

The server, they say Ukraine has it.” Trump added that he’d like to have Attorney General William Barr call “you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it.”ĬrowdStrike determined in June 2016 that Russian agents had broken into the committee’s network and stolen emails that were subsequently published by WikiLeaks. I guess you have one of your wealthy people. “I would like to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say CrowdStrike. According to a reconstructed transcript of the call released by the White House, which is not a verbatim account, he said: Here’s how the call brought the debunked theory back into currency.ĭuring that July call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Trump made a brief and cryptic reference to CrowdStrike.

Kent said Wednesday that he hadn’t even heard of the theory until a whistleblower alerted the public to a July 25 call between Trump and the Ukrainian president. One key figure in this supposed conspiracy: CrowdStrike, a security firm hired by the DNC that detected and analyzed the hack five months before the 2016 election. In broad outline, the theory contends, without evidence, that the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee was a setup somehow perpetrated with Ukrainian complicity in which computer records were fabricated to cast blame on Russia. Kent, under questioning, said there was “no factual basis” to any theory of Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 election - while there is ample evidence of Russian interference.

"We do that all the time with foreign policy," Mr Mulvaney responded.Subsequently, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George P.
#Dnc server ukraine conspiracy theory pro
"The look-back to what happened in 2016 certainly was part of the things that he was worried about in corruption in that nation," Mr Mulvaney said, referring to Mr Trump.Ī reporter told Mr Mulvaney that what he just described was a quid pro quo. No question," Mr Mulvaney said, referring to Mr Trump. "Did he also mention to me in the past, the corruption related to the DNC server? Absolutely. Mr Mulvaney said Mr Trump did not like foreign aid, thought Ukraine was corrupt, and was annoyed at how little "lethal aid" European nations provided to Ukraine as it combated Russia-backed separatists in the eastern part of the country. The DNC server issue is a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine and not Russia interfered in the 2016 US election and that a Democratic Party computer server was being held somewhere in Ukraine. The US aid later was provided to Ukraine. Mr Zelenskiy agreed during the call to carry out the investigation Mr Trump sought. Mr Trump also asked Mr Zelenskiy to investigate a domestic political opponent, Joe Biden, and Mr Biden's son Hunter Biden, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma. In a 25 July call, Mr Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for "a favour" to look into the server and another matter relating to the 2016 election. Mr Trump and administration officials had denied for weeks that it had demanded a "quid pro quo" - a Latin phrase meaning favour for favour - for delivering the US aid, a key part of a controversy that has triggered an impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives against the Republican president.īut acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney acknowledged in a briefing with reporters that the US aid was held up over Mr Trump's concerns about a Democratic National Committee (DNC) computer server alleged to be in Ukraine.
