Trump to Now Blame Attacks on This Guy

Another day, another accusation to emerge from Election 2016—this one to be hurled by Donald Trump rather than at him. An advisor says the Republican nominee is planning to claim the sexual misconduct allegations he's facing are the work in part of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, who holds a significant number of shares in the New York Times, which first reported on the alleged encounters, and who has donated somewhere between $250,000 to $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation, per the Wall Street Journal. The claim would be a step up from Trump's accusation earlier this year that Slim is using the Times "to influence American policy," reports Politico.

Slim made it clear last year that he's no fan of Trump, but the claim that he's helping Hillary Clinton's campaign "is totally false," his rep says. "Of course we aren't interfering in the US election. We aren't even active in Mexican politics." Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. likewise says Slim—one of the world's richest people with an estimated $50 billion net worth—"fully respects boundaries regarding the independence of our journalism" and "has never sought to influence what we report." Clinton's press secretary adds this "is just another deranged right-wing conspiracy theory from Donald Trump's increasingly desperate campaign." (More Donald Trump stories.)