Hillary Clinton gave the go-ahead for her campaign to distribute the Trump-Russia collusion Alfa Bank story to the media, her 2016 campaign manager Robby Mook testified on Friday during the criminal trial of Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann.
Mook said he was “briefed about the Alfa Bank issue first” by Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias in the summer of 2016. He said the campaign leadership quickly had a meeting about whether to share the information with the media, which they decided to do. Also present in the meeting, Mook testified, were campaign chairman John Podesta, communications director Jennifer Palmieri, and policy adviser Jake Sullivan who is now Joe Biden’s national security adviser.
Mook said that “we discussed it and then made that decision” and “we did” decide to share the claims with a reporter.
When asked by a prosecutor on special counsel John Durham’s team about the highest level of approval for pushing the Alfa Bank claims to the press, Mook replied that “John and I were involved,” but “I discussed it with Hillary as well” after the campaign team had discussed it.
Mook said that he framed it to Clinton as: “Hey, you know, we have this, and we want to share it with a reporter.” Mook added, “She agreed to that.”
Jurors were shown the following Oct. 31, 2016 tweet from Hillary Clinton touting the Trump-Russia collusion allegations:
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
When pressed by Durham prosecutor Andrew DeFilippis on what else Clinton said, Mook replied that “all I remember is that she agreed with the decision" to share the Alfa Bank claims with the media. Mook said that “she thought we made the right decision.”
Sussmann was indicted in September for allegedly concealing his clients, Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and “Tech Executive-1,” former Neustar executive Rodney Joffe, from FBI General Counsel James Baker in September 2016 when he pushed bogus claims of a secret back channel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank. Sussmann has pleaded not guilty.
Robby Mook, the Clinton Campaign Manager in 2016 said in court Friday that Hillary Clinton herself approved the idea of giving the Alfa Bank story to a reporter. “We told her we have this and we want to share it with a reporter. She agreed to that.” @BrookeSingman @davidspunt
— Jake Gibson (@JakeBGibson) May 20, 2022
About . . . . Intelligence . . . . Membership
