Did Russia conspire to put its thumb on the scales for Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein in 2016?

If you’ve paid any attention to mainstream coverage of Robert Mueller’s indictment of the Russians involved in running an online troll farm that opposed Hillary Clinton’s campaign, then you’re probably certain the answer is “yes.” There’s been no shortage of headlines declaring that the accused — typically referred to simply as “Russians” — “tried to help” or “aimed to help” the two left-wing candidates, or that they “appear to have been helped by Russian election interference.” Even the New York Times, the paper of record, declared that the company, Internet Research Agency, aimed to “bolster” Sanders and Stein’s candidacies.

You’ll find this same narrative on the nominally liberal MSNBC. Stein was grilled on MSNBC about the Russian attempt to “boost” her campaign. Meanwhile, Ari Melber, one of the network’s pundits, seemed to suggest there was something fishy going on between Sanders and the Russian trolls with an innuendo-laden question to Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal.