Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign “agreed” to leak alleged secret communications between Donald Trump and Russia’s Alfa Bank to the media, Clinton’s former campaign manager, Robby Mook, testified Friday in the U.S. government’s case against former Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann.
Sussmann is accused of lying to the FBI in 2016 when he tried to drum up an investigation damaging to Trump.
Mook during the hearing said he was told by campaign general counsel Marc Elias that the Alfa data had come from “people that had expertise in this sort of matter” and that while the campaign was not entirely confident in its legitimacy, it was keen on giving the information to a reporter who could further “run it down” to determine if it was “accurate or substantive,” reports the National Review.
He also said he discussed giving the information to a reporter with campaign chairman John Podesta, communications director Jennifer Palmieri, and senior policy advisor, now White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
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“I discussed it with Hillary as well,” Mook said.
“I don’t remember the substance of the conversation, but notionally, the discussion was, ‘hey, we have this and we want to share it with a reporter,’ ” Mook said.
The government asked Mook if Clinton approved “the dissemination” of the data to the media.
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“She agreed,” Mook testified.
He later said he “can’t recall the exact sequence of events,” when asked if he shared the idea to give the allegations to a reporter with Clinton before or after the decision was made.
“All I remember is that she agreed with the decision,” Mook testified. Read more at Newsmax.
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Former Clinton campaign manager testifies that Hillary Clinton personally approved providing one of the Trump-Russia stories (Alfa Bank) to the press. pic.twitter.com/xZCoBw69PF