Federal prosecutors began their case against former Perkins Coie partner Michael Sussmann on Tuesday by painting him as a “privileged” elite lawyer who thought he could “use the FBI as a political tool.”

In her opening statement, Brittain Shaw, a trial attorney at Main Justice, accused Sussmann, a cybersecurity lawyer who represented Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, of leading an effort to promote derogatory information about former President Donald Trump ahead of the 2016 election—and using the FBI to do it.