Are hackers to blame for Trump’s false Blumenthal, Benghazi link?

Donald Trump criticized Hillary Clinton’s handling of Benghazi at the second presidential debate, saying that Clinton consulted with her friend Sidney Blumenthal after the incident. Blumenthal’s name actually came up twice during Sunday’s debate, which left a lot of voters outside the Beltway wondering: wait, Sidney who? Blumenthal was a political journalist for years before he joined the Bill Clinton White House as an advisor in 1997. He’s remained a close confidant and unofficial advisor to Hillary Clinton ever since. But Sidney Blumenthal is also the star of some of the alt-right’s favorite conspiracy theories, including a false story Trump has repeated that links Blumenthal to Benghazi, which journalist Kurt Eichenwald says began when Russian hackers attributed his writing to Blumenthal. Are Russian hackers leaking false stories to influence the US presidential election?