A senior official on President Donald Trump’s transition team suggested that Russia had “thrown” the U.S. presidential election in Trump’s favor in a December 2016 email thread leaked to the New York Times and published Saturday.

The emails contradict White House lawyer Ty Cobb’s claims that Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, acted independently when he reached out to Russian officials during Trump’s transition to presidency.

Hours after the Obama administration imposed sanctions against Russia for its meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Trump’s former Deputy National Security Adviser KT McFarland suggested that the transition team would need to strengthen its relationship with Russia, according to email exchanges obtained by or described by unnamed sources to the Times.

The sanctions, McFarland noted in the email, appeared to be the outgoing administration’s attempt to discredit Trump’s victory in the election and would make it more difficult for the incoming president to improve the U.S.’s relationship with Russia.

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