“ ‘Putin told me.’ ”

That — according to the Washington Post’s account of an interview with an unnamed former senior official in the Trump White House — is President Donald Trump explaining his confidence in the theory that Ukraine, rather than Russia, attacked the 2016 election (and, in its case, opposed his candidacy).

The Post said two other former officials corroborated the account, to the extent they’d heard the first official describe it at the time. Its Thursday story, it said, is based on interviews with 15 former administration and government officials who spoke with the Post on condition of anonymity.