Controversial Dem operative 'close' to Clinton campaign boss, email claims

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Robby Mook responds to FBI's October surprise

Clinton's campaign manager on 'Fox News Sunday'

A Democratic operative who bragged about getting orders from Hillary Clinton to execute a bizarre stunt aimed at Donald Trump and was linked to a covert operation to incite the Republican presidential nominee’s supporters was “close” to Clinton’s campaign manager, according to an email released Sunday by WikiLeaks – despite the campaign’s denial of any “relationship” with the consultant.

Democracy Partners co-founder Mike Lux made the eyebrow-raising assertion in a Dec. 17, 2015 email to Center for American Progress leader Neera Tanden. The message, found in a trove hacked from Clinton Campaign Chairman John Podesta’s account and posted by WikiLeaks, refers to an alleged connection between Democracy Partners head Robert Creamer and Clinton Campaign Manager Robby Mook.

“Just wanted to pass along this note I sent to Bob Creamer, who as you may know is consulting for the DNC and is close to Robby Mook,” Lux wrote in a note about outreach to grassroots progressives.

DEM OPERATIVES LOSE JOBS AFTER UNDERCOVER VIDEO COMMENTS

Mook previously denied any ties between the Clinton campaign and Creamer after undercover video surfaced appearing to tie Creamer to schemes to incite brawls at Trump rallies and illegally bus voters to polling stations.

“These individuals no longer have any relationship with the DNC. They’ve never had a relationship with the Clinton campaign,” Mook said on CNN on Oct. 23. “And my understanding is that the events that are referenced happened in February of last year, they did not have a contract with the DNC until June. But putting all that aside, this was again, a video that was leaked out for the purpose of damaging the campaign.”

But Lux’s email would appear to call most of that statement into question. Mook stated Democracy Partners didn’t “have a contract with the DNC until June [2016],” though Lux clearly asserts Creamer is “consulting for the DNC” as of December 2015. Lux’s characterization of Mook and Creamer as “close,” and Creamer’s own boast in one video of getting a directive from Clinton, also raise questions about Mook’s response.

Asked about any relationship between Creamer and Mook, Clinton spokesman Glen Caplin told FoxNews.com in an email that the Clinton camp was not authenticating individual emails from the Podesta hack. Instead, Caplin blasted Trump for not standing up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose government many intelligence analysts blame for the email theft.

Creamer earlier this month said he was “stepping back” from efforts to elect Clinton as the Democratic presidential nominee following the release of the undercover, edited Project Veritas video in which a Democracy Partners subcontractor appeared to describe a push to incite Trump supporters to violence. Another video emerged last week that showed Creamer twice bragging that Clinton personally approved plans to place Donald Duck-suited activists at Trump rallies.

Amid separate reports finding Creamer made hundreds of White House visits, the email released Sunday provided yet another link between the highest levels of the Democratic Party and the operative.

The GOP quickly posted to its website the text of the email alongside Mook’s recent denial. Trump has referenced the Project Veritas videos on the campaign trail and during the third presidential debate.

“I was wondering what happened with my rally in Chicago and other rallies where we had such violence,” Trump said during the Oct. 19 debate. “[Clinton’s] the one, and [President] Obama, that caused the violence. They hired people, they paid them $1,500, and they’re on tape saying, be violent, cause fights, do bad things.”

The DNC and Clinton campaign have steadfastly disavowed the actions discussed in the videos, produced by controversial conservative activist James O’Keefe.

“While Project Veritas has been known to offer misleading video out of context, some of the language and tactics referenced in the video are troubling even as a theory or proposal never executed,” Clinton campaign spokesman Zac Petkanas said earlier this month.