Conspiracy theories about Clinton and the DNC hack circulated in 2016 Trump campaign

• A conspiracy theory that Ukraine hacked Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee made headlines when Trump invoked it in a call with Ukraine's president earlier this year, but newly released documents obtained by BuzzFeed News show that the idea floated around the campaign as early as 2016.
• In a memo produced following an interview with Rick Gates as part of the Mueller investigation, investigators wrote that Gates said Trump campaign staffers offered many different theories of who could have hacked their competitors.
• Paul Manafort thought Ukraine was the culprit, and Michael Flynn simply thought it wasn't Russia. Other theories included Israeli intelligence. 
• Gates said Trump ordered staffers to get the emails before they were released, and the Michael Flynn offered his intelligence community resources as help.
• Read more stories like this on Business Insider.

A wild but debunked conspiracy theory recently made national news when President Donald Trump referred to "CrowdStrike" during his notorious summertime call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

But on Saturday, new documents obtained and released by BuzzFeed News from the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation revealed that the conspiracy theory floated around the Trump campaign as early as 2016.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: Extremists turned a frog meme into a hate symbol, but Hong Kong protesters revived it as an emblem of hope

See Also: