Donald Trump’s reported pick for deputy secretary of state alleged Sunday that reports Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election may be a “false flag” planted by the Obama administration.
“It’s not at all clear to me just viewing this from the outside that this hacking into the DNC and the RNC computers was not a false flag operation,” former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said in an interview on Fox News.
Bolton questioned why FBI Director James Comey said the agency did not find any “direct evidence of foreign intelligence service penetration” in its review of Hillary Clinton’s private email server, but found “cyber fingerprints” while looking into alleged hacks of the Democratic and Republican National Committees.
“The question that has to be asked is why did the Russians run their smart intelligence service against Hillary’s server but their dumb intelligence services against the election,” Bolton said.
Fox News’ Eric Shawn told Bolton that his allegation of a “false flag,” or secret government operation to influence events by making it seem like another entity is carrying them out, was “a very serious charge.” He pointed to a weekend Washington Post report citing CIA sources who claimed individuals with ties to the Kremlin tried to help Trump win by providing WikiLeaks with thousands of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee.
Shawn asked if Bolton was accusing someone in the Obama administration of “trying to throw something.”
“We just don’t know, but I believe that intelligence has been politicized in the Obama administration to a very significant degree,” Bolton replied.
A spokesperson for Bolton disputed that the former U.N. ambassador was implying the Obama administration may have planted a “false flag.”
“The Ambassador has made it unambiguously clear that ‘false flag’ is a reference to foreign entities such as China, North Korea, Iran, etc.,” spokesman Garrett Marquis said in a Monday night email.
Trump and his top aides have dismissed reports of Russian hacking as an effort to undermine his victory.
“I think it’s ridiculous,” Trump said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I think it’s just another excuse. I don’t believe it.”
Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told CBS’s “Face The Nation” that allegations that Russia tried to throw the election in his favor are “laughable and ridiculous.”
This post has been updated.
Bolton was never constrained by truth in the past, why start now?
This is a point that the media really need to cover: That Trump and his henchmen have now told us that they will govern without recourse to actual facts. Not surprising given the nature of the campaign, but still very, very scary. That is the big thing here, not Trump & Co’s rejection of the CIA conclusions, important as those conclusions are.
Please someone get the hook and get him off the stage.
The fact John Bolton used the crackpot Alex Jones vernacular: “false flag,” should disqualify this madman from holding any position in this Administration in waiting that requires senate confirmation – especially as it pertains to national security.
There are no Russian hacking cyber fingerprints on Hillary’s server - that was, by the way, not hacked. This shows that Russians are so smart and sneaky, that if they had hacked DNC and RNC servers, there would be no fingerprints on them either. Therefore, since there are Russian fingerprints on the DNC and RNC servers, somebody else purposely put them there while leaving none of their own. Perfect logic.
The wonderful thing about conspiracy theories is they cannot be disproven. You can simply add layers of mystery and obfuscation and continually drag the same dead dog around the yard till the leash breaks. Then claim the conspirators cut the leash.