Ex-Hillary Clinton Campaign Manager Testifies That She Signed Off on Disseminating Trump-Russia Bank Allegations to the Media

After being called to the stand today by the defense in the trial of Michael Sussmann, former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook testified that then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton signed off on the dissemination of materials alleging a covert communications channel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank to the media.

Clinton made the decision, despite campaign officials not being “totally confident” in the legitimacy of the data, according to Mook.

The admission came during the cross-examination by government prosecutor Andrew DeFillippis who asked about the campaign’s understanding of the Alfa Bank allegations against Trump and whether they planned to release the data to the media.

Mook told DeFillippis that he was first briefed about the Alfa Bank issue by campaign general counsel Marc Elias, who at the time was a partner at the law firm Perkins Coie.

Fox News reported:

Mook testified that he was told that the data had come from “people that had expertise in this sort of matter.”

Mook said the campaign was not totally confident in the legitimacy of the data, but had hoped to give the information to a reporter who could further “run it down” to determine if it was “accurate” or “substantive.”

He also said he discussed whether to give the information to a reporter with senior campaign officials, including campaign chairman John Podesta, senior policy advisor, now White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and communications director Jennifer Palmieri.

“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.

When pressed on how Clinton responded, Mook testified: “She agreed.”

On Fox News, the news was announced during “Outnumbered” and reporter David Spunt told co-host, Kayleigh McEnany, that there was “a little bit of surprise” in the courtroom following the admission.

🚨 🚨🚨BOMBSHELL: Hillary personally approved dissemination of Trump-Russia Hoax to the media, Clinton campaign manager testifies to John Durham pic.twitter.com/37Gs8IHE2A

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 20, 2022