It’s time to put this mainstream media-driven lie to bed: The Russians did not exclusively back any presidential candidate in 2016.

They backed multiple presidential candidates, pushed social media ads on both right and left, and sought to promote discord and division in the United States for years to come by discrediting any presidential candidate, should he or she win.

As Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s grand jury announced 13 indictments in a Friday news dump, all for Russian nationals, it is becoming more and more apparent that there is no “there there,” at least in regards to smoking gun evidence that any presidential candidate colluded with the Russian government to ensure Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton would lose.

The Russian government is a threat to United States elections: Across the entire board. It began interfering in the United States election before Donald Trump was even a presidential candidate. This is not according to this news site, but according to the Mueller investigation.

As President Donald Trump pointed out:

Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong – no collusion! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 16, 2018

“Russia started their anti-US campaign in 2014, long before I announced that I would run for President. The results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong – no collusion!” Trump wrote.

As reported earlier by CNBC, the Russian active measures campaign against the United States comprised about 80 employees. They utilized political groups that were on both the right and left, representing ideological and cultural diversity:

“The groups created social media movements including United Muslims of America, Army of Jesus, Blacktivist, South United, and Heart of Texas, with a goal of undermining democracy as a whole, according to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. They purchased advertisements and had hundreds of accounts in the names of both real and made-up Americans.”

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein aptly summarized the findings: “There is no allegation that any American was a willing participant” in the activities in the indictment, or that Russian activity “altered the outcome” of the 2016 election.

That’s quite a blow to the Trump-Russia collusion argument. Furthermore, another presidential candidate’s name has arisen as a favored candidate for the Russian government: Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

As reported by Politico on Friday:

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders declined to directly address Friday’s revelation that Russian actors sought to boost his presidential primary campaign and sink Hillary Clinton’s in 2016, instead insisting that the special counsel’s investigation proceed unimpeded.

“It has been clear to everyone (except Donald Trump) that Russia was deeply involved in the 2016 elections and intends to be involved in the 2018 elections. It is the American people who should be deciding the political future of our country, not Mr. Putin and the Russian oligarchs,” Sanders said in a statement. “It is absolutely imperative that the Mueller investigation be allowed to go forward without obstruction from the Trump administration or Congress.”

This needs to be underscored: Russian agents promoted the candidacy of Bernie Sanders to undermine the legitimacy of presumed nominee and president Hillary Clinton.

When Hillary Clinton became the nominee, it did the same thing with the Trump candidacy. He was the default benefactor of the active measures. If it were Ted Cruz, and he won the presidency, we’d have been hearing Cruz-Russia collusion theories for over the last year.

As we enter the second year of the Trump administration, an investigation has been utilized by the political left to discredit the legitimacy of a duly elected president; now must come to terms with the truth: The goal of Russian meddling was not to elect Trump, but to sow chaos. The Democratic Party and its media allies have been acting, either knowingly or unknowingly, as useful promoters of this Kremlin narrative.

As further proof that this is the reality, Politico also reported the fact that Russian government and its media mouthpieces have used social media to discredit Trump after he became president:

Top lawyers from Facebook and Twitter said Tuesday that Russian-linked posts and advertisements placed on the social networks after Election Day sought to sow doubt about President Donald Trump’s victory. Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch told a Senate Judiciary panel that content generated by a Russian troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency after Nov. 8 centered on “fomenting discord about the validity of [Trump’s] election.” That’s a change from Russia’s pre-election activity, which was largely centered on trying to denigrate Hillary Clinton, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a January report.

“During the election, they were trying to create discord between Americans, most of it directed against Clinton. After the election you saw Russian-tied groups and organizations trying to undermine President Trump’s legitimacy. Is that what you saw on Facebook?” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asked at the Senate hearing.

Legal representatives from Facebook and Twitter called this an “accurate” statement. Astonishingly, this correction of the widespread conspiratorial Trump-collusion narrative is often-missing from the commentary and reportage of left-wing media outlets.

It’s time that the Mueller investigation come to any conclusions that it can draw regarding the evidence on collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. The American people have business to attend to, and it is high time that we get on with it.