Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump once stated explicitly that he believes that it was Ukraine -- not Russia -- that meddled in the 2016 election because Russian President Vladimir Putin "told me," The Washington Post reported Thursday, citing a former senior White House official.

Multiple former officials told the Post that Trump's insistence that Ukraine attempted to stop him from winning the White House led many of his advisers to fear that the conspiracy was shaped by Putin himself.

The officials told the paper that Trump became more insistent about the conspiracy after his private meeting with Putin in July 2017 at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

News of Putin's potential role in shaping Trump's views on Ukraine comes just one day House of Representatives took the historic step to impeach him following an investigation into allegations he pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals while withholding US security assistance and a White House meeting.

Throughout the investigation, at least nine witnesses testified that claims of Ukrainian meddling were fabricated by the Russians or unsupported by the evidence.

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