A new New York Times report just tore apart one of Donald Trump’s most repeated claims — that Hillary Clinton approved a secret plan to falsely link him to Russia.
For years, Trump and his allies have pointed to a specific email they say proves Clinton was behind what he calls the “Russia collusion hoax.” But according to the Times, that so-called smoking gun is likely a fake — planted by Russian intelligence.
The email, included in an annex of Special Counsel John Durham’s final report, was seized on by conservative media and figures like Trump, John Ratcliffe, and Kash Patel as proof of a conspiracy. Trump even used it to suggest former President Barack Obama should be tried for treason.
But the facts don’t support that narrative.
According to the New York Times, U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, told Durham the email was likely disinformation — not a real piece of intelligence. And Durham knew it. In fact, he didn’t rely on the email in the core of his report because it wasn’t credible.
Here’s the key takeaway from the Times:
“In reality, the annex shows the opposite, indicating that a key piece of supposed evidence for the claim that Mrs. Clinton approved a plan to tie Mr. Trump to Russia is not credible: Mr. Durham concluded that the email from July 27, 2016, and a related one dated two days earlier were probably manufactured.”
That directly undercuts the right-wing narrative.
Even so, the email has taken on new life in conservative circles, with figures like Kash Patel declaring:
“The annex revealed ‘evidence that the Clinton campaign plotted to frame President Trump and fabricate the Russia collusion hoax.’”
But there’s no hard proof of that — and Patel has a long record of spreading false claims about the Russia investigation.
John Ratcliffe, who released the annex while serving as Trump’s CIA director, also claimed it showed there was:
“A coordinated plan to prevent and destroy Donald Trump’s presidency.”
Again, Durham didn’t draw that conclusion in his report. The annex isn’t verified intelligence — it’s a summary of raw material. U.S. intelligence officials viewed it as unreliable from the start.
Still, that hasn’t stopped Trump from pushing the story. He recently said the document proved Obama committed treason, even though the Supreme Court just ruled that former presidents are largely protected from criminal charges over official actions.
The Times makes it clear: the email that’s being used to paint Clinton as the mastermind of the Russia investigation is almost certainly fake — likely planted by Russia to stir up division in the U.S.
And while Durham did criticize aspects of how the FBI handled the original probe into Trump’s ties to Russia, his report didn’t say the investigation was a politically motivated hoax. That claim simply isn’t backed up by the facts.
The truth? The “evidence” Trump and his allies keep pointing to may actually be a piece of Russian disinformation — not proof of a Clinton conspiracy.
