Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday night that Americans spreading Russian disinformation should be civilly and criminally charged.
Clinton said there are some Americans who have “engaged” in spreading Russian misinformation and as a result must be held legally accountable during a segment on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.” She accused an unspecified number of congressional Republicans of allegedly “parroting Russian talking points.”
“I think it’s important to indict the Russians, just like [Robert] Mueller indicted a lot of Russians who were engaged in direct election interference and boosting [Republican nominee Donald] Trump back in 2016,” Clinton said. “But I also think there are Americans who are engaged in this kind of propaganda and whether they should be civilly, or even in some cases, criminally charged is something that would be a better deterrence because the Russians are unlikely, except in a very few cases, to ever stand trial in the United States.”
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Clinton said the Justice Department must prevent foreign adversaries from allegedly influencing Americans on which candidates to vote for.
“So I think we need to uncover all the connections and make it very clear that you can vote however you want, but we are not going to let adversaries, Russia, China, Iran or anybody else basically try to influence Americans as to how we should vote in picking our leaders,” Clinton added. (RELATED: Chelsea Clinton, ‘The View’ Co-Hosts Attempt Two Defend Hillary Denying The 2016 Election Results)
The Department of Justice alleged on Sept. 4 that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian companies to target Americans through the use of social media to spread propaganda to interfere in the 2024 election. The DOJ charged two Russian-based employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, with “conspiring to commit money laundering and to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act.”
Clinton has falsely suggested that Trump did not legitimately win the 2016 election due to alleged “Russian interference.” She blamed Russian collusion for losing the 2016 election to Trump during an interview in September 2019, and further cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election in an October 2020 interview with The Atlantic.
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