How Trump has used the US government to chase down his conspiracy theories - Business Insider

President Donald Trump has lashed out in response to the many allegations and investigations leveled at him.His responses have included unproven or disproven conspiracy theories, and he's drawn government officials into his assertions.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has enlisted parts of the US government and key allies in the pursuit of unproven or disproven conspiracy theories, some incubated in the dark and anonymous corners of the internet.Text messages between US diplomats, a whistleblower complaint and a series of public statements by Trump and other officials in recent days offer the clearest view yet of the extent to which the president has used the government to chase accusations that secret forces have been plotting against him.Much of that evidence has surfaced because of an impeachment inquiry led by Democrats in the US House of Representatives.Some of the evidence that has emerged shows that:— State Department envoys in Europe offered Ukraine's president a White House visit if he promised to investigate a discredited theory suggesting Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election that put Trump in office. A whistleblower complaint by an intelligence officer suggested Trump also held back nearly $400 million in security aid to Ukraine as additional leverage, which Trump has denied doing.— The Justice Department is now investigating its own probe into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and allegations that Trump's campaign colluded with Moscow. Attorney General William Barr and another senior department official traveled to Europe in recent months to investigate the theory that the FBI investigation, first launched during the presidential campaign in 2016, was actually a plot to stop Trump from becoming president.The president's tendency to say untrue things, particularly on Twitter, has caused headaches for his administration before. Until now, however, the government had largely taken pains to distance itself from such statements.As recently as last year, the Justice Department argued in a series of court cases that when it came to national security, the president did not necessarily know what he was tweeting about.Here are the three cases in which Trump has publicly advanced views of uncorroborated conspiracies behind episodes damaging his presidency. The White House declined to comment on the cases: