The left has tried to undermine Trump by promoting the conspiracy theory that he colluded with Russia to rig the 2016 election.
Members of the media have breathlessly repeated their evidence-free allegations.
But one arrest might finally reveal the truth behind this story.
The left points to the Christopher Steele memo as evidence Trump colluded with Russia.
And the FBI even used the document as the basis for obtaining a FISA warrant against one-time Trump campaign advisor Carter Page.
The ex-British intelligence officer was paid by supporters of Hillary Clinton to put together the political-opposition research memo.
Since the media first reported on it, the document has been highly controversial.
The memo made claims that were either disproven or impossible to verify.
Now reports show that a key piece of evidence to prove the Russians engaged in email hacking was fabricated.
Steele’s memo identified Sevastyan Kaptsugovich as one of the Russian hackers that participated in Russian cyber attacks during the 2016 election.
But McClatchy reported he has been in prison and doesn’t have access to the internet:
Sevastyan Kaptsugovich, believed now to be at least 45, was released before his full sentence was completed. He made headlines again when he was convicted a second time, on Feb. 14, 2013, for similar crimes and sentenced to more than 18 years in a penal colony. Sordid details of his trial in the city of Perm were published in the media outlet Komsomolskaya Pravda, where one of the few public photos of him appeared. His legal documents do not appear in RosPravosudie, a website and database that boasts information on more than 100 million Russian legal cases…
… McClatchy has confirmed through a Russian human rights activist that Kaptsugovich is imprisoned in a facility known as IK-29 near the village of Sorda in the region of Kirov. That’s about 500 miles northeast of Moscow.
“I did visit IK-29 on Feb. 17 of this year. During the visit I saw Sevastyan Kaptsugovich,” Arthur Abashev wrote to McClatchy. “Indeed, he is an inmate there, and he works in the prison administration office. He does not have access to the internet, a computer or a mobile phone. He only has access to the landline phone.”
Abashev is a member of the Public Monitoring Commission, a remnant from the Boris Yelstin era, soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It enjoys semi-official status as a rights group that monitors conditions in prison and labor camps and issues reports to the government.
Given that Kaptsugovich doesn’t appear to have computer access, said Abashev, it is “unlikely that he would be involved in the hacking attacks.”
Ever since the intelligence community revealed it believed Russia was behind the email hacks during the 2016 election, many Americans have questioned the findings.
No agency has released any evidence to back up the claim.
And now the Steele memo contains a highly questionable finding which names a Russian hacker as one of the perpetrators.
This will only add to the cloud of suspicion over the claims Russia engaged in cyber attacks against the Democrats and that they colluded with the Trump campaign during the election.
