Top Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook testified under oath in federal court and confirmed that Hillary Clinton devised the Russia/Alfa Bank rumors. She encouraged her people to promote the hoax to the press in a failed attempt to beat Donald Trump.

Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann first faced trial for the Clintons' crime. The judge, Christopher Cooper, was an Obama appointee and was given an order to spare "the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee … [of] potential embarrassment." The truth still came to light.

On July 28, 2016, former CIA Director John Brennan briefed former President Obama on the plan to lie to the public as "a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server." The sitting president was fully aware of the plan to smear Donald Trump's name, and agreed to go along with "a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service."

Hillary went as far as to involve the FBI in her grand lie. No one could connect Trump to Russia or Alfa Bank, but Clinton and her campaign continued to promote the story. "Computer scientists have apparently uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank," Hillary tweeted shortly after leaking the rumor. On October 31, 2016 (one week before the election), Campaign adviser Jake Sullivan stated: "Computer scientists have uncovered a covert server linking the Trump Organization to a Russian-based bank." Sullivan added that he could "only assume federal authorities will now explore this direct connection between Trump and Russia as part of their existing probe into Russia's meddling in our elections."