WASHINGTON — Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, spread a conspiracy theory now at the center of the impeachment investigation — that Ukraine, not Russia, hacked the Democratic National Committee — as early as five months before the 2016 election, according to newly released documents from the special counsel’s investigation. Mr. Manafort told his deputy on the campaign about the theory shortly after emails stolen from the Democrats were published in June 2016, and questions arose about whether Russia hacked the emails to help the Trump campaign, according to the documents. The documents have no information about when Mr. Trump embraced the conspiracy theory, which he later asked Ukraine’s president to investigate in a July 25 phone call even as he was withholding military aid for the country. The details of what Mr. Manafort told campaign officials are included in a trove of records from the special counsel’s investigation obtained by BuzzFeed News through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The documents — including F.B.I.

Source: New York Times November 04, 2019 01:30 UTC