John Bolton wonders aloud whether Obama was actually behind the election hacks

(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

published 12 December 2016

John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has a theory that it was actually President Obama's administration — not Russia — that hacked the presidential election. In an interview Sunday on Fox News, Bolton, who is reportedly being considered for deputy secretary of state, suggested breaches of the Democratic National Committee as well as other Democratic officials and organizations were part of a "false flag" operation. The term, The Washington Post explains, is "popular among conspiracy theorists" and is "typically used to describe a covert attempt by the government to advance an agenda by making it seem like its activities are being carried out by another entity."

"We just don't know," Bolton said, when asked whether he was accusing Obama's administration or the intelligence community of a cover-up. "But I believe the intelligence community has been politicized in the Obama administration to a very significant degree." Bolton's suggestion followed The Washington Post's report Friday that CIA officials informed senators in a closed-door meeting that there is mounting evidence Russia interfered in the presidential election to help Trump win. Obama has called for an investigation, while Trump has dismissed the claims as "ridiculous."

Bolton said his tip-off to the possibility of a "false flag" was the fact that no evidence of foreign interference was found in the investigation of Hillary Clinton's private email server, but evidence was found in the election hacking. "The question that has to be asked is, why did the Russians run their smart intelligence service against Hillary’s server but their dumb intelligence services against the election?" Bolton said, questioning why the Russians would "leave fingerprints" if they "did this."