By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters). A Washington jury found a former Hillary Clinton attorney not guilty of lying about the FBI. He shared a tip with the FBI regarding possible communications between Donald Trump’s business and a Russian Bank in September 2016, spokespeople from defense and government told Reuters.

John Durham, the former Attorney General William Barr appointed Special Counsel to examine any missteps by FBI agents in their investigation into Trump’s campaign collusion with Russia. The jury acquitted Michael Sussmann.

Sussmann was charged with lying to James Baker, the FBI’s former top lawyer. He claimed he wasn’t representing clients and passed on technical data that suggested the Trump Organization was communicating secretly with Russia’s Alfa-Bank.

This research was eventually discredited.

Durham’s group claimed that Sussmann actually represented two clients. Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign was being led by Rodney Joffe. Joffe is a technology executive and personally managed the research on the now-discredited tip linking Trump with Alfa-Bank.

Durham’s case against Sussmann, which was Durham’s first trial, was seen as crucial because of one false allegation made in a single room. Only two other people took notes and recorded it.

Baker was Durham’s most prominent witness during the trial. He had given contradicting testimony previously to Congress and Justice Department Inspector General regarding his recall on Sussmann meeting with him for specific clients.

Baker, however, testified that Sussmann had told him that he wasn’t representing clients. This was supported by Sussmann’s text message to Baker a day prior in which Sussmann said that Sussmann was sending Baker: “I am coming on my own. Not on behalf of any client or company.

Prosecutors presented Sussmann as an ex-partner of Perkins Coie and a high-powered lawyer who attempted to use his political connections to spread damaging information about Trump to support Clinton in the 2016 election.

They claimed that Sussmann’s billing records also indicated that he represented the Clinton campaign in the Alfa-Bank case.

Sussmann’s defence team denied that Baker had been lied about and stated that Baker never asked him to reveal the Alfa-Bank tip to the FBI.

Numerous witnesses, including Marc Elias, a Clinton campaign former top lawyer, testified that Sussmann did not ask permission for the tip to be shared and that it was against the best interests of the campaign.

Additionally, defense provided seemingly exonerative billing records showing that Sussmann paid his law office for the taxi ride to the FBI and not Clinton’s campaign.