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The former President Donald Trump was under great anger after it was revealed that the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton contributed to the dissemination of a false allegation that indicated the Trump campaign had ties to a Russian bank.
Former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook revealed in the courtroom on Friday that Clinton had approved the sharing of information about Trump’s alleged association with Alfa Bank. Mook’s bombshell statement was made during the trial of Clinton’s attorney Michael Sussman, who has been accused of making a false statement to the FBI as part of his attempts to interest that agency in the alleged Trump-Russia connection.
As news broke of this massive revelation that could possibly implicate Hillary Clinton in a major crime, Trump went public with his response to the news in telling Fox News Digital that the entire Russia hoax is “one of the greatest political scandals in history.” He added that he will “never” get his “reputation fully back.”
This concocted attempt to win the presidential election by Clinton and her campaign has marred Trump’s reputation ever since, essentially making his life hell in having to battle the constant allegations against him.
“For three years, I had to fight her off and fight those crooked people off, and you’ll never get your reputation fully back.”
“Where do I get my reputation back?” Trump asked.
In the first two years of Donald Trump’s presidency, in large part, the Russian allegations followed him around like a shadow.
“I had to fight them off,” Trump said. “And if we had real leadership, instead of people like Mitch McConnell, they would do something about it. And guys like Bill Barr. They would have done something about it.”
As a result of the election of Donald Trump, the FBI investigation called Crossfire Hurricane, spurred on by the Hillary Clinton’s hoax, was turned over to Special Counsel Robert Mueller who was appointed to the investigation on May 17, 2017.
Almost two years after the launch of Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the investigation yielded no evidence of criminal conspiracy or involvement between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
James Baker, a former FBI General Counsel who testified at Sussman’s trial, said that the bureau investigated the data alleging that there was a connection between Trump and the Kremlin-linked bank, and determined that “nothing was there.”
According to Trump, the resources that law enforcement and government intelligence agencies committed to investigations of him and members of his 2016 campaign distracted officials from what “could have been a real danger with Russia.”
In 2019, after Mueller announced his lack of evidence, Attorney General Bill Barr appointed Special Counsel John Durham to investigate the origins of the allegations made against Trump having a connection with Russia. As a result of Durham’s work, the trial that is currently taking place is the first to emerge from his investigation.
Mook said on Friday that the general counsel of the campaign Marc Elias, then a partner at law firm Perkins Coie, briefed him on the allegations.
There were three Clinton campaign officials present at the meeting that discussed the release of the information: campaign chairman John Podesta, senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan, now President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, and communications director Jennifer Palmieri.
“I discussed it with Hillary as well,” Mook said during cross-examination by government prosecutor Andrew DeFillippis.
“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 explained.
Mook stated that the campaign was not totally confident in the legitimacy of the data, but had hoped that the information could be turned over to a reporter who would be able to interpret it further to determine if it was accurate or “substantive.”
On the witness stand, Mook also testified that he had been informed that the data had come from “people that have expertise in this sort of matter.”
The question was raised to Mook as to whether Clinton approved of the “dissemination” of the information to the press.
Mook answered the inquiry saying, “She agreed.”
In response to a question about whether Mook discussed the idea of giving the Trump-Alfa Bank allegations to the media before or after the decision was made, Mook stated that he “can’t recall the exact sequence of events.”
“All I remember is that she agreed with the decision,” Mook testified.
According to the indictment, Sussmann lied to FBI Agent Andrew Baker when he told Baker in September 2016 that he was not working for any client when he attended a meeting in which he provided “purported data and ‘white papers’” allegedly showing a covert channel between the Trump Organization and Alfa Bank. Alfa Bank is affiliated with the Kremlin.
Durham claims Sussmann worked for two clients: the Hillary Clinton campaign and Rodney Joffe, a technology executive. Sussmann charged the Hillary Clinton campaign for his work after meeting with Baker.
Source: The Republic Brief