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If the recent hacking of a Ukrainian gas company was done by the Russian military — as the initial evidence suggests — President Trump deserves some responsibility.

The connection between Trump and the hacking would not be direct; there is no evidence that Trump or any of his aides were aware of the specific hack. But he has repeatedly encouraged foreign countries to interfere in American elections against his opponents — which appears to be what happened in this case. No one should be surprised that those countries are doing exactly what Trump has encouraged.

It’s a complicated story, so I want to take it one step at a time:

1. The Times reported this week that Russian military hackers appear to have been targeting Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company on whose board Hunter Biden — Joe Biden’s son — served. As The Times story explained: “Experts say the timing and scale of the attacks suggest that the Russians could be searching for potentially embarrassing material on the Bidens — the same kind of information that Mr. Trump wanted from Ukraine when he pressed for an investigation of the Bidens and Burisma, setting off a chain of events that led to his impeachment.”