The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence alleged Manafort collaborated with Russians, including oligarch Oleg Deripaska and "Russian intelligence officer" Konstantin Kilimnik, before, during, and after the election. In a report released last year, Mueller found no conclusive evidence of coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. Trump and his supporters have consistently bristled at suggestions foreign interference helped his upset 2016 victory. Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh on Tuesday said the report vindicated his stance that there was no "collusion" between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia and described the controversy as a "hoax." "The Trump campaign publicly undermined the attribution of the hack-and-leak campaign to Russia and was indifferent to whether it and WikiLeaks were furthering a Russian election interference effort," the report added.

Source: Otago Daily Times August 18, 2020 21:33 UTC