according to officials who spoke anonymously to "the post," quote, the president's intense resistance to the assessment of u.s. intelligence agencies that russia indeed systematically interfered in our 2016 campaign, and the blame he cast instead on a rival country led many of his advisers to think that putin himself helped spur the idea of ukraine's culpability. one former senior white house official said trump even said so explicitly at one point, saying he knew ukraine was the real culprit because, quote, putin told me. "the post" also says intelligence officials told lawmakers that russian security services played a key role in spreading the false claim, the conspiracy theory that ukraine meddled in our 2016 election somehow. it's a lot to take on. and here with our lead-off