White House attacks Trump over connections to Russia and RT

President Barack Obama’s spokesman has accused President-elect Donald Trump and top members of his team of “lucrative” ties with Russia, pointing out that his national security adviser was a “paid contributor” on RT.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest made the case against Trump at the daily briefing on Monday, connecting the dots from “malicious Russian cyber activity” to top campaign officials and their past.

“It was the president-elect who refused to disclose his financial connections to Russia,” said Earnest. “It was the president-elect who hired a campaign chairman with extensive, lucrative, personal financial ties to Russia. It was the president-elect who had national security advisor on the campaign that had been a paid contributor to RT, the Russian propaganda outlet.”

Read more

Tangled web: Trump's campaign chief worked in Ukraine for Clinton associates

Earnest implied that as the Republican presidential nominee Trump “benefitted” from cyberattacks on his main rival while “his campaign did not make any effort to obscure this.”

While the White House spokesman did not name any names, it was clear which officials close to the president-elect he was referring to. The “campaign chairman” with ties to Russia meant Paul Manafort, once linked to Ukraine’s former government.

Manafort made headlines that past August, when Ukraine’s current government accused him of having pocketed more than $12 million as a lobbyist and consultant for the “pro-Russian regime.” He worked for a company founded by Tony Podesta – brother of John Podesta, Bill Clinton’s former chief of staff and campaign chairman for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The second person Earnest brought up is retired Lieutenant-General Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and currently Trump's pick for the post of national security adviser.

Since October, the White House has been accusing Russia of cyberattacks on Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee in an attempt to interfere with US presidential elections.

READ MORE: ‘It’s ridiculous’: Trump on CIA claims that Moscow helped him win US 

Last week, an intelligence source told the Washington Post that a secret assessment by the CIA concluded that Russian intelligence hacked the servers of the Democratic camp and its leaders to specifically help Trump snatch the post.

The President-elect called such the implication “ridiculous.”

“I think it's ridiculous. I think it's just another excuse. I don't believe it,” he told Fox News.

At the same time, Former US Ambassador John Bolton Hacking has also suggested that “this hacking into the DNC (Democratic National Committee) and the RNC (Republican National Committee)” may have been the result of a false flag operation carried out by the Obama administration.

The RNC has denied that there have been any cyberattacks on their servers.

https://www.rt.com/usa/370079-white-house-trump-russia/