With the unconfirmed report of Russian hacking of the US presidential election to benefit Donald Trump, coupled with the ongoing crackdown against Russian propaganda "fake news", dominating the US media today, overnight the former neocon ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, who has been floated for the possible second highest role in Donald Trump’s State Department supporting Rex Tillerson, poured fuel on the fire with questions about Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, going so far as to suggest that the "Russian hacks" were in fact a false flag operation by the current administration.
“It is not at all clear to me, just viewing this from the outside, that this hacking into the DNC and the RNC was not a false flag operation,” he told Fox News’ Eric Shawn on Sunday. Asked about the use of the phrase “false flag” and whether he was accusing the US government of involvement, Bolton said, “We just don’t know.”
John Bolton suggests DNC hack was potentially a false flag operation by the Obama administration pic.twitter.com/3rHLwHawR8
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) December 12, 2016
While skeptics have been quick to tear apart his allegation, where he was accurate is his assessment that “intelligence has been politicized in the Obama administration to a very significant degree.”
The topic of Russian interference surged on Friday after a Washington Post story revealed that according to a "secret" CIA assessment, Russia intervened in the election to help Trump win the presidency. Curiously, the FBI - and many others - have disagreed; so far no evidence has been presented to substantiate the story.
Various entities have been identified who helped the Russian government leak hacked documents from Democratic sources, including the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman, to WikiLeaks, according to the report. On Sunday morning, Trump assailed Democrats over the issue, saying it was "ridiculous" to think Russia interfered in the election to help him get elected, even as a bipartisan group of senators called for an investigation.
But, “if you think the Russians did this, then why did they leave fingerprints?” that led the CIA to its conclusion, Bolton questioned.
“We would want to know who else might want to influence the election and why they would leave fingerprints that point to the Russians. That’s why I say until we know more about how the intelligence community came to this conclusion we don’t know whether it is Russian inspired or a false flag."
Meanwhile, moments ago Trump also added to the fray, tweeting "Can you imagine if the election results were the opposite and WE tried to play the Russia/CIA card. It would be called conspiracy theory!" and then adding "Unless you catch "hackers" in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn't this brought up before election?"
Unless you catch "hackers" in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn't this brought up before election?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016
Unless you catch "hackers" in the act, it is very hard to determine who was doing the hacking. Why wasn't this brought up before election?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016