Robby Mook was called to testify by Michael Sussmann’s defense during his trial today.
During cross-examination, he was asked about the Clinton campaign’s understanding of the allegations against Trump and if the campaign intended to release that information to the media.
According to Fox News, Mook said he first heard about the Trump-Alfa Bank allegations from the campaign’s general counsel Marc Elias. He testified that he was assured the data had come from “people who had expertise in this sort of matter”.
Mook said the campaign was not completely confident in the legitimacy of the information, but hoped to provide it to a reporter who could “run it down” to determine if it was “substantive”.
He said he discussed whether to give the information to senior campaign officials and “discussed it with Hillary as well.”
“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 testified. “She agreed.”
The government is alleging that Sussmann’s delivery of the allegations to the FBI was part of the campaign’s plan to create an “October surprise” against Donald Trump.
It received permission to admit one of Clinton’s tweets as evidence.
Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank. pic.twitter.com/8f8n9xMzUU
Former FBI General Counsel James Baker testified that the bureau had investigated the claims about Trump’s connection to the Kremlin-linked bank and found that “there was nothing there”.
