Unprecedented …

NYT laughable assertion … Writing at the New York Times, Jonathan Martin claims that “Campaign Opposition Research Is Standard. But Not ‘Oppo’ From Hostile Nations.” The piece goes through a chronology of what opposition research is and says that only Nixon has done this before. No mention of the KGB files where Ted Kennedy allegedly asked the Soviets to defeat Reagan makes it into his story.

Or the Democrats who used Russians against Trump … What makes Martin’s case even less plausible is that Democratic operatives hired a former British spy who got opposition research on Trump from people high up in the Russian government in the same election. In March, Vanity Fair ran an excellent look at how Christopher Steele, that former British spy, got the information for his “Trump Dossier” that ended up in BuzzFeed. One source mentioned was a “senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure,” and another was “a former top level intelligence officer still active in the Kremlin.”

What about Ukraine … While the Ukraine may not be “hostile,” it is well documented that a DNC consultant who previously worked for the Clinton administration interfaced with Ukrainian government officials to try to affect the election. She also “shared her findings with officials from the DNC and Clinton’s campaign.” Here’s Politico’s reporting on the story.