Newly declassified documents reveal that twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton endorsed a strategy devised by one of her campaign aides to “smear” then-candidate Donald Trump with unfounded allegations of Russian involvement and divert attention from her own growing email issue during the 2016 race.
The strategy called for “raising the theme of ‘Putin’s support for Trump’” and “subsequently steering public opinion toward the notion that it needs to equate” genuine electoral infrastructure tampering with the Russian leader’s political influence effort.
“Clinton approved a plan proposed by one of her foreign policy advisors, Julianne Smith, to ‘smear Donald Trump by magnifying the scandal tied to the intrusion by the Russian special services in the pre-election process to benefit the Republican candidate,’” one of the declassified memos read.
