Podesta: Trump Allies May Have Worked With Russia to Hack Dems

'Russians Were Trying to Elect a Lap Dog'

Pushing for more investigations and briefings for the electors of the Electoral College in an apparent last ditch attempt to try to get the outcome of last month’s presidential election changed, former Clinton campaign chair John Podesta today accused members of Donald Trump’s campaign of working with the Russian government to hack the Democrats.

Podesta said he didn’t think President-elect Trump himself was “part of the plan,” but that he thought members of the campaign “went off the reservation” and started working with the Russians, saying that the Electoral College needs to know that before they vote.

“The Russians were trying to elect a lap dog,” Podesta said of Trump’s campaign, saying that the electors have a right to know what “Trump Inc.” knew and when they knew it, along with how closely in touch with the Russian government they were.

Democratic Party leadership has blamed Russia for the hacking since the summer, and made the narrative of Trump being a Manchurian candidate a centerpiece of the Clinton campaign. Parts of the US intelligence community have endorsed this allegation, though so far no public evidence has been offered to support it.

The Electoral College meets Monday, and from the result of the November election, Trump should have the 270 majority needed well in hand. There may be some faithless electors, but most of the ones pushing for Russia hacking briefings were Democrats in the first place, who were going to vote for Clinton either way.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.