A new report from the New York Times claims that American intelligence officials believe that the effort to blame Ukraine for meddling in the 2016 presidential election is part of a "yearslong" Russian intelligence operation aimed at exonerating Moscow.

According to the Times, intelligence officials recently "informed senators and their aides in recent weeks that Russia had engaged in a yearslong campaign to essentially frame Ukraine as responsible for Moscow’s own hacking of the 2016 election."

A video showing Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., during the Clinton impeachment proceedings resurfaced this week, illustrating how the Judiciary Committee chairman has reversed his stance on impeachment now that an inquiry has been activated into President Donald Trump.

This article first appeared in Salon.

Graham, an ardent ally of President Trump, sponsored a resolution that has been co-signed by all but three Senate Republicans decrying the House impeachment probe. He told Fox News host Sean Hannity in October that any articles of impeachment against Trump should be “dismissed in the Senate without a trial.” He also called the impeachment inquiry proceedings a “lynching in every sense.”