Thread by @JFHaughey58

Reporters are in the media room at the US District Courthouse in Washington, DC, 50 minutes after it's supposed to open, so off to slow start this drizzly Tuesday for Day 7 of #Clinton attorney Michael Sussmann’s trial for lying to FBI about Trump-Russia links. #SussmannTrial

DOJ deputy assistant attorney general Tricia Anderson takes the stand. Her notes taken after speaking with former general counsel James Baker after he received data, documents from Sussmann is evidence in the case. #SussmannTrial

Prosecutor Brittain Shaw ends her examination of Anderson in less than 10 minutes. Like FBI agent Bill Priestap Monday, she doesn't recall specifics and is testifying on notes taken during meetings she cannot recall. #SussmannTrial

Anderson is on the stand for less than a half-hour -- a #SussmannTrial record for brevity -- and she didn't recall much. Now FBI agent Curtis Heide takes the stand. He was a lead agent in FBI Chicago field office in 2016. #SussmannTrial

Heide offers one explanation for who, what ordered the "full" DOJ probe despite initial reviews revealing no fire with this smoke: The Chicago FBI office "may have been conflating the US Department of Justice and our own office of general counsel." #SussmannTrial

Heide and Allison Sands, who testified Monday, were co-case agents in investigating the allegations. He is under DOJ inquiry for “not identifying exculpatory information” in #CrossfireHurricane probe. Exculpatory information is a fact that negates an allegation. #SussmannTrial

When the FBI Chicago closed the probe in October 2016 because it lacked substance, it was called a "preliminary investigation" requested by the DOJ. Prosecutor Jonathon Algor asked if that was accurate. "Not it is not," Heide said. #SussmannTrial

The effort was a "full field investigation" and it was not requested by the DOJ but from within the FBI. Heide earlier said that may have been a mistake within the office of "conflating" the DOJ with the FBI's office of general counsel. #SussmannTrial

Heide is at least the seventh witness who was, or still is, employed by the FBI to testify in the case and only the two cyber analysts seem to remember much unless reading from notes taken during meetings they don't recall. #SussmannTrial

Lead defense attorney Sean Berkowitz is cross-examining Heide, who is a subject of a DOJ probe for allegedly withholding exculpatory information in a FISA court proceeding related to #CrossfireHurricane. #SussmannTrial

Berkowitz: “That is a serious allegation … that you intentionally withheld information that could help prove an individual’s innocence … a serious allegation. You have denied it. Heide: The case is still pending. #SussmannTrial

Before proceedings began Monday, Cooper and attorneys discussed upcoming testimony from a witness engaged in “an unadjudicated matter.” Berkowitz expressed concern that the witness could be testifying to “curry favor with the government.” #SussmannTrial

Berkowitz asked Heide how many times he’s met with prosecutors to iron out testimony. “A handful,” Heide said. “Five times — that’s a handful,” Berkowitz said, including three times in May with the last session on May 19 ... "last Thursday after court." #SussmannTrial

Court has recessed for lunch with Heide set to return to the stand and Berkowitz continuing his cross-examination at 1:45. A lot of nodding heads, heavy eyelids as Heide is grilled about the email and that, nte dates bouncing across several years. #SussmannTrial

Investigation's origin after FBI cyber experts dismissed allegations within a day remains opaque with FBI counterintelligence agent Curtis Heide saying it was mislabeled a DOJ probe because of a "typo" perhaps attributable to "conflating" DOJ and FBI's office of general counsel

Heide said first time he was aware "there may have been a typo in the paperwork" mislabeling it as a DOJ investigation was in October 2018 while being interviewed in Office of Inspector General probe into CrossFire Hurricane. #SussmannTrial

“It is your testimony sitting here today that both the opening of the case and closing of the case had a typo?" Berkowitz asked, noting that it indicates "not a lot of attention to detail.” Heide: “There were some mistakes, yes.” #SussmannTrial

Judge Christoper Cooper has denied prosecution’s request to introduce emails between Georgia Tech cyber expert David Dagon and others after Berkowitz asked Heide if he followed-up on agent Tom Grosso’s offer to provide Dagon as a “private sector subject expert.” #SussmannTrial

Prosecution maintained Berkowitz’s questioning of Heide “opened the door” to “materiality” for those emails to be introduced. Cooper disagreed. “Mr. Berkowitz confined his questions” to demonstrate “the FBI could have interviewed Mr. Dagon” but chose not to. #SussmannTrial

Cooper said email relates more to Rodney Joffe’s views, motivations, and said when Heide returns to stan for redirect, the prosecution can ask “what he would have asked in an interview of Mr. Dagon. We are not going to get into” Dagon’s views, motivations. #SussmannTrial

Redirect of Heide goes into more mind-numbing detail about how FBI agents email each other and use an internal chat "link" system to communicate and who said what to who when. #SussmannTrial

When asked what he would have asked Dagon had FBI investigators chosen to ask Dagon questions even after the alleged white paper author was offered as a "private sector subject expert," if they'd ask about his motivations, Heide said, well yes, he would have. #SussmannTrial

Now on the stand is Jared Novick, CEO of BitVoyant, a cyber threat analysis company, which he says does "proactive assessments of private sector companies to assess their vulnerabilities." #SussmannTrial

Novick spends months-long minutes explaining his company's relationships with other companies, including Packet Forensics. The bottom line is Joffe said on the board and tasked BitVoyant to look into Trump Organization DNS data in the summer of 2016. #SussmannTrial

That is, Joffe SAT on the board. In August 2016, Joffe "tasks me and I received a PDR document and in that document there was a handful--five, seven--names of individuals, their spouses, their personal emails, addresses ... it was very personal ..." #SussmannTrial;

The PDF included "names of Russian companies, Russian affiliations, some names that seemed foreign to me and some names I recognized in the news so immediately I knew it to be a political request," Novick said. First name: Carter Page.#SussmannTrial

It was “extremely uncommon ... this was a group, a group of individuals, the whole thing felt to me like opposition research,” Novick said. “It made me feel very uncomfortable.” #SussmannTrial

Novick“immediately” contacted Victor Oppleman, a friend also on the BitVoyant board and engaged with Joffe in other companies, including Littoral Ventures, which provided the PDF. “He was also uncomfortable” but they “reluctantly moved forward with tasking.” #SussmannTrial

Novick assigned three analysts to follow through with the tasking. They named the project CRIMSON RHINO because the "last thing I wanted was Donald Trump’s name" on the company tasking board for all to see. #SussmannTrial

Joffe asked to “cast a large net.” The PDF had 90 days of DNS data “so the first thing is they look at is past 90-day history. (To) go deep, as deeply as possible, go wide, not look through a soda straw but look at everywhere for things related” to Alfa. #SussmannTrial

During cross-examine, Berkowitz said Novick has told investigators that he did not get along with Joffe, who was pressuring him to better his performance in leading BitVoyant. On Sept. 12, 2021, he told investigators there was a "bit of friction" between them. #SussmnannTrial

Novick said he didn’t recall saying that. “You are asking me about a word and I cannot tell you if I used that word. I had a difficult relationship with Rodney," he said. #SussmannTrial

On redirect, prosecutor Jonathon Algor asked Novick what he was told would happen to the information they compiled. He said: “It was to go to an attorney.” #SussmannTrial

Cooper has called it a day. Prosecution closes case Wednesday with Durham paralegal Kori Arsenault serving as summary witness. Algor said testimony will be “a demonstration” of “100 exhibits, one-after-another.” That was greeted by gasps, a Berkowitz objection #SussmannTrial

Upon hearing of the prosecution's plan to parade 100 exhibits through his courtroom, Cooper said he was “somewhat frustrated” they “didn’t address this” earlier. Both set of attorneys agreed to work tonight on trimming them back. #SussmannTrial

When the defense makes its case beginning Thursday morning the latest, Berkowitz said he will call former New York Times writer Eric Licthblau, FBI agent Tom Grasso, Tasha Gauhar, and "some character witnesses." #SussmannTrial

If all goes well, that leaves Friday for both sides to make 1-to-1 1/2 hour closing arguments so that Cooper can leave by 2 pm for a prior commitment (otherwise known as the three-day Memorial Day weekend).

For continuing coverage of today's proceedings and things that go bump in the night--many midnight filings in this case--check-in with Zack Stiebel at The Epoch Times. theepochtimes.com