FBI agent at Sussmann trial says he rejected Alfa-Bank claims within days

An FBI agent involved in analyzing the since-debunked Trump-Russia collusion claims pushed to the bureau by Democratic cybersecurity lawyer Michael Sussmann testified that an analysis rejected claims of a secret back channel to Russia within days.

Sussmann was charged last year with concealing his clients — Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign and “Tech Executive-1,” known to be former Neustar executive Rodney Joffe — from FBI General Counsel James Baker when he pushed debunked allegations of a secret line of communication between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa-Bank during a September 2016 meeting.

Scott Hellman, currently an FBI supervisory special agent leading a team investigating cybercrime, said he and a supervisor retrieved the thumb drives and other information passed to the FBI the day after the Baker-Sussmann meeting, reviewed the secret communication claims, and quickly rejected them.

Special counsel Robert Mueller, the FBI, the CIA, a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee investigation, and John Durham’s team have all cast doubt on or rejected the Alfa-Bank claims touted by the Clinton campaign.