Mook: Clinton OK’d shopping Trump-Alfa Bank story to press, though campaign not ‘totally confident’

Former 2016 Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said Friday in the trial of former campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann that nominee Hillary Clinton approved taking the allegation of a covert Trump Organization-Alfa Bank hotline to the press.

The trial of Sussmann, a 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer, began its fifth day on Friday with his defense lawyers cross-examining prosecution witness former FBI General Counsel James Baker for a second day, followed by the defense bringing its first witness, Mook, out of turn.

Special Counsel John Durham last year charged Sussmann with lying to the FBI when he allegedly told Baker that he was not working on behalf of any client while providing him with since-debunked allegations about a secret communications channel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Kremlin-linked Alfa Bank. 

Durham says Sussmann was working at the time on behalf of two clients, the Clinton campaign and then-Neustar tech firm executive Rodney Joffe. 

Sussmann is pleading not guilty to the charge. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.

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Mook: Clinton OK’d shopping Trump-Alfa Bank story to press, though campaign not ‘totally confident’