OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
X platform boss Elon Musk, who is also the CEO of SpaceX and electric vehicle maker Tesla, put Hillary Clinton on notice recently over a 2016 campaign tweet he dubbed a “campaign hoax.”
Musk was responding to a ‘Russiagate’ story that made headlines earlier this year as he himself became embroiled in a scandal that some were calling “Elongate.”
“Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank,” Clinton wrote in the October 31, 2016, tweet, which contained a lengthy memo from one of her then-top aides, Jake Sullivan, now serving as President Joe Biden’s national security adviser.
The tweet, of course, came just days before the November election, which she lost to then-GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Sullivan claimed: “This could be the most direct link yet between Donald Trump and Moscow. Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank. This secret hotline may be the key to unlocking the mystery of Trump’s ties to Russia. It certainly seems the Trump Organization felt it had something to hide, given that it apparently took steps to conceal the link when it was discovered by journalists.”
Musk was asked by an “X” user if he planned to begin cracking down on disproven and false posts.
“@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,” the user wrote.
“You are absolutely correct. That tweet is a Clinton campaign hoax for which their campaign lawyer is undergoing a criminal trial,” Musk responded as he linked to a story from the BBC about the ongoing trial of Michael Sussmann, who served as an attorney for the Clinton campaign in 2016.
Sussman was accused by then-special counsel John Durham of lying to the FBI, telling then-general counsel James Baker he was not working on behalf of any clients when he passed along the fake claim about a link between Kremlin-aligned Alfa Bank and Trump’s company.
Fox News noted:
Former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook testified Friday that then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton approved the dissemination of materials alleging a covert communications channel between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank to the media, despite campaign officials not being “totally confident” in the legitimacy of the data.
“She agreed,” Mook testified, indicating that Clinton herself personally signed off on spreading the false narrative.
Durham charged Sussmann with lying to the FBI, but he was subsequently found not guilty by a Washington, D.C., jury.
“This is one of the greatest political scandals in history,” Trump told Fox News after hearing Mook’s testimony. “For three years, I had to fight her off, and fight those crooked people off, and you’ll never get your reputation fully back.”
A whistleblower case involving a foundation launched by former President Bill Clinton and Hillary was subsequently revived by a U.S. tax judge in the wake of Durham completing his ‘Russiagate’ probe.
The revival of the Clinton Foundation case comes after Durham, in his post-investigation report, noted that there were “significant failures to investigate allegations against” the charity, according to a new report.
The report stated that the “judge has once again breathed new life into a years-long whistleblower case alleging IRS improprieties involving the controversial Clinton Foundation.”
Previously, U.S. Tax Court Judge David Gustafson had refused an IRS request to dismiss the whistleblower case, which was initially filed in 2017.
Notably, three years ago, he instructed the tax agency to disclose whether it had conducted a criminal investigation into the foundation. His request was prompted by a puzzling “gap” found in the IRS’s records, raising suspicions and prompting further inquiry, the outlet noted further.
