Robby Mook should be a household name, like Al Capone. He’s a self-described “political junkie” and veteran insider of Democratic machine politics. He’s the kind of man who blends into a room with beige walls; a man of unassuming looks and average gait. Mook looks like an accountant, not the man who might have, unintentionally, killed what was left of Hillary’s ambition.

Mook was an admirer of Bernie Sanders at a young age, cutting his teeth on Vermont politics. Mook moved on to work for Hillary in her failed 2008 presidential run before it crashed and burned. He then worked for Terry McAuliffe, before Hillary tapped him as her 2016 campaign manager. Mook was known for “getting things done.” Mook took control of every aspect of the 2016 campaign, managing human resources campaign cash and messaging. He micromanaged to the point of insisting that staffers who traveled to Iowa were instructed to fly into Minneapolis or Moline Illinois and rent a car because airline tickets were cheaper. Mook loyalists inside the campaign were called “The Mook Mafia”. Whatever happened during the 2016 campaign, it funneled through Mook before it reached Hillary.

During the second week of the Sussmann trial, the prosecution called Mook to the stand. Mook was asked about the Alfa Bank story and its connection to the campaign. He testified that he met with other staffers about what to do with the “story.” They (meaning Mook) decided that the campaign would get the media to inflate the story and pin Trump to Russia. One of “Mook’s mafia” soldiers dropped the story with Slate Magazine. Hillary approved it all. Mook testified:

“Hey, you know, we have this, and we want to share it with a reporter… [Hillary] agreed to that.”

Mook claimed he was hoping that the media would “vet” the story for accuracy. Unlikely. I have a bridge to sell if you are buying that. The media didn’t “vet” it, of course. Too juicy. Mook had no interest in truth or accuracy in any event – he was interested in one thing, smearing Trump. After they planted the story and spoon-fed the media, Hillary tweeted:

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

Hilary knew that she and Mook were responsible for pushing the unvetted, soon to be discredited story of Russian collusion but facts have never gotten in the way of Hillary Clinton’s ambition or ego. Hilary’s 2016, utterly and completely false discredited tweet remains up.

What Mook’s testimony laid bare is that Hilary was fully aware of Mook’s dirty tricks and media plants and approved of them. Nonetheless, to this day, Hillary has continued her media assault on facts, claiming for the better part of five years that Trump was a Putin cat’s paw and an agent of Russia. Russia, according to Hillary, ruined her run for president and it’s that lie she will take to her grave — or prison. Whichever comes first.

Durham’s prosecutors claim Sussmann passed along the same information about Trump and Alfa Bank to the FBI in September 2016 at the behest of the Clinton campaign. Sussmann denies that, claiming he went to the FBI as a private citizen. Sussmann’s defense is akin to a child claiming he didn’t eat the cookies even with crumbs all over his face and hands. Equally, Mook claiming he didn’t know or suspect that Sussmann was, in fact, acting for or on behalf of the campaign, is suspect at best. Mook said:

“Going to the FBI does not seem like an effective way to get information out to the public. You do that through the media, which is why the information was shared with the media.”

Except that isn’t how Hillary’s mafia has operated over the past 40 years. Hilary has been scorching the earth for decades, using every cudgel to bash enemies and burn their bodies. It makes perfect sense that Hillary would approve of media dissemination of false information and, in addition, order a: “Let’s planted a Russian collusion story with the FBI and have the FBI investigate that, too.” If anyone raised an eyebrow about facts, Hillary could throw up her hands in confusion, and use her “Who, me?” excuse. ‘The FBI is investigating Trump, it must have some legitimacy. After all — don’t you trust the FBI?” In any event, she thought she’d be President by the time her lies and dirty tricks were revealed so, who would care? She would control the Justice Dept and FBI by then, and it would all disappear along with her computer hard drives and emails.

From my perspective, this whole affair is far worse than Watergate. Dozens of politically motivated actors orchestrated and planned an obvious string of lies to bury Donald Trump. Watergate was a bunch of numbskulls LOOKING for dirt, not making it up.  A coordinated effort to plant false information with the press and the FBI is a little worse in my mind.

The “Mook Mafia” did its job, and did it well.