The White House just botched the distraction from its Epstein scandal.
A declassified report, intended to add fuel to a debunked theory that Hillary Clinton cooked up the Trump-Russia connection in 2016, actually reveals that a critical document in the plot was the likely invention of Russian spies.
The 29-page annex to the special counsel’s 2023 report includes alleged communications made by Clinton that several Republicans have claimed were intended to “smear” Trump with Russian collusion. But the documents outline that, despite having spent considerable time and resources to prove the connection was real, special counsel John H. Durham could not do so.
The foundational document includes an email, dated July 27, 2016, and allegedly sent by a Soros Open Society Foundations staffer, that claimed the Democratic presidential candidate had signed off on a proposal to tie Trump to Russia in an effort to distract from the fact that she sent and received emails during her time as secretary of state from a private server.
“HRC approved Julia’s idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections,” the email reads in part. “That should distract people from her own missing email, especially if the affair goes to the Olympic level. The point is making the Russian play a U.S. domestic issue.”
Durham concluded that the purported communication was most likely manufactured.
Trump administration officials, however, were quick to hype the supposed findings of the release. FBI Director Kash Patel bragged on social media that the annex included “evidence that the Clinton campaign plotted to frame President Trump and fabricate the Russia collusion hoax,” and CIA director John Ratcliffe said in a statement that the documents proved there was “a coordinated plan to prevent and destroy Donald Trump’s presidency.”
Amid rising intraparty tensions over Trump’s apparent ties to the pedophile and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, the president has wildly alleged that investigations into his presidential campaign’s ties with Russian assets were the invention of President Barack Obama. Several of his allies have followed suit, calling for investigations as to whether the forty-fourth president committed “treason.”