November 3, 2019

It Turns Out Team Trump Has Spent Years Falsely Claiming Ukraine—Not Russia—Was Behind DNC Hack

Michael Brochstein//ZUMA Wire

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On the famous July phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump pressed the Ukrainian president to look into the 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee. The belief that Ukraine, not Russia, was actually behind the hack is a pretty confusing but persistent conspiracy theory on the right, despite being thoroughly debunked. And now new documents reveal just how deep the theory runs in Trump world: Former campaign chair Paul Manafort was suggesting Ukraine was involved in the stealing of Democratic emails as far back as 2016.

On Saturday, BuzzFeed released reams of previously secret memos from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. BuzzFeed reports that the documents show that Rick Gates, Manafort’s number 2, told investigators in April 2018 that “after the campaign learned in June 2016 that WikiLeaks had the hacked DNC emails, Manafort had said that the hack was ‘likely carried by the Ukrainians, not the Russians,’ according to FBI notes.” 

Gates also reportedly revealed that the theory was shared by one of Manafort’s associates with alleged ties to Russian intelligence, Konstantin Kilimnik—another key player in the Russia-election saga, who we’ve written about frequently in the past—as well as former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. 

Hoo boy.

Read more about the memos at BuzzFeed.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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