Merged All things Trump + Russia

[trustbutverify]

There's certainly collusion now. Trump and Putin are going to work together to guard election hacking.

Now, that's funny.

 

[Stacko]

Now, that's funny.

It's quite the Freudian slip.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

I agree - there are so many attacks by liberals against election hacking - Trump can use all the help Putin can give to make sure that elections remain properly hacked.

 

[dudalb]

We are seeing the worst case of treason since Benedict Arnold tried to sell West Point to the British.
The Nickname "Benedict Donald" fits Trump perfectly.

 

[dudalb]

Now, that's funny.

To quote an old Russian proverb,that is like leaving a goat to guard the cabbage patch

 

[mgidm86]

CE, your article calls Putin and Trump both inexperienced. That is like saying that Stephen Hawkins and Joe the Plumber both know little about astrophysics.
There is no leader in world who has dealt with more American Presidents than Putin.

Where does it say that? Perhaps you misread this:

The first Trump-Putin summit, with Trump both inexperienced and under severe pressure at home, was never going to be an easy summit.

Coming from Putin – the most experienced leader in the world today and an acknowledged master of diplomacy

This is how diplomacy is done. Putin and the Russians in Hamburg gave Trump a class in how to do it, and he came out well,....

Unless I missed it.

 

[jimbob]

We are seeing the worst case of treason since Benedict Arnold tried to sell West Point to the British.
The Nickname "Benedict Donald" fits Trump perfectly.

I think that is unfair.

Benedict Arnold had presumably previously been a British Subject, so from a certain light it might not have been considered treasonous, just deciding that his loyalties should have been otherwise.

 

[skyeagle409]

I think that is unfair.

Benedict Arnold had presumably previously been a British Subject, so from a certain light it might not have been considered treasonous, just deciding that his loyalties should have been otherwise.

"Benedict Donald" fits the bill. Trump has provided the Russians with classified information from the White House and refuses to impose punishment on the Russians for meddling in our 2016 election and is in fact, considering returning buildings the Russians were using for intelligence gathering. Could that be considered a reward for Russian meddling in the 2016 election?

 

[quadraginta]

Well... er... they're the largest country on Earth and so the odds of randomly putting your finger on Russia while spinning an Earth globe are much higher... so ...ah... you shouldn't be surprised that people have connections to Russia! Yes, that's it!

I'm going with; Kleptocracies are magnets for crooks and con artists, so you shouldn't be surprised that Trump and the people he keeps around him have connections to Russia.

 

[Stacko]

Fredo is caught up in this too.

President Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton before agreeing to meet with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign, according to three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it.

The meeting was also attended by his campaign chairman at the time, Paul J. Manafort, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kushner only recently disclosed the meeting, though not its content, in confidential government documents described to The New York Times.

The Times reported the existence of the meeting on Saturday. But in subsequent interviews, the advisers and others revealed the motivation behind it.

ETA:

The accounts of the meeting represent the first public indication that at least some in the campaign were willing to accept Russian help.

 

[Belz...]

I'm going with; Kleptocracies are magnets for crooks and con artists, so you shouldn't be surprised that Trump and the people he keeps around him have connections to Russia.

Crooks are like dust particles; they tend to stick together?

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I'm going with; Kleptocracies are magnets for crooks and con artists, so you shouldn't be surprised that Trump and the people he keeps around him have connections to Russia.

This is my take as well. All of the Trump/family/staff connections to Russia seem to involve potential big loans, bailouts, money laundering, the desire to open up the Arctic oil drilling, un-sanction sanctioned banks, etc.

Also there is Trump's insatiable desire to feed his ego with hobnobing, showing off his status and wealth.

One need not look for any other motives than these.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Fredo is caught up in this too....

according to three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it.

Five sources? Wow, in addition to the incriminating evidence of collusion, there is just as much to consider here in that that many people knew about it and that many insiders were willing to tell the NYT reporters.

This story is bound to have a lot of unpacking in the next couple days, like this tangled web:

In a statement on Sunday, Donald Trump Jr. said he had met with the Russian lawyer at the request of an acquaintance. “After pleasantries were exchanged,” he said, “the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton. Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

And there is the matter that both Kushner and Manafort 'forgot' to note this meeting on their security clearance forms.


Getting down to the meat of the matter:

Ms. Veselnitskaya’s clients include state-owned businesses and a senior government official’s son, whose company was under investigation in the United States at the time of the meeting. Her activities and associations had previously drawn the attention of the F.B.I., according to a former senior law enforcement official.

Ms. Veselnitskaya said in a statement on Saturday that “nothing at all about the presidential campaign” was discussed. She recalled that after about 10 minutes, either Mr. Kushner or Mr. Manafort walked out.

Further on in the article we find that here is yet another Obama Act that Putin would like to see rescinded.

Ms. Veselnitskaya is a formidable operator with a history of pushing the Kremlin’s agenda. Most notable is her campaign against the Magnitsky Act, which provoked a Cold War-style, tit-for-tat dispute with the Kremlin when President Barack Obama signed it into law in 2012.

Under the law, about 44 Russian citizens have been put on a list that allows the United States to seize their American assets and deny them visas. The United States asserts that many of them are connected to the fraud exposed by Mr. Magnitsky, who after being jailed for more than a year was found dead in his cell. A Russian human rights panel found that he had been assaulted. To critics of Mr. Putin, Mr. Magnitsky, in death, became a symbol of corruption and brutality in the Russian state....

[Putin] compiled what became known as an “anti-Magnitsky” blacklist of United States citizens.

Among those blacklisted was Preet Bharara, then the United States attorney in Manhattan, who led notable convictions of Russian arms and drug dealers. Mr. Bharara was abruptly fired in March, after previously being asked to stay on by President Trump.

Follow the money, it's all about the money:

One of Ms. Veselnitskaya’s clients is Denis Katsyv, the Russian owner of Prevezon Holdings, an investment company based in Cyprus.... In a civil forfeiture case prosecuted by Mr. Bharara’s office, the Justice Department alleged that Prevezon had helped launder money tied to the $230 million corruption scheme exposed by Mr. Magnitsky by putting it in New York real estate and bank accounts. Prevezon recently settled the case for $6 million without admitting wrongdoing.

The article suggests this meeting was set up with Donnie Jr who then called in Manafort and Kushner because that's how the Russians operate.

John O. Brennan, the former C.I.A. director, testified in May that he had been concerned last year by Russian government efforts to contact and manipulate members of Mr. Trump’s campaign. “Russian intelligence agencies do not hesitate at all to use private companies and Russian persons who are unaffiliated with the Russian government to support their objectives,” he said.

 

[Stacko]

Fredo's memory has improved interestingly over the past 24hrs.

It's funny how yesterday Don Jr. didn't remember the connection to the Magnitsky sanctions but today his recollection is sharper.​

 

[Stacko]

New new statement from Don Jr and it's not a denial. We can't show that they colluded with Russia yet but they can no longer say they didn't try.

 

[jimbob]

I think that is unfair.

Benedict Arnold had presumably previously been a British Subject, so from a certain light it might not have been considered treasonous, just deciding that his loyalties should have been otherwise.

"Benedict Donald" fits the bill. Trump has provided the Russians with classified information from the White House and refuses to impose punishment on the Russians for meddling in our 2016 election and is in fact, considering returning buildings the Russians were using for intelligence gathering. Could that be considered a reward for Russian meddling in the 2016 election?

I was saying that it was unfair on Benedict Arnold

 

[Beerina]

CNN reports that the NYT is reporting they actually met because he was promised info on Hillary Clinton.




But they've been here before.

 

[CapelDodger]

Crooks are like dust particles; they tend to stick together?

Trump's circle overlaps significantly with the neo-cons and fixers who flooded into the ex-USSR in the 90's. Their connections with dodgy Russians and Ukrainians exist quite independently of Trump but he still gets soiled by association. Unfair, true, but when you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas, as the old saying goes.

 

[CapelDodger]

Five sources? Wow, in addition to the incriminating evidence of collusion, there is just as much to consider here in that that many people knew about it and that many insiders were willing to tell the NYT reporters.

Quite. Fingerprints of an anti-Kushner faction, perhaps?

Follow the money, it's all about the money

I've read that Mueller has been recruiting financial-crime specialists for his team. Just saying ...

 

[C_Felix]

With respect to this NY Times report:

I'm still stuck on the British Dossier.

"Roll back the giving Ukraine weapons and we'll dig up dirt on Hillary"

This meeting happened after Mr. Trump clinched the nomination.

The Ukraine giving of weapons roll back seems to have disappeared from the GOP's platform.

And now you throw in the "we'll give you dirt on Hillary" and the line from the NY Time's article:

American intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian hackers and propagandists worked to tip the election toward Donald J. Trump, in part by stealing and then providing to WikiLeaks internal Democratic Party and Clinton campaign emails that were embarrassing to Mrs. Clinton. WikiLeaks began releasing the material on July 22.

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.