Cybersecurity lawyer pleads innocent

WASHINGTON — A prominent cybersecurity lawyer pleaded innocent Friday to making a false statement to the FBI in a charge stemming from a probe of the U.S. government’s investigation into Russian election interference.

Michael Sussmann appeared in D.C. federal court before Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui on Friday. He is just the second person to be prosecuted by special counsel John Durham in two and a half years of work.

The indictment accuses Sussmann of lying to the FBI when he was questioned about a September 2016 conversation he had with the FBI’s general counsel in which he relayed concerns from cybersecurity researchers about potentially suspicious contacts between Russia-based Alfa Bank and a Trump Organization server.

The FBI looked into the matter but found no connections. Sussmann is a former federal prosecutor who specializes in cybersecurity. He resigned from the firm Perkins Coie this week.

Sussmann’s lawyers, Sean Berkowitz and Michael Bosworth, said their client is a highly respected national security lawyer, and they were confident he would prevail at trial and “vindicate his good name.”