“A Clinton Campaign Hoax”: Musk Says 2016 Hillary Tweet ‘Absolutely’ Disinformation, Asks Parag To Weigh In

Update (1645ET): Elon Musk has waded into the Sussmann trial – tweeting on Friday that it’s “absolutely correct” that a 2016 tweet from Hillary Clinton was “misleading disinformation.”

A week before the 2016 election, Clinton notably tweeted “Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank,” to which user @veespike asked Musk: “@elonmusk I have reported this tweet as misleading disinformation to the powers that be at @twitter. I would be interested to know if, when you receive control over the company, anything was done with this at any level. Pls advise soonest.”

“You are absolutely correct,” Musk replied, adding “That tweet is a Clinton campaign hoax for which their campaign lawyer is undergoing a criminal trial.”

Musk then asked Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and top Twitter attorney Vijaya Gadde to weigh in.

@elonmusk I have reported this tweet as misleading disinformation to the powers that be at @twitter . I would be interested to know if, when you receive control over the company, anything was done with this at any level. Pls advise soonest.

— VeeSPIKE (@veespike) May 20, 2022

.@paraga and @vijaya, what say you?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 20, 2022

*  *  *

Former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook dropped a bombshell in court on Friday – testifying that Hillary Clinton approved the dissemination of allegations that then-candidate Donald Trump had a covert communications channel with a Russian bank, despite campaign officials not being “totally confident” in the rumor, according to Fox News.

Mook, who was called to the stand by the defense team for former Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann, was asked under cross-examination about the campaign’s understanding of the allegations against Trump, and whether the campaign planned to release it to the media.

He told prosecutor Andrew DeFillippis that he was first briefed by campaign general counsel Marc Elias, who was a partner with Perkins Coie at the time, adding that he was told the data had come from “people that had expertise in this sort of matter.”

Mook said the campaign was not totally confident in the legitimacy of the data, but had hoped to give the information to a reporter who could further “run it down” to determine if it was “accurate” or “substantive.”

He also said he discussed whether to give the information to a reporter with senior campaign officials, including campaign chairman John Podesta, senior policy advisor, now White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, and communications director Jennifer Palmieri. -Fox News

“I discussed it with Hillary as well,” said Mook, who added “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.”

When asked how Clinton responded, Mook said: “She agreed to that.“

“A reporter could vet the information and then decide to print it,” he added.

And then of course, Hillary did this:

Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank. pic.twitter.com/8f8n9xMzUU

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 1, 2016

Of note, after previously denying the prosecutions request to include the tweet into evidence, he approved it on Friday.

Sussman has been charged with lying to the FBI when he told General Counsel James Baker in September 2016 – less than two months before the US election – that he wasn’t doing work “for any client” when he presented the Alfa Bank “purported data and ‘white papers’ that allegedly demonstrated a covert communicates channel” between the Trump organization and the Kremlin-linked Alfa Bank.

Special Counsel John Durham alleges that Sussman was in fact working for the Clinton Campaign and tech executive Rodney Joffe. He has pleaded not guilty.