A second individual has now been indicted in Special Counsel John Durham’s long-running investigation into the origins of the Trump/Russia collusion hoax. First, it was Kevin Clinesmith. Now, just days before the statute of limitations was due to run out, Durham has indicted top Democrat lawyer Michael Sussmann for lying to the FBI. It sounds minor, but it’s important.

The 27-page indictment details how in September 2016, Sussmann met with FBI General Counsel James Baker to alert him to a supposed hidden connection between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin via the Russian-owned Alfa Bank. The FBI, as well as Robert Mueller’s investigation, would later determine there was no truth to the claim.

However, the indictment charge against Sussmann is not for his peddling false information to the FBI, but for his claim that he had no political connections, and therefore no political motive. In truth, Sussmann was working for the Hillary Clinton campaign’s law firm, Perkins Coie, for whom he was paid for specifically delivering the erroneous Alfa Bank/Trump claim.

According to the indictment:

Sussmann lied about the capacity in which he was providing the allegations to the FBI. Specifically, Sussmann stated falsely that he was not doing his work on the aforementioned allegations ‘for any client,’ which led the FBI General Counsel to understand that Sussmann was acting as a good citizen merely passing along information, not as a paid advocate or political operative. In fact … this statement was intentionally false and misleading because, in assembling and conveying these allegations, Sussmann acted on behalf of specific clients, namely, a U.S. technology industry executive at a U.S. internet company, and the Hillary Clinton Presidential Campaign.

Investigative journalist John Solomon observes, “Slowly over five years, the Russia collusion story has been exposed for what it was: a three-legged political dirty trick in which highly credible figures with deep law enforcement, intelligence and news media ties were paid by the Clinton campaign to flood the FBI with unproven allegations that Trump was secretly colluding with Russia to steal the election from Clinton.”

Sussmann represents the lesser known second leg of Clinton’s Trump/Russia collusion hoax, as his allegation failed to gain traction within the FBI. The first leg was the bogus Christopher Steele dossier, which provided the third leg, the deep state within the FBI and Barack Obama’s Justice Department, the excuse needed to investigate and surveil the Trump campaign.

Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA), who doggedly pursued the truth behind the collusion narrative, stated: “The indictment is damning, full of shocking details showing how the Clinton campaign operatives and lawyers resorted to illegal and immoral methods to concoct false allegations against the Trump campaign and feed them to the FBI and the media. Obviously, many more people need to face justice, but it’s gratifying to see Durham begun to unravel the web of lies and deceit that surrounded the Russian collusion hoax.”

“Many more people,” indeed. This was an attempted coup by the biggest of big players. We think it’s pretty clear that Sussmann is a cutout acting on behalf of more powerful figures, from James Comey and John Brennan all the way up to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. His indictment — for now, at least — allows the bigger conspirators off the hook, and he could end up being a scapegoat. The question is whether John Durham is pulling all the pieces of the plot together with more serious indictments coming in the future.

The jury is still out, but time for any significant developments appears to be quickly waning, as Joe Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland will soon announce whether he has approved a budget to continue the investigation through next fiscal year.