early and often

John Bolton Claims That Election Hacks May Have Been the Work of the Obama Administration

John Bolton pointing fingers. Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Appearing on Fox News on Sunday, John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Trump administration State Department hopeful, said that he believed that reported Russian manipulation of the election might have in fact been a “false-flag operation.”

“If you think the Russians did this, then why did they leave fingerprints?” asked Bolton.

“We would want to know who else might want to influence the election and why they would leave fingerprints that point to the Russians. That’s why I say until we know more about how the intelligence community came to this conclusion, we don’t know whether it is Russian-inspired or a false flag.”

Bolton’s baseless speculation came after the CIA announced last week that it believed that Russia had interfered in the U.S. election to get Donald Trump elected president. A finding that Trump himself called “ridiculous.”

When asked by Fox News’ Eric Shawn if he truly believed that the hacks against the DNC and RNC during the election came from within the U.S. government, Bolton responded: “We just don’t know.”

If it did turn out that the Russians interfered with the election, Bolton said that we “should retaliate.”

“It is unacceptable for the American Constitution to be assaulted by foreigners in that way,” he said.

Bolton Says Election Hacks May Be Obama False-Flag Operation