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Disinfo: Russia investigation was an anti-Trump coup plotted by the Obama administration

Summary

We will never learn what happened in Russiagate: how this espionage operation on the Trump campaign took place; how they set up the key Trump people; and how, essentially, a coup was plotted by the Obama team.

Disproof

The claim advances a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative attempting to cast doubt on the legality and integrity of the Special Counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

We do, in fact, know what happened in what RT calls "Russiagate." The Mueller investigation ascertained that "Russia's two principal interference operations […] violated US criminal law" (p. 9) and were carried out in "sweeping and systematic fashion" (p. 1), noting that 13 Russian nationals implicated in these operations have been charged with "conspiracy to defraud the United States" (p. 174).

The spurious term "espionage," allegedly carried out against "key Trump people," is a reference to the unmasking in late 2016 of former Trump aide Michael Flynn during a surveillance operation targeting Sergey Kislyak, Russian ambassador to the US at the time. Unmasking is a common practice by which US Government officials ask the intelligence community to reveal the name of a US citizen mentioned in a classified document, so as to better understand the events described in that document. The unmasking of Flynn helped establish that he had maintained communications with Kislyak concerning US sanctions on Russia, and later lied about these contacts to the FBI. In May 2020 the Trump administration claimed, without evidence, that Obama officials acted illegally in unmasking Flynn. In October that year, a federal prosecutor tasked with determining the legality of these actions concluded that they did not constitute "any substantive wrongdoing."

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publication/media

RT English [from 09:41 to 09:58] (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 226
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 01/01/2021
  • Language/target audience: English
  • Country: Russia, US
  • Keywords: election meddling, Robert Mueller, Manipulated elections/referendum, Donald Trump, Elections, Barack Obama

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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Disproof

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Disproof

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