Wisconsin’s senior senator, a reliable repeater of Russia-friendly rhetoric, is again feeling emboldened to share disinformation about Moscow’s work to support Donald Trump’s 2016 election. Ron Johnson’s remarks come as part of an effort by Trump allies to distract attention from a new report about him being mentioned in the Epstein files. Trump’s director of national intelligence, another sympathizer to Russia’s dictator, has conflated past reports about 2016 in order to make unsubstantiated claims about former President Barack Obama. That US Rep. Derrick Van Orden was so willing to play along and now call for Obama’s imprisonment is the latest sad chapter in the Republican Party’s fall from Russian watchdog to Putin puppet.

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