Newly declassified documents reveal that twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton endorsed a strategy devised by one of her campaign aides to \u201csmear\u201d then-candidate Donald Trump with unfounded allegations of Russian involvement and divert attention from her own growing email issue during the 2016 race.<\/p>\n
The strategy called for \u201craising the theme of \u2018Putin\u2019s support for Trump’\u201d and \u201csubsequently steering public opinion toward the notion that it needs to equate\u201d genuine electoral infrastructure tampering with the Russian leader\u2019s political influence effort.<\/p>\n
\u201cClinton approved a plan proposed by one of her foreign policy advisors, Julianne Smith, to \u2018smear 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,\u2019\u201d one of the declassified\u00a0memos<\/a>\u00a0read.<\/p>\n Special Counsel John Durham discovered the information during a multi-year investigation into intelligence operations related to the 2016 election.<\/p>\n