MSNBC‘S Rachel Maddow told viewers on Thursday night that a high-quality National Security Agency forgery was sent to the network showing collusion between President Trump’s associates and Russia.

Someone appears to have gone to great lengths to trick “The Rachel Maddow Show” into passing off fake NSA documents as proof that Mr. Trump’s campaign worked with Russian state actors. The host spoke for 20 minutes on a document sent to the network June 5, which coincided with legitimate leaks published by The Intercept.

“Somebody, for some reason, appears to be shopping a fairly convincing fake NSA document that purports to directly implicate somebody from the Trump campaign in working with the Russians in their attack in the election,” Ms. Maddow said, The Daily Caller reported.

The host laid out a timeline of events revolving around the arrest of former defense contractor Reality Leigh Winner, The Intercept’s leak, and documents sent to MSNBC.

Digital fingerprints, coupled with the timeline, indicate that someone with access to the same documents published by The Intercept used them as a template for forgery.

“This is news, because: Why is someone shopping a forged document of this kind to news organizations covering the Trump-Russia affair?” the host added.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has led an investigation into Russian meddling of the U.S. election since the firing of former FBI Director James B. Comey in May.

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