The first trial stemming from the investigation by Special Counsel John Durham into the origins of the Russian collusion circus that set up shop inside the Obama Department of Justice is underway. Mia has a great overview of the trial involving former Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann who is accused of lying to the FBI. For those who still think Donald Trump is a Kremlin agent, that long-debunked narrative suffered another blow when ex-Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook (yeah, remember him?) admitted that the 2016 October surprise concerning Trump and the Alfa bank was pretty much fake news. The evidence was shoddy, and even the FBI, who was already spying on the Trump campaign and working overtime to manufacture evidence to support this hoax—said there was “nothing there” (via Fox News):
Former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook testified Friday that then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton approved the dissemination of materials alleging a covert communications channel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank to the media, despite campaign officials not being "totally confident" in the legitimacy of the data.
Former FBI General Counsel James Baker testified Thursday that the bureau investigated the data alleging a Trump connection to the Kremlin-linked bank, and found that "there was nothing there."
Mook was called to the stand for testimony by Michael Sussmann’s defense Friday.
During cross-examination by government prosecutor Andrew DeFillippis Friday, Mook was 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 said he was first briefed about the Alfa Bank issue by campaign general counsel Marc Elias, who at the time was a partner at law firm Perkins Coie.
Mook testified that he was told that the data had come from "people that had expertise in this sort of matter."
[…]
"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.
"She agreed," Mook testified.
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NEW: @RobbyMook testifies @HillaryClinton herself approved the dissemination of info alleging a covert communications channel between the #Trump Organization & #Russia's #AlfaBank to the media, despite camp. officials not being "totally confident"in its legitimacy #SussmannTrial
— Brooke Singman (@BrookeSingman) May 20, 2022
Former FBI General Counsel James Baker testified that after the #FBI investigated the allegations of the covert communications channel between #Trump Organization and #Russia's Alfa Bank, the bureau concluded "there was nothing there." #SussmannTrial
— Brooke Singman (@BrookeSingman) May 20, 2022
The Clinton campaign pushed a false story, personally approved by And tweeted out by Hillary Clinton and the media ran with it. Pretty incredible thread. pic.twitter.com/LOtyQc2spY
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 20, 2022
This was the Hail Mary pass—and it failed. It was also a pile of hot garbage which we all knew. What else did Hillary know, Robby? We all know no one in that operation could tie their shoes without permission. There’s more to this tale as well—all potentially bad for the Clintons and their allies. I still want to know more about her campaign signing off on a tech firm that tried to infiltrate the servers in Trump Tower and later the Trump White House. That’s a crime—a serious one. Another Durham filing showed that even the CIA found the whole Trump-Russia collusion narrative to be user-created and not plausible. I think more stuff is going to tumble out of this trial. We’ll keep you updated.
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