trials would have said that they got that wrong.”
Ratcliffe pointed to Hillary Clinton’s former campaign manager, Robby Mook, who testified that she approved of her campaign promoting the Trump-Russian collusion allegations, despite skepticism from her attorneys. Ratcliffe argued this fact can bring successful indictments in the future. (RELATED: ‘Enjoy Your Day”: Trump Gives Abrupt Ending After Going Off On Sussmann Verdict)
The former director also said there is a “double standard” within the FBI regarding indictments of Trump and Hillary campaign officials.
“There is a double there and unfortunately, the leadership of the FBI has played a prominent role in the American people losing faith and trust in that organization,” he said. “With the intelligence that I declassified clearly showed was that not just our intelligence community, but our law enforcement community was briefed on the fact that it was Hillary Clinton that created this entire Trump-Russia collusion narrative and that the FBI knew that from the beginning of the crossfire hurricane investigation and that they also knew from the beginning of the Mueller investigation and yet published a 387-paged report on that that doesn’t mention the fact that it was Hillary Clinton’s campaign that created those allegations.”
“When that is the purpose of what your special counsel is to be and you leave that out altogether, it shows that there was a deliberate effort here, unfortunately, on behalf of some folks in our law enforcement community to mislead the American people for political reasons,” he continued.
The CIA sent evidence of the Clinton campaign’s role in the Trump-Russian collusion allegations to the FBI by law. The documents were then handed over to agent Peter Strzok, an outspoken opponent of Trump, Ratcliffe said. He called the 387-paged report lacking information about Clinton’s involvement “deliberate, willful, political, [and] intentional.”
“From the very beginning, it shows that the FBI and everyone in law enforcement that then became a part of the Mueller investigation were aware from Day One that this whole Trump-Russia investigation that was playing out over years to the American people was created by the Hillary Clinton campaign … Accountability is going to have to come from the American people themselves in November, in 2022 and in 2024.”
