Former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook testified Friday that, back in 2016, then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton personally authorized the campaign’s release of materials alleging that the Trump Organization possessed a backchannel to communicate with two servers registered to Alfa Bank.Mook was called to the stand by Michael Sussman’s defense.During his testimony, Mook disclosed that he and other senior Clinton campaign officials were in a meeting when they first learned of the so-called cyber link between Trump and the Moscow-based bank.The narrative, based on the work of a group of computer scientists, was discussed among the senior-most staffers, including campaign chairman John Podesta, communications director Jennifer Palmieri, and senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan, who currently serves as national security adviser for the Biden White House. While officials were not entirely confident with the legitimacy of the claims raised by the malware hunters’ data, they hoped a reporter could “run it down” and verify whether it was “accurate” or “substantive.”Mook ran it by Clinton–although he “can’t recall the exact sequence of events” regarding whether it was already released to the media. “All I remember is that she agreed with the decision,” he said.During cross-examination, assistant special counsel Andrew DeFilippis asked if Clinton specifically approved of the idea of releasing the report.Sussman, who was paid for work as legal counsel on the 2016 Clinton campaign, is accused of lying to federal investigators on September 19, 2016, about the capacity in which he was bringing materials to FBI General Counsel James Baker.Sussman also testified to congressional investigators in December 2017 that he met with the FBI on behalf of a prominent cybersecurity researcher.Special counsel John Durham’s team has asserted that Sussman was working for both the Clinton campaign and cybersecurity expert Rodney Joffe. The prosecution has characterized the disseminat ..
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