Presidential Conspiracy Theories: The 2016 Presidential Election
By the time the 2016 election took place, conspiracy theories had grown exponentially thanks to the phenomenon of social media. Now, instead of standing on a street corner with a megaphone, conspiracy theorists could spread their message faster and with wider distribution over media such as Facebook and Twitter. Making matters worse, internet mischief makers and hackers including Russia's "Internet Research Agency" utilized manufactured social media accounts to give the false impression that their message was being generated by legitimate sources, and had the support of thousands of people.
Many of these social media sites foster the belief that person who disparage others somehow elevate their own status, and in 2016 both of the presidential candidates from the major political parties, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, had unfavorable profiles as seen by the general public. The campaign would become one of the most vitriolic in history.
The Trump campaign made an issue of Clinton's practice during her time as Secretary of State of using a private email address and server, in lieu of State Department servers. This practice had raised concerns about security and preservation of emails, and the possibility that laws may have been violated. Allegations were made that some of the emails in question fell into this so-called "born classified" category, which made it illegal for them to be accessed by private servers. During her tenure as United States Secretary of State, Clinton used a private email server for official public communications rather than using official State Department email accounts maintained on federal servers. Clinton's server was found to hold over 100 emails containing classified information, including 65 emails deemed "Secret" and 22 deemed "Top Secret". An additional 2,093 emails not marked classified were retroactively designated confidential by the State Department. An FBI investigation was initiated regarding how classified information was handled on the Clinton server. The FBI probe was concluded on July 5, 2016, in the midst of the campaign, with the recommendation than no charges be approved against the candidate. This recommendation that was followed by the Justice Department.
Conspiracy theorists became suspicious however when it was learned that in late June 2016, former President Bill Clinton had met privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on her private plane on the tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The two had a 30 minute meeting, which Clinton said was serendipitous, unplanned and purely social. He said that he had become aware that Lynch's plane was on the same tarmac at the airport. When the meeting became public, Lynch also stated that it was "primarily social" and "there was no discussion of any matter pending for the department or any matter pending for any other body." Lynch was criticized for her involvement in the meeting and was called on by some critics to recuse herself from involvement in the FBI's investigation of the email case. In response, she stated "The F.B.I. is investigating whether Mrs. Clinton, her aides or anyone else broke the law by setting up a private email server for her to use as secretary of state," but "the case will be resolved by the same team that has been working on it from the beginning" and "I will be accepting their recommendations."
The rhetoric in the campaign became even more heated when, on September 9, 2016, Clinton said: "You know, just to be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic-you name it." When Trump criticized her remark for insulting his supporters, Clinton only expressed regret for saying "half." She doubled down by accusing the Trump campaign of using "racist lies" and allowing the alt-right to gain prominence in the campaign.
Conspiracy theorists had more fodder for their rumor mongering when, on September 11, 2016, Clinton left a 9/11 memorial event early due to illness. Video footage of Clinton's departure showed Clinton becoming unsteady on her feet and being helped into a van. Later that evening, Clinton reassured reporters that she was "feeling great." Initially her campaign reported that Clinton had become overheated at the event, but later added that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia two days earlier. This drew media criticism for the lack of transparency concerning Clinton's illness. Clinton cancelled a planned trip to California due to her illness. The Trump campaign used the episode to spread rumors concerning Clinton's health.
On October 7, 2016, video and accompanying audio were released by The Washington Post in which Donald Trump referred obscenely to women in a 2005 conversation with Billy Bush while they were preparing to film an episode of Access Hollywood. In the recording, Trump described his attempts to initiate a sexual relationship with a married woman and added that women would allow male celebrities to grope their genitalia. He crassly used the phrase "grab 'em by the pussy". The audio was met with considerable disgust. Trump's campaign described thus as a video was of a private conversation from "many years ago." But the incident was condemned by numerous prominent Republicans including RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Mitt Romney, John Kasich, Jeb Bush and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Many people incorrectly believed the video had doomed Trump's chances for election, and within a week, several dozen Republicans called for Trump to withdraw from the campaign and let Mike Pence and Condoleezza Rice head the ticket. Trump insisted he would never drop out. He attempted to deflect criticism by notice that he had only used words, while the husband of his opponent, former President Bill Clinton, had actually sexually harassed women and had used his position of power to obtain sex. At the next debate with Clinton, Trump invited several of the women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual impropriety to attend the debate and speak to the media.
Throughout the campaign, Trump indicated in interviews, speeches, and Twitter posts that he would refuse to recognize the outcome of the election if he was defeated, claiming that if he lost, it would be because the election had been rigged against him. During the final presidential debate of 2016, Trump refused to tell Fox news anchor Chris Wallace whether or not he would accept the election results.
On October 28, eleven days before the election, FBI Director James Comey informed Congress that the FBI was analyzing additional Clinton emails obtained during its investigation of an unrelated case, that of disgraced former Congressman Anthony Wiener, husband of a member of the Clinton campaign's inner circle. On November 6, he notified Congress that the new emails did not change the FBI's earlier conclusion. Both campaigns accused the FBI Director of interfering with their campaigns and with acting unprofessionally.
More controversy ensued even after Trump's surprising victory. On December 9, 2016, the Central Intelligence Agency issued an assessment to the US Senate, stating that a Russian entity hacked emails belonging to the DNC and former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, alleging that this was done to assist Trump. The Federal Bureau of Investigation agreed with this conclusion and President Barack Obama ordered a "full review" into such possible intervention. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper in early January 2017 testified before a Senate committee that Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign went beyond hacking, and included disinformation and the dissemination of fake news, often promoted on social media. Facebook revealed that during the 2016 United States presidential election, a Russian company funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman with ties to Vladimir Putin, had purchased advertisements on the website for US$100,000, of which 25% of were geographically targeted to the U.S. President-elect Trump called the report fabricated.
The Senate Intelligence Committee announced the scope of their official inquiry on December 13, 2016, on a bipartisan basis. A formal Special Counsel investigation headed by former FBI director Robert Mueller was initiated in May 2017 to uncover the detailed interference operations by Russia, and to determine whether any people associated with the Trump campaign were complicit in the Russian efforts. Appearing on Meet the Press on March 5, 2017, James Clapper declared that intelligence investigations on Russian interference performed by the government agencies had found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Mueller concluded his investigation on March 22, 2019, by submitting his report to Attorney General William Barr.
On March 24, 2019, Barr submitted a letter describing Mueller's conclusions, and on April 18, 2019, a redacted version of the Mueller report was released to the public. It concluded that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election did occur "in sweeping and systematic fashion" and "violated U.S. criminal law." This included activities by Russia's "Internet Research Agency" which operated a social media campaign that favored Trump and disparaged Clinton. Mueller also concluded that the Internet Research Agency also sought to "provoke and amplify political and social discord in the United States."
The report also concluded that the GRU, the Russian intelligence service, had hacked into email accounts owned by volunteers and employees of the Clinton presidential campaign, including that of campaign chairman John Podesta, and also the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The GRU obtained hundreds of thousands of hacked documents, and arranged the release of damaging hacked material via the WikiLeaks organization under the guise of "DCLeaks" and "Guccifer 2.0." In the final analysis, the investigation did not "establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." The absence of compelling evidence meant that there was smoke, but no fire was found. The Mueller report concluded that it "cannot rule out the possibility" that information then unavailable to investigators would have presented different findings. In March 2020, the US Justice Department dropped its prosecution of two Russian firms linked to interference in the 2016 election.
Many of these social media sites foster the belief that person who disparage others somehow elevate their own status, and in 2016 both of the presidential candidates from the major political parties, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, had unfavorable profiles as seen by the general public. The campaign would become one of the most vitriolic in history.
The Trump campaign made an issue of Clinton's practice during her time as Secretary of State of using a private email address and server, in lieu of State Department servers. This practice had raised concerns about security and preservation of emails, and the possibility that laws may have been violated. Allegations were made that some of the emails in question fell into this so-called "born classified" category, which made it illegal for them to be accessed by private servers. During her tenure as United States Secretary of State, Clinton used a private email server for official public communications rather than using official State Department email accounts maintained on federal servers. Clinton's server was found to hold over 100 emails containing classified information, including 65 emails deemed "Secret" and 22 deemed "Top Secret". An additional 2,093 emails not marked classified were retroactively designated confidential by the State Department. An FBI investigation was initiated regarding how classified information was handled on the Clinton server. The FBI probe was concluded on July 5, 2016, in the midst of the campaign, with the recommendation than no charges be approved against the candidate. This recommendation that was followed by the Justice Department.
Conspiracy theorists became suspicious however when it was learned that in late June 2016, former President Bill Clinton had met privately with Attorney General Loretta Lynch on her private plane on the tarmac at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The two had a 30 minute meeting, which Clinton said was serendipitous, unplanned and purely social. He said that he had become aware that Lynch's plane was on the same tarmac at the airport. When the meeting became public, Lynch also stated that it was "primarily social" and "there was no discussion of any matter pending for the department or any matter pending for any other body." Lynch was criticized for her involvement in the meeting and was called on by some critics to recuse herself from involvement in the FBI's investigation of the email case. In response, she stated "The F.B.I. is investigating whether Mrs. Clinton, her aides or anyone else broke the law by setting up a private email server for her to use as secretary of state," but "the case will be resolved by the same team that has been working on it from the beginning" and "I will be accepting their recommendations."
The rhetoric in the campaign became even more heated when, on September 9, 2016, Clinton said: "You know, just to be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic-you name it." When Trump criticized her remark for insulting his supporters, Clinton only expressed regret for saying "half." She doubled down by accusing the Trump campaign of using "racist lies" and allowing the alt-right to gain prominence in the campaign.
Conspiracy theorists had more fodder for their rumor mongering when, on September 11, 2016, Clinton left a 9/11 memorial event early due to illness. Video footage of Clinton's departure showed Clinton becoming unsteady on her feet and being helped into a van. Later that evening, Clinton reassured reporters that she was "feeling great." Initially her campaign reported that Clinton had become overheated at the event, but later added that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia two days earlier. This drew media criticism for the lack of transparency concerning Clinton's illness. Clinton cancelled a planned trip to California due to her illness. The Trump campaign used the episode to spread rumors concerning Clinton's health.
On October 7, 2016, video and accompanying audio were released by The Washington Post in which Donald Trump referred obscenely to women in a 2005 conversation with Billy Bush while they were preparing to film an episode of Access Hollywood. In the recording, Trump described his attempts to initiate a sexual relationship with a married woman and added that women would allow male celebrities to grope their genitalia. He crassly used the phrase "grab 'em by the pussy". The audio was met with considerable disgust. Trump's campaign described thus as a video was of a private conversation from "many years ago." But the incident was condemned by numerous prominent Republicans including RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Mitt Romney, John Kasich, Jeb Bush and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Many people incorrectly believed the video had doomed Trump's chances for election, and within a week, several dozen Republicans called for Trump to withdraw from the campaign and let Mike Pence and Condoleezza Rice head the ticket. Trump insisted he would never drop out. He attempted to deflect criticism by notice that he had only used words, while the husband of his opponent, former President Bill Clinton, had actually sexually harassed women and had used his position of power to obtain sex. At the next debate with Clinton, Trump invited several of the women who had accused Bill Clinton of sexual impropriety to attend the debate and speak to the media.
Throughout the campaign, Trump indicated in interviews, speeches, and Twitter posts that he would refuse to recognize the outcome of the election if he was defeated, claiming that if he lost, it would be because the election had been rigged against him. During the final presidential debate of 2016, Trump refused to tell Fox news anchor Chris Wallace whether or not he would accept the election results.
On October 28, eleven days before the election, FBI Director James Comey informed Congress that the FBI was analyzing additional Clinton emails obtained during its investigation of an unrelated case, that of disgraced former Congressman Anthony Wiener, husband of a member of the Clinton campaign's inner circle. On November 6, he notified Congress that the new emails did not change the FBI's earlier conclusion. Both campaigns accused the FBI Director of interfering with their campaigns and with acting unprofessionally.
More controversy ensued even after Trump's surprising victory. On December 9, 2016, the Central Intelligence Agency issued an assessment to the US Senate, stating that a Russian entity hacked emails belonging to the DNC and former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, alleging that this was done to assist Trump. The Federal Bureau of Investigation agreed with this conclusion and President Barack Obama ordered a "full review" into such possible intervention. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper in early January 2017 testified before a Senate committee that Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign went beyond hacking, and included disinformation and the dissemination of fake news, often promoted on social media. Facebook revealed that during the 2016 United States presidential election, a Russian company funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman with ties to Vladimir Putin, had purchased advertisements on the website for US$100,000, of which 25% of were geographically targeted to the U.S. President-elect Trump called the report fabricated.
The Senate Intelligence Committee announced the scope of their official inquiry on December 13, 2016, on a bipartisan basis. A formal Special Counsel investigation headed by former FBI director Robert Mueller was initiated in May 2017 to uncover the detailed interference operations by Russia, and to determine whether any people associated with the Trump campaign were complicit in the Russian efforts. Appearing on Meet the Press on March 5, 2017, James Clapper declared that intelligence investigations on Russian interference performed by the government agencies had found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Mueller concluded his investigation on March 22, 2019, by submitting his report to Attorney General William Barr.
On March 24, 2019, Barr submitted a letter describing Mueller's conclusions, and on April 18, 2019, a redacted version of the Mueller report was released to the public. It concluded that Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election did occur "in sweeping and systematic fashion" and "violated U.S. criminal law." This included activities by Russia's "Internet Research Agency" which operated a social media campaign that favored Trump and disparaged Clinton. Mueller also concluded that the Internet Research Agency also sought to "provoke and amplify political and social discord in the United States."
The report also concluded that the GRU, the Russian intelligence service, had hacked into email accounts owned by volunteers and employees of the Clinton presidential campaign, including that of campaign chairman John Podesta, and also the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The GRU obtained hundreds of thousands of hacked documents, and arranged the release of damaging hacked material via the WikiLeaks organization under the guise of "DCLeaks" and "Guccifer 2.0." In the final analysis, the investigation did not "establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." The absence of compelling evidence meant that there was smoke, but no fire was found. The Mueller report concluded that it "cannot rule out the possibility" that information then unavailable to investigators would have presented different findings. In March 2020, the US Justice Department dropped its prosecution of two Russian firms linked to interference in the 2016 election.