It's Official: Trump Voters Were Duped by Putin

by Ned Lannamann

The full report on how Russian intelligence interfered with the 2016 US presidential election was released today, and it confirms what everyone—except president-elect Donald Trump—has been saying for weeks. Russia indeed had several procedures in place to denigrate the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's campaign, while bolstering Trump to gullible, easily influenced American voters.

From the New York Times:

The report, a damning and surprisingly detailed account of Russia’s efforts to undermine the American electoral system and Mrs. Clinton in particular, went on to assess that Mr. Putin “aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.”

The report described a broad campaign that included covert operations, including cyberactivities, with “trolling” and “fake news.”

From the Washington Post:

The report depicts Russian interference as unprecedented in scale, saying that Moscow’s assault represented “a significant escalation in directness, level of activity, and scope of effort” beyond previous election-related espionage.

The campaign was ordered by Putin himself and initially sought primarily to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process, “denigrate Secretary Clinton” and harm her electoral prospects. But as the campaign proceeded, Russia “developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump” and repeatedly sought to elevate him by “discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him.”

In other words, those who voted for Donald J. Trump for president did exactly what Vladimir Putin wanted them to. Trump, meanwhile, has denied that Russia's efforts had any influence on the outcome of the election. He is wrong.

The full unclassified report is available to read here.

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