President Trump’s former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland told a friend in an email when she was on Trump’s transition team that Russia “threw” the U.S. election to Trump, The New York Times reported Saturday.

McFarland reportedly wrote in the email that sanctions then-President Obama levied on Russia in response to Moscow’s election meddling would make it more difficult for Trump to improve relations with Russia, “which has just thrown the U.S.A. election to him.”

The Times reported that it was unclear whether the transition official was saying she believed that the election had been thrown. A White House lawyer told the newspaper that McFarland was referring to the Democrats’ portrayal of the election.

Emails obtained by the Times show that Trump’s team moved quickly to develop a strategy on how to reassure Russia after learning that Obama would expel 35 Russian diplomats in the weeks before he left office.

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McFarland was reportedly aware of Flynn’s contact with Moscow. An Associated Press report on Friday identified McFarland as a senior transition official mentioned in court documents who discussed with Flynn in 2016 the U.S. sanctions against Russia and potential retaliation from Moscow.

Outlets also identified Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner as the “very senior transition official” referenced in the documents who reportedly pushed Flynn to persuade the Russian government to vote against a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements. The U.N. vote ended up advancing.

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