Internal Mueller documents show Trump campaign chief pushed unproven theory Ukraine hacked Democrats
President Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, suggested as early as the summer of 2016 that Ukrainians might have been responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the presidential campaign rather than Russians, a key witness told federal investigators last year.
Newly released documents show that Manaforts protege, deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, told the FBI of Manaforts theory during interviews conducted as part of former special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Gates told the FBI that Manafort had shared his theory of Ukrainian culpability with him and other campaign aides before the election.
The new information shows how early people in Trumps orbit were pushing the unsubstantiated theory about Ukraines role. And it illustrates a link between Muellers investigation, which concluded in March, and the current House impeachment investigation of Trump. The president had pushed Ukrainians to open a probe into whether their country interfered in the election an assertion his allies have made in an effort to discredit Muellers findings about Russias role.
The documents were released in response to lawsuits filed by BuzzFeed and CNN seeking documents related to Muellers investigation. BuzzFeed on Saturday published the first installment of internal Mueller records, released by the Justice Department to the news organization in response to a court order.
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