Hillary Clinton personally authorized her campaign to share fabricated computer data allegedly connecting Donald Trump with a Russian bank, according to bombshell testimony from her 2016 campaign manager on May 20th.
Robby Mook, while testifying as a witness in defense of former Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann, informed jurors that he talked about the matter with the Democratic candidate quickly prior to that year’s presidential election.
Mook explained his end of the discussion with Clinton as he informed her,
“Hey, we have this and we want to share it with a reporter.”
“She agreed to that,” he said.
The spectacular disclosures are the very first proof revealing Clinton knew about the accusations of a supposed secret backchannel between a Trump Organization server and Russia’s Alfa Bank– before the theory emerged openly just 8 days prior to the election.
Mook likewise acknowledged that the campaign had not validated the accuracy of the information at the time.
“Part of the point of giving it to a reporter was they could run it down further,” he said.
“A reporter could vet the information and then decide to print it.”
BREAKING@robbymook, Senior Clinton Campaign staffer, just confirmed – under oath – that Hillary was briefed on the false Trump-Russian smear dossier and authorized its dissemination to the media. #DurhamT#SussmannTrial pic.twitter.com/bDo5AFDmOY
— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) May 20, 2022
Mook confirmed that he first outlined details supposedly revealing a secret backchannel between a Trump Organization server and Russia’s Alfa Bank with campaign general counsel Marc Elias. Mook included that he didn’t remember where the information originated from.
The campaign manager likewise stated he talked about the matter with top Clinton aides John Podesta, Jake Sullivan, and Jennifer Palmeri, obviously prior to going to Clinton.
Special counsel John Durham has alleged that Sussmann, the Clinton campaign and previous tech executive Rodney Joffe took part in a “joint venture” to collect and disseminate the Alfa Bank story to smear Trump.
In a pretrial judgment previously this month, Washington, DC, federal Judge Christopher Cooper limited the amount of evidence Durham can provide “with respect to an uncharged and unlawful joint venture,” saying it could “confuse the jury and distract from the issues at hand.”
Sussmann, 57, is on trial on a single charge of lying to the FBI in September 2016 by denying that he was dealing on behalf of the campaign and Joffe when he turned over information and three “white papers” pitching the Trump-Alfa Bank allegations to the bureau’s then-general counsel.
Mook’s statement came throughout interrogation by a member of Special counsel Durham’s group and triggered Cooper to order the jury out of the courtroom so he might hold a sidebar conversation with both sides.
After the sidebar, Cooper revealed that he may permit prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis to introduce into evidence a tweet published by Clinton on Oct. 31, 2016, quickly after the left-wing Slate site released a report about the Alfa-Bank information..
“Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank,” Clinton wrote.
Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank. pic.twitter.com/8f8n9xMzUU
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 1, 2016
She likewise connected a declaration from Sullivan– now President Biden’s nationwide security advisor– who stated, “This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump’s ties to Russia.”
“Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank,” wrote Clinton, who attached a statement from Jake Sullivan — now President Biden’s national security adviser — who said, “This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump’s ties to Russia.”
Last month, Cooper ruled that the tweet was inadmissible “hearsay” evidence and “likely duplicative of other evidence” that Durham would utilize against Sussmann.
In the wake of Mook’s testament, the judge stated he’d reassess that decision if the prosecution developed a correct structure to present the tweet.
When Mook resumed testifying, he attempted to walk back his earlier remarks about Clinton, stating he wasn’t sure if they spoke prior to or after the info was shared.
“All I remember is that she agreed with the decision,” he said. “I can’t recall the exact sequence of events.”
A short time later on, Cooper permitted the prosecution to present Clinton’s tweet, except for the last sentence of Sullivan’s declaration, which checked out: “We can only assume that federal authorities will now explore this direct connection between Trump and Russia as part of their existing probe into Russia’s meddling in our elections.”
At the time, the FBI currently had the Alfa Bank information, which was rapidly dismissed by the representative who at first analyzed it, according to the agent’s own statement Tuesday.
Cooper stated the jury had not yet been provided with proof the Clinton campaign knew Sussmann offered the material to the feds, and he ruled Sullivan’s assertion would “unfairly suggest to the jury that that was the case.”
Mook stated he didn’t know the identity of the reporter who got the Alfa Bank information, however, presumed it was Franklin Foer, who composed the Slate article.
Laura Seago, a former analyst at the Fusion GPS — which commissioned the notorious “Steele dossier” of scurrilous accusations versus Trump– affirmed that she was entrusted with “translating” the information so it could be understood by “a lay audience.”
Seago remembered that she, Fusion co-founder Peter Fritsch and another Fusion employee went to Foer’s home to pitch the information, informing him it had actually been vetted by “highly credible computer scientists” who “seemed to think these allegations were credible.”
WATCH: Video that we’re sure is completely unrelated to any future dealings between Robby Mook and Hillary Clinton:
