For months during the race up to the election, there was much speculation about Russia’s interest in our nation’s election. Now Russia, themselves, are injecting their own conspiracy theory into the post-election mix.
An official with the Russian Foreign Ministry has accused the Ukrainian government of trying to take down President-elect Trump during his campaign by insinuating his then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort was involved with a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party.
“Ukraine seriously complicated the work of Trump’s election campaign headquarters by planting information according to which Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, allegedly accepted money from Ukrainian oligarchs,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a press briefing on Thursday, according to transcripts.
As we now know, none of it mattered to Trump’s loyalists and he managed to power through every storm of controversy to ultimate victory.
Still, it’s not as if it didn’t throw a little fear into the Trump camp.
Manafort was shown the door in August, after his connections to the Ukraine were made public and the media took notice.
Unlike Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s original campaign chief, who was replaced by Manafort, it doesn’t seem Manafort will be making a reappearance in the Trump orbit, anytime soon.
Trump’s press secretary Hope Hicks told Politico on Thursday that Manafort is not presently consulting the transition team formally or informally.
Meanwhile, Democrats are still licking their electorally-inflicted wounds, and they point fingers at Russia. The claim persists that Russian hackers were responsible for the leaks of Democrat National Committee emails, causing disunity and turmoil between Clinton supporters and Sanders supporters.
The intended goal, according to Democrats, was to help Trump win, as Trump has signaled a willingness to thaw relations with Russia.
Russia denies any involvement with the emails.
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