Amidst the ongoing saga surrounding the “Twitter Files,” Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk called out law firm Perkins Coie LLP and one of its attorneys Michael Sussmann for allegedly trying to corrupt the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Musk made the comments after Kash Patel said Perkins Coie, a Democrat-aligned law firm, serving as Twitter’s outside counsel doesn’t bode well for transparency at the social media company.
Twitter isn’t using Perkins Coie. No company should use them until they make amends for Sussman’s attempt to corrupt a Presidential election.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022
“Twitter isn’t using Perkins Coie,” Musk responded to Patel’s claim in a tweet. “No company should use them until they make amends for Sussman’s attempt to corrupt a Presidential election.”
The Epoch Times Jan Jekielek pushed back at Musk’s claims while stating that he and Patel looked through court filings that show that Perkins Coie acted on Twitter’s behalf as recently as Dec. 6. Jekielek told Musk that he was concerned that someone has misled him.
Musk’s accusation comes after Sussmann, former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer, fed false intel to the FBI about a link to “collusion” between then-candidate Donald Trump and Russia during the 2016 campaign.
Sussmann’s intel contained false information that showed a link between Trump and Russia via Alfa Bank. The intel, alongside Fusion GPS’s dossier, became part of the overall “Russia collusion” investigation.
The Washington Post later reported in 2017 that the so-called dossier had been paid for using money from Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Perkins Coie’s involvement in the collusion hoax became more apparent when it was revealed that one of its attorneys, Marc E. Elia, hired Fusion GPS to create the dossier to find dirt on then-candidate Trump.
Sussman was tried for lying to the FBI about his motivations, but a jury later acquitted him. However, many observers, including Byron York of the Washington Examiner and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, said they believed Sussman was guilty.
Turley told Fox News that he thought the jury got the decision wrong. He also noted that the jury had three Clinton donors, an AOC donor, and a woman whose daughter is on the same sports team as Sussmann’s daughter. Turley also noted a Washinton Times report revealing a juror told a reporter that she doesn’t see why lying to the FBI is a big deal.
“There are bigger things that affect the nation than a possible lie to the FBI,” the juror reportedly told the Washington Times.
York noted before the acquittal that there was no doubt Sussmann lied to the FBI. York added that Sussmann tried to plant a derogatory story about Trump, hoping the FBI would start an investigation.
“There is no doubt he is guilty,” York wrote.”But the trial is taking place in Washington, perhaps the deepest-blue jury pool in the United States.”
