Story highlights Donald Trump mentioned a long-debunked conspiracy theory about Google searches

He claimed they're aimed at helping Hillary Clinton

Waukesha, Wisconsin (CNN) Donald Trump on Wednesday touted a long-debunked conspiracy theory that the most popular internet search engine suppresses negative headlines about his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Trump didn't cite a source to back up his claim, but the most recent report alleging this came from Sputnik News, a Russian state-owned news agency.

"Google search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton," Trump said, apparently referring to Google searches during the first presidential debate on Monday night.

Trump's remarks Wednesday night came two weeks after Sputnik News, a Russian government-controlled news agency, published a report claiming that Google search results are biased in Clinton's favor. Conservative news outlets, including Breitbart News, whose chairman became Trump's campaign CEO last month, linked to the report.

Trump has been repeatedly criticized for being too praiseworthy of Russian President Vladimir Putin and for promoting foreign policies that would benefit Russian interests around the world. And several of his top advisers -- most notably his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort -- have extensive ties to Russian government officials and oligarchs.

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