The FBI’s former general counsel, whom Michael Sussmann has been charged with lying to, took the stand Wednesday to begin his key testimony in special counsel John Durham’s case against the Democratic cybersecurity lawyer.

Sussmann has been accused of concealing his clients, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and former Neustar executive Rodney Joffe, from James Baker when he presented since-debunked allegations of a secret back channel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa-Bank during a September 2016 meeting.

Baker testified Wednesday that Sussmann “sent me a text on my personal phone seeking to set up a meeting with me” the day before their eventual meeting.

“Jim — it’s Michael Sussmann. I have something time-sensitive (and sensitive) I need to discuss,” Sussmann texted Baker. “Do you have availability for a short meeting tomorrow? I’m coming on my own — not on behalf of a client or company — want to help the Bureau. Thanks.”

Durham has argued that this shows Sussmann didn’t just lie about not having a client during their meeting but that he also put that lie in writing the night before.

The meeting happened Sept. 19, 2016.

Baker, who in 2016 was serving as the FBI’s top lawyer under then-director James Comey, left the FBI in 2018 and went on to work with Lawfare, a national security blog affiliated with the Brookings Institution, whose editor-in-chief is Comey friend Benjamin Wittes. Baker also worked for the R Street Institute and as a CNN legal analyst before joining Twitter, where he is currently the deputy general counsel and vice president of legal.

Sussmann, who also helped the Democratic National Committee handle its response to the 2016 hack, denies wrongdoing, pleaded not guilty, and unsuccessfully called on the judge to dismiss the case.

On Wednesday, Durham prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis asked when Baker found this text, and he said it was only “a few months ago” in March, located in response to a request from the government. Baker said Durham himself asked him to look for emails or other communications with Sussmann because of an obligation to pass information along to the defense. Baker said he downloaded messages from the cloud and that this message was the first one from Sussmann that popped up.

When asked why he hadn’t found the text earlier, Baker replied, “I’m not out to get Michael. This is not my investigation. This is your investigation. … I had not recalled that he had texted me until I saw this text in March.”

After recovering the text, Baker says he reached out to his attorney, who told law enforcement, and FBI agents came to his house that evening.

When asked why he agreed to meet with Sussmann so quickly back in 2016, Baker replied, “Michael wants to meet. I trust Michael … It seemed to me at the time that it was very important.”

Baker said he knew Sussmann’s legal practice related to “national security” and “privacy” issues. He said in 2016 that the two of them spoke “not frequently, but on a regular basis.”