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{{Trump–Russia relations}}
The Trump–Russia nexus
[edit]Lead
[edit]When the Russians interfered in the 2016 elections, allegations of conspiracy, coordination, collusion, and cooperation were leveled at Trump and the "Trump–Russia nexus", an unprecedented and "unusually extensive network"[1] of associates with secretive and suspicious links to Russian officials and spies. It did not help "that Trump and those around him lied, and lied, and lied again about their connections to Russia".[2] Investigations and the media weighed in on the following questions: Did Donald Trump's campaign try to aid Russia's attempts to help him win the election and destabilize American society? If so, then how? Did Trump lie about it and obstruct investigations into these matters? Why was there so much secrecy in Trump's and his campaign's dealings with Putin and Russians? Multiple investigations sought to understand what was happening.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation was tangled up, right from the start, in a classic catch-22 situation.[3][4][5] He was handicapped by a rule forbidding the indictment and prosecution of a sitting president. This rule prevented him from doing what a prosecutor is supposed to do, which is to prove a crime has been committed, in this case, a criminal conspiracy and/or obstruction. Ultimately, Mueller's predicament was solved because he was unable to prove a "conspiracy" or "coordination", but Trump was not exonerated.[6] He may not have formally agreed ("conspired") to help Russian crimes, but whether he actually did help ("collude" or "cooperate") is the most important aspect of the matter. Robert Mueller wrote: "If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime we would have said so."[7] Matthew Jacobs, a former federal prosecutor, said "he thought Mueller was 'saying in his own way that a crime was committed'".[8]
The FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation examined the myriad secretive links between Russian officials and associates of Donald Trump and "whether individuals associated with [his] presidential campaign were "coordinating", wittingly or unwittingly, with the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election".[9] Mueller investigated whether there was a criminal "conspiracy" and "coordination", but deliberately avoided focusing on "collusion", leaving that task to others. The Steele dossier[10] alleged there was a "conspiracy" of "cooperation" between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. Trump denied it all, but if there was no collusion, it became apparent "it wasn't for lack of trying".[11]
Trump repeatedly claimed "no collusion, no obstruction",[12] but his own lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has asserted there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians, but that Trump wasn't involved.[13] Mueller pushed back against Trump's denial, explaining that "he did not evaluate 'collusion' ... [or] conclude that there was 'no obstruction' of the probe". He only focused on criminal "conspiracy". Mueller said "The president was not exculpated for the acts that he allegedly committed," and he affirmed the possibility that Trump could be indicted after leaving office.[14][15] Even though Mueller could not (and was not allowed to) prove criminal "conspiracy" or "coordination", and his report did "not conclude that the President committed a crime", it also did "not exonerate him",[6] and many sources did find evidence of improper, and possibly criminal, "collusion" and "cooperation".
Trump and Russians discuss his candidacy: 2013
[edit]Alferova and
Russian hackings begin: 2014-2015
[edit]Early contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials: 2015-2016
[edit]- WAIT AND UPDATE this article---->>> Links_between_Trump_associates_and_Russian_officials#2015-2016_foreign_surveillance]] with the below.
In 2015, during the earliest stages of the Trump campaign, several allied foreign intelligence agencies began reporting secret contacts between Trump campaigners and known or suspected Russian agents in multiple European cities.[16][17][18]
In late 2015, GCHQ, the British eavesdropping agency, during the course of routine surveillance, used "electronic intelligence" to collect information from Russian targets. They found that "Russians were talking to people associated with Trump...According to sources in the US and the UK, [the conversations] formed a suspicious pattern."[17] The British passed this information about "suspicious 'interactions'" between "members of Donald Trump's campaign team" and "known or suspected Russian agents" to U.S intelligence agencies.[17][16] Over the next six months, allied agencies began to "pass along information about people close to Mr. Trump meeting with Russians in the Netherlands, Britain and other countries."[18] Reports of these "contacts between Trump's inner circle and Russians" were shared by seven allied foreign intelligence agencies (reportedly those of the United Kingdom, Germany, Estonia, Poland, Australia, France, and the Netherlands). Later, "US agencies began picking up conversations in which Russians were discussing contacts with Trump associates".[17][16]
The New York Times reported that British and Dutch agencies had evidence of meetings between "Russian officials – and others close to Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin – and associates of President-elect Trump". Separately, U.S. intelligence had overheard Russian officials, some of them within the Kremlin, talking about contacts with Trump associates. Some Russian officials were arguing about how much to interfere in the election. Then cyber attacks on state electoral systems led the Obama administration to directly accuse the Russians of interfering.[18] In April 2016, they received a tape-recorded conversation from a Baltic state "about money from the Kremlin going into the US presidential campaign".[19] The Dutch also reported how they watched a group of Russians hacking the DNC.[20]
Because they are not allowed to surveil the private communications of American citizens without a warrant, the "FBI and the CIA were slow to appreciate the extensive nature of these contacts between Trump's team and Moscow."[16]
In November 2016, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov confirmed that "there were contacts" with the Trump campaign: "Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage," adding "I cannot say that all of them but quite a few have been staying in touch with Russian representatives."[21] This contradicted Trump's pledges "that he had not interacted with the Kremlin despite numerous statements praising Russian President Vladimir Putin".[22] Hope Hicks immediately issued a denial, saying the campaign had "no contact with Russian officials" before the election.[21]
Russian election interference
[edit]The Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the goals of harming the campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the candidacy of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. According to the U.S. intelligence community, the Russian operation—code named Project Lakhta[23][24]—was ordered directly by Russian president Vladimir Putin.[25][26] The Special Counsel's report, made public in April 2019, "identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign", found that Russia "perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency", and that the 2016 Trump presidential campaign "expected it would benefit electorally" from Russian hacking efforts.[27][28]
The Russian hackings, theft of documents, and promise of stolen emails involved several different types of crimes, thus creating a crime scene covering several years. Multiple Trump associates and Russian nationals were charged and convicted, and many others, guilty or not, were entering and leaving this crime scene. Trump pardoned several of his campaign members.
On July 27, 2016, ??
Trump became directly involved in the interference when he publicly asked the Russians to find Clinton's emails,[29] and they immediately obeyed him by attempting to hack her private server for the first time. Her server was never successfully hacked,[30] but her emails were also located in other places, such as on DNC servers and Huma Abedin's husband's laptop,[31] and the Russians did hack the DNC's servers.
Investigations of Trump campaign involvement
[edit]In May 2017, in the early days of the Trump presidency, the Editorial Board of The New York Times raised concerns about the "Trump-Russia nexus" of suspicious links between the campaign and Russians. The Board mentioned the FBI's "investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign", how "the links continue to pile up", and called for a "thorough investigation":[1]
Mr. Trump and his associates can cry themselves hoarse that there is neither smoke nor fire here. But all in all, the known facts suggest an unusually extensive network of relationships with a major foreign power. Anyone who cares about the credibility of the American electoral process should want a thorough investigation of whether and how Russia interfered in the election and through whom.[1]
Some of the investigations were the Steele dossier, the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane investigation, and the Mueller special counsel investigation.
Steele dossier
[edit]The Steele dossier[10] alleged there was a "conspiracy" of "cooperation" between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
- "Mueller reportedly interviewed the author of the Trump–Russia dossier—here's what it alleges, and how it aligned with reality"[32]
- "Intelligence officials purposefully omitted the dossier from the public intelligence report they released in January about Russia's election interference because they didn't want to reveal which details they had corroborated, according to CNN."[32]
Although the FBI understandably failed to corroborate many of the likely "impossible-to-verify allegations" in the Steele dossier, many of its other and most important allegations were proven true by events or the harmony between the FBI's sources and Steele's sources. James Comey said that when the FBI examined the Steele dossier, they found that "Some of it was consistent with our other intelligence, the most important part."[33][34]
Steele's sources independently had information about Carter Page and the Russian offer in Moscow to use Clinton "dirt" and stolen emails to help Trump win, even though Steele knew nothing about Papadopoulos[35] and an identical offer made to him in London months earlier. Even if Page's denial of meeting Divyekin is true, Steele's sources did make the allegation, confirming an identical type of offer they knew nothing about.
The FBI did not know about Papadopoulos at the time Steele's sources made the allegations about Carter Page. Yet here they were, reporting on a similar offer made by Divyekin to Page in Moscow. This fact confirmed what the FBI already knew from Papadopoulos and was one more piece of information that gave them so much confidence in the dossier when they first received some of it. The Russians used two Trump aides to make sure Trump knew Russia would help him win, and he welcomed and facilitated that help by cooperating with their election interference in myriad ways.
The Mueller Report confirmed that the dossier was correct that the Kremlin was behind the appearance of the DNC emails on WikiLeaks, noting that the Trump campaign "showed interest in WikiLeaks's releases of documents and welcomed their potential to damage candidate Clinton".[36] It was later confirmed that Roger Stone was in contact with Wikileaks.[37][38]
Several key allegations made by Steele's sources in July 2016 seemed prescient at the time, and were finally corroborated six months later in the 2017 assessment by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence,[39][40] namely that:
- Vladimir Putin favored Trump over Hillary Clinton;[39][41]
- that he personally ordered an "influence campaign" to harm Clinton's electoral chances;[39]
- that he sought to "undermine public faith in the US democratic process";[39]
- that he ordered cyber attacks on the Democratic and Republican parties;[39]
- and that many Trump campaign officials and associates had numerous secretive contacts with Russian officials and spies.[42][43]
Newsweek said "the dossier's main finding, that Russia tried to prop up Trump over Clinton, was confirmed by" that ODNI assessment.[44] ABC News stated that "some of the dossier's broad implications—particularly that Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an operation to boost Trump and sow discord within the U.S. and abroad—now ring true."[41]
The Mueller Report backed "Steele's central claim that the Russians ran a 'sweeping and systematic' operation ... to help Trump win".[45]
Lawfare has noted that the "Mueller investigation has clearly produced public records that confirm pieces of the dossier. And even where the details are not exact, the general thrust of Steele's reporting seems credible in light of what we now know about extensive contacts between numerous individuals associated with the Trump campaign and Russian government officials."[46]
In The New Yorker, Jane Mayer told how Steele's sources and a CIA agent's information "dovetailed". She said the allegation that Trump was favored by the Kremlin, and that they offered Clinton "dirt" to Trump's campaign, has proven true.[35] She described how the CIA had a Russian government official working as "a human source inside the Russian government during the campaign, who provided information that dovetailed with Steele's reporting about Russia's objective of electing Trump and Putin's direct involvement in the operation."[47] The spy had access to Putin and could actually take pictures of documents on Putin's desk. Because of the dangers imposed by Trump's recent careless disclosures of classified information to Russian officials, the CIA feared their spy was in danger, so the government official and his family were discretely exfiltrated during a family vacation to Montenegro.[48][49]
Crossfire Hurricane
[edit]The Crossfire Hurricane investigation and Mueller uncovered the Russian interference and found the crime scene with evidence of Russian acts and plenty of traces from Trump associates that showed they had foreknowledge of the crime. Because of those traces, the FBI started Crossfire Hurricane to answer the question of whether Trump's campaign was aiding the Russian interference.
The interference was done for Trump's benefit and Trump's people were all over and around the crime scene. That left the difficulty of proving whether Trump himself "conspired", a notoriously hard job, compounded with the fact that Trump always maintains plausible deniability by having his associates act for him, often without direct orders, just the mere fact that they know his desires being enough. This made Mueller's job easy. There was little danger of him proving Trump committed a crime.
In the end, Mueller's uncertainty about Trump's guilt or innocence is clear:
'If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime.' Matthew Jacobs, a former federal prosecutor, said he thought Mueller was 'saying in his own way that a crime was committed.'"[8]
Mueller investigation
[edit]Mueller's catch-22: Do not prove Trump committed a crime.
[edit]The Mueller investigation was severely obstructed and its efforts hampered by a rule forbidding any indictment of Trump, and that left many unanswered questions:
Mueller report: CONCLUSION
Because we determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment, we did not draw ultimate conclusions about the President’s conduct. The evidence we obtained about the President’s actions and intent presents difficult issues that would need to be resolved if we were making a traditional prosecutorial judgment. At the same time, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment. Accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.[6]
Mueller was caught in a classic catch-22 situation.[3]
Aaron Blake, senior political reporter for The Washington Post, described how "DOJ guidelines combined with Trump’s status as the sitting president created something of a Catch-22 for the Mueller report":
Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6 says that, unless and until details are revealed by court order as part of an indictment or other proceeding, they must be kept secret. This is to guard against the government releasing derogatory things about people for political purposes.
This creates a unique situation with President Trump. Existing Justice Department guidelines say that a sitting president can’t be indicted — guidelines Trump legal spokesman Rudolph W. Giuliani has said Mueller will abide by. If a president can’t be indicted and the Justice Department can report only the things related to an indictment, that means any wrongdoing by Trump wouldn’t be reported. Basically, what we learn about Trump may have to come in other criminal filings related to other figures in the case.
“If the only reason that Mueller’s grand Jury can’t file an indictment is the DOJ policy that says no indicting of sitting presidents, then Trump gets the best of both worlds: no indictment and no revealing of the evidence the grand jury saw — even though it may be more than enough to indict any other citizen of the republic," former federal prosecutor Patrick Cotter said.[4]
'If the only reason that Mueller's grand Jury can't file an indictment is the DOJ policy that says no indicting of sitting presidents, then Trump gets the best of both worlds: no indictment and no revealing of the evidence the grand jury saw — even though it may be more than enough to indict any other citizen of the republic,' former federal prosecutor Patrick Cotter said.[5]
Let me say a word about the report. The report has two parts, addressing the two main issues we were asked to investigate.
The first volume of the report details numerous efforts emanating from Russia to influence the election. This volume includes a discussion of the Trump campaign’s response to this activity, as well as our conclusion that there was insufficient evidence to charge a broader conspiracy. And in the second volume, the report describes the results and analysis of our obstruction of justice investigation involving the president.
The order appointing me special counsel authorized us to investigate actions that could obstruct the investigation, and we conducted that investigation and we kept the office of the acting attorney general apprised of the progress of our work, and as set forth in the report after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.
We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. The introduction to the volume two of our report explains that decision. It explains that under long-standing department policy, a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional. Even if the charge is kept under seal and hidden from public view, that, too, is prohibited.[7]
To understand the crime scene, one should factor in the gist of the mandate Mueller proscribed at the very beginning (not an actual quote):
We must not find that Trump committed a provable crime because we are not allowed to prosecute a sitting president. Therefore we must seek to prove a nearly unprovable crime.
Conspiracy is a crime that is very hard to prove. A crime itself may be easy to prove, but to prove that the participants actually conspired to commit the crime, one must pass a very high bar of evidence. Finding a formal written or oral agreement of "you do this and I'll do that" to commit the crime is often impossible, and it may never have existed as a formal agreement, even though the participants planned their actions.
The report ... did not make a "traditional prosecutorial judgment" on whether Trump broke the law, suggesting that Congress should make such a determination.[50][51] Investigators decided they could not "apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes" as an Office of Legal Counsel opinion stated that a sitting president could not be indicted,[52] and investigators would not accuse him of a crime when he cannot clear his name in court.[53]
Conspiracy, coordination, collusion, and cooperation
[edit]The Trump campaign's relationship with the government of Russia and its intelligence agencies has been alleged to involve conspiracy, coordination, collusion, and cooperation, so these were investigated.
Many deeds and people were involved, including many in Trump's campaign and family (chronological order): Russian hacking of the DNC and Podesta emails, their interference in the 2016 election, George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, DC Leaks, Guccifer 2.0, their leaking of stolen emails, and Donald Trump Jr. at the Trump Tower meeting. It also involved the following: Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Rudy Giuliani, Paul Manafort, Jeff Sessions, Roger Stone, and finally Donald Trump, as he knew about the interference and much of the cooperation, lied about it, tried to protect Russia and Putin from all blame, tried to obstruct investigations, and it was all performed to benefit his and Russia's interests.
- Temporary list form
- Russian hacking of the DNC and Podesta emails
- Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
- WikiLeaks
- DC Leaks
- Guccifer 2.0
- their leaking of stolen emails
- Trump Tower meeting
- Julian Assange
- Michael Cohen
- Michael Flynn
- Rudy Giuliani
- Paul Manafort
- Carter Page
- George Papadopoulos
- Dana Rohrabacher
- Jeff Sessions
- Roger Stone
- Donald Trump
- Donald Trump Jr.
Russian hacking of the DNC and Podesta emails, their interference in the 2016 election, George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, Julian Assange, WikiLeaks, DC Leaks, Guccifer 2.0, their leaking of stolen emails, Donald Trump Jr. at the Trump Tower meeting, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and finally Donald Trump, as he knew about the interference and much of the cooperation, lied about it, and it was all performed to help him win the 2016 election.
The Russians created an atmosphere of welcoming expectation in the Trump campaign by using two Trump aides as intermediaries to inform the campaign that Russia would use "dirt" on Clinton to help Trump by releasing the emails they had stolen from her Democratic election campaign. The leaders of the Trump campaign and Donald Trump Jr. knew from Papadopoulos of this offer of help and were all eagerly expecting its delivery at the Trump Tower meeting. This nexus of connections reveals the secretive and willing cooperation between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence.
The Steele dossier[54] alleged a "conspiracy" of "cooperation" (it never used the word "collusion"),[55][56] and the FBI and Mueller investigations' discoveries of many instances of cooperation between the campaign and Russians corroborated the main charge of "cooperation". Steele's sources knew nothing of Papadopoulos, yet they alleged the Russians had made an identical offer to Carter Page. The FBI already knew from George Papadopoulos that the Russians were offering such dirt on Clinton, so this information confirmed to the FBI that Steele had well-placed sources.
The Mueller investigation only focused on "conspiracy" and "coordination", not on "collusion" and "cooperation". Mueller used "coordination" and "conspiracy" in a synonymous fashion as he looked for evidence of agreed coordination, not just a mutual understanding ("two parties taking actions that were informed by or responsive to the other's actions or interests").[6] Mueller expressly explained why he was not interested in proving mere collusion, which he, for the purposes of his investigation, determined was not the same as "conspiracy". There had to be "coordination", which implies a conscious "agreement".
To establish whether a crime was committed by members of the Trump campaign with regard to Russian interference, investigators "applied the framework of conspiracy law", and not the concept of "collusion", because collusion "is not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal criminal law".[57][6][a][14] They also investigated if members of the Trump campaign "coordinated" with Russia, using the definition of "coordination" as having "an agreement — tacit or express — between the Trump campaign and the Russian government on election interference". Investigators further elaborated that merely having "two parties taking actions that were informed by or responsive to the other's actions or interests" was not enough to establish coordination.[6][b]
The report writes that the investigation "identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump campaign", found that Russia "perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency" and that the 2016 Trump presidential campaign "expected it would benefit electorally" from Russian hacking efforts. However, ultimately "the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities".[27][28] The evidence was not necessarily complete due to encrypted, deleted, or unsaved communications as well as false, incomplete, or declined testimony.[6][c][58][59][60][61]
While Mueller found no evidence of criminal conspiracy between Trump's team and Moscow, his report laid out a network of interactions between the president's inner circle and Russian figures, including the campaign's willingness to accept dirt on Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. Mueller also declined to exonerate Trump for obstructing the investigation, outlining 10 episodes of potential obstruction he examined, while explicitly highlighting Congress's authority to probe further.[62]
Mueller could not prove "conspiracy" or "coordination", but that does not end the matter, because "cooperation" is still an issue: Did the Trump campaign cooperate with the Russians in their election interference? David Frum wrote: "The confirmed record suggests an impressive record of cooperation toward a common aim—even if the terms of the cooperation were not directly communicated by one party to the other."[2]
It remains fact that Russian hackers and spies helped his campaign. It remains fact that the Trump campaign welcomed the help. It remains fact that Trump's campaign chairman sought to share proprietary campaign information with a person whom the Senate report identified as a "Russian intelligence officer." It remains fact that Trump hoped to score a huge payday in Russia even as he ran for president. It remains fact that Trump and those around him lied, and lied, and lied again about their connections to Russia.[2]
The Moscow Project found "six clear examples of collusion from the Mueller report":[63]
- "Trump knew about Russia’s interference and asked Manafort to keep him “updated” on WikiLeaks. Mueller outlines that then-candidate Trump was part of the effort to coordinate with Russian intelligence, informing one of his top campaign officials about upcoming information that was about to be released."
- "Trump’s campaign chairman discussed the campaign’s strategy for winning Democratic votes in midwestern states and continuously shared polling data with a Russian intelligence agent. Mueller found (p. 6-7) that Paul Manafort met with his longtime associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, who the FBI believes is a Russian intelligence operative to discuss the campaign’s strategy for winning Democratic votes in the Midwest. He also continuously shared internal polling data with Kilimnik."
- "The Trump Campaign developed a whole campaign plan based on their knowledge that more WikiLeaks releases were coming. Mueller found that the coordination with Russia was eagerly accepted and a central component of the campaign’s overall strategy."
- "The Trump campaign knew it was coordinating with a Russian “spy.” Robert Mueller explains (p. 134 Vol I) that Rick Gates, who served as the Deputy Chairman of the Trump Campaign, believed that Konstantin Kalimnik was a “spy,” but the campaign continued to work with him."
- "Russian intelligence gave Roger Stone the Democrats’ turnout model for the “entire presidential campaign.” Guccifer 2.0, which was known to be a Russian front at the time, hacked and stole the turnout model from the DCCC and provided the “turnout model for the democrats entire presidential campaign” to Roger Stone, who responded that it was “pretty standard.”
Mueller (p. 44), outlined how Stone had a back and forth with Guccifer 2.0, the Russian military cyber unit, including about material that was not contained in the Wikileaks dump. This includes exchanging, reviewing, and analyzing “the turnout model for the democrats entire presidential campaign”." - "Trump directed his campaign to get Clinton emails in an effort that included outreach to Russia. Mike Flynn led an effort in the campaign to get the emails, which included Peter Smith getting into contact with who he believed to be Russian hackers."
Mueller corroborates other clear examples of collusion we already knew:
The June 9 meeting: Donald Trump Jr. received an email from an emissary for a Russian oligarch explicitly offering dirt on Hillary Clinton “as part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Trump Jr. not only eagerly took the meeting but brought in the campaign’s chairman and Jared Kushner, and even offered initial guidance for when to release the “dirt.”
George Papadopoulos and the hacked emails: George Papadopoulos, the Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, lied about meetings with a Kremlin-linked professor who told him in advance that Russia had stolen and planned to publish the Clinton campaign’s emails.
A suspected Russian agent was on the campaign: Carter Page, another campaign foreign policy adviser whom U.S. intelligence repeatedly concluded may be a Russian agent, traveled to Moscow during the campaign—with explicit permission from campaign leadership—to meet with high-ranking members of the Russian government.
Mueller’s team identified sustained efforts by the president and his campaign to not just capitalize on Russia’s attack on American democracy but to actively further it, including by coordinating with WikiLeaks to weaponize stolen emails and a suspected Russian spy to share polling data with powerful oligarchs.
That’s collusion.[63]
Disinformation
[edit]Trump's amplification of Russian disinformation
[edit]Trump and his allies amplified Russian disinformation and conspiracy theories by denying, downplaying, and lying about Russian interference.
The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee.
On Tuesday, the committee released a 966-page report that definitively shows that the Trump campaign aided and assisted Putin’s attempt to sabotage the election to help Trump; that Paul Manafort, a top campaign official, secretly interacted with a former business associate and Russian intelligence officer named Konstantin Kilimnik (while Kilimnik possibly was connected to the Russian attack on the US election); that these Manafort actions posed a “grave counterintelligence threat”; that Donald Trump Jr. tried to collude with a clandestine Kremlin plot to boost Trump; and that Trump likely lied to special counsel Robert Mueller about his own efforts to use Roger Stone to obtain inside information on the Russia-WikiLeaks operation that Trump could politically exploit. The report even raises the prospect that Moscow had gathered kompromat—blackmail information—on Trump related to his personal conduct during visits to Russia in 1996 and 2013. The report also contains a long section that indicates Putin’s intelligence operatives, including Kilimnik, pulled off a major disinformation op that targeted—and was assisted by—Trump, Republicans, and right-wing media.[64]
Trump-Russia revisionism and denialism
[edit]So-called "Russiagate" revisionists, like Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, and Jeff Gerth, try to claim that because Trump was not convicted of "conspiracy" and "coordination", they claim that Russia did not interfere in the election, or that the interference was inconsequential. They also muddy the waters by incorrectly claiming that Mueller found no "collusion". They tend to use the derogatory terms "Russiagate" and "hoax" to cast doubt on the investigations into Russian election interference and any possible involvement by the Trump campaign.[65]
They often claim the Steele dossier and Mueller investigation were purely political hoaxes to delegitimize Trump's presidency. David Frum said these revisionists are "not pro-Trumpers who are leading the latest round of Trump-Russia denialism. ... [They are] volunteering to help him execute one of his Big Lies."[2]
A crime scene: hackings and theft
[edit]Stolen emails promised to Trump
[edit]Russia hacked and stole Clinton emails and offered them to the Trump campaign, first telling Papadopoulos, and then telling Page. Papadopoulos and Page were campaign members who were tasked with discretely seeking contact with Russia on behalf of the Trump campaign, and they reported back to the campaign. The Russians knew who they were and used them as messengers to relay information from the Russian government back to the campaign. The Steele dossier alleges there were such secret connections between the campaign and Russia. Initially, only the campaign knew of these mutually beneficial contacts. They did not report them to the FBI, and Trump repeatedly denied such connections.
George Papadopoulos told of emails: March 24, 2016
[edit]The Mueller Report showed that George Papadopoulos had at least 16 Russian contacts.[66]
On March 24, 2016, Papadopoulos met with Joseph Mifsud in London. Mifsud told him the Russian government had "dirt" on Clinton and would help Trump by releasing stolen Clinton emails. Later, Australian diplomat Alexander Downer learned from Papadopoulos of this contact and the offer of help. Australia later informed the FBI of this contact. Papadopoulos later said that he had told the Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Kotzias, during a meeting on May 26, 2016, that the Russians had Clinton-related emails.[67][68]
Papadopoulos was ultimately convicted of making false statements. He was pardoned by Trump.
Donald Trump Jr. and Trump Tower meeting: June 9, 2016
[edit]The Trump Tower meeting illustrates how "If there was no collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump inner circle, it was not because top Trump aides were against it."[11]
Participants:
- Trump campaign officials: Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, Donald Trump Jr.
- Russian lobbyists: Natalia Veselnitskaya, Rinat Akhmetshin
- Other participants: Rob Goldstone, Anatoli Samochornov, Ike Kaveladze
Before the June 9, 2016, Trump Tower meeting, Donald Trump Jr. was contacted by Rob Goldstone,[69][70][71][72] who wrote him an email on June 3:
Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting.
The Crown prosecutor of Russia[d] met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.
This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump – helped along by Aras and Emin.[75]
Donald Trump Jr. responded:
Thanks Rob I appreciate that. I am on the road at the moment but perhaps I just speak to Emin first. Seems we have some time and if it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer. Could we do a call first thing next week when I am back?[75]
In a June 7 email, it was agreed that the material would be delivered to Trump Jr. by an unnamed "Russian government attorney".[75] Trump Jr. forwarded the email thread to Kushner and Manafort.[76]
At the June 9 meeting, Goldstone introduced this person as Moscow-based attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya. She stated that she was not a government official,[75] however she is known to have ties to the Russian government[77] and later described herself as an "informant" to the office of the Russian prosecutor general.[78]
According to Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, Donald Trump knew the meeting would happen.[79] The campaign leadership had prior knowledge of the Russian promise to help them. They were waiting for this help to arrive, and Donald Trump Jr. was eagerly expecting to receive opposition research from Veselnitskaya that could hurt Clinton's campaign. Instead, he got talk about Trump lifting the Magnitsky Act sanctions, and he was very disappointed.[80][81] "According to one of the participants in the meeting, Don began to realize he wasn't going to be handed what he was hoping for. 'The light just went out in his eyes.'"[82]
As President, Donald Trump successfully hid the Trump Tower meeting for over a year, and it was first disclosed to U.S. government officials in April 2017, when Kushner filed a revised version of his security clearance form.[83] When the meeting was finally exposed, Trump wrote a deceptive press release, leaving him "needlessly vulnerable to allegations of a coverup".[84][85][86] His statement tried to hide the true intent of the meeting, a falsehood seen as a revelation of his consciousness of guilt for secretly colluding with Russia. His lie was proof he knew of the existing secretive backchannel collusion with Russians.
The emails, which Donald Trump Jr. posted as an image tweet, have been described as a "smoking gun when it comes to collusion":
The emails also say flatly that the Kremlin was working to help elect his father — claims which Trump Jr., his father and the White House would deny for months afterward. Some have suggested that they represent a smoking gun when it comes to collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. The White House denies there was any collusion.[87]
Ron Elving of NPR wrote:
Donald Trump Jr.'s emails have produced the kind of solid evidence the Russia connection story had been lacking, what had been mostly speculative reporting has instead become the first draft of history. ... Nor do Americans accept the behavior of Russia's enablers in the U.S. or other targeted countries. And that would appear to include elements of the Donald Trump presidential campaign in 2016. That was the unavoidable takeaway from the email news this week.[88]
Russians begin to leak emails: June 15, 2016
[edit]The hacker persona, Guccifer 2.0, was created by Russian military intelligence and used DCLeaks and WikiLeaks to fulfill the Russian promise to leak the stolen emails, with Guccifer 2.0 used as a cutout for communications.[89]
- June 15: "Guccifer 2.0" claims credit for the DNC hacking and posts some of the stolen material to a website.[90]
- Late June 2016: Guccifer 2.0 informed reporters to visit the DCLeaks website for emails stolen from Democrats.[89] With the WikiLeaks disclosure of additional stolen emails beginning on July 22, 2016, more than 150,000 stolen emails from either personal Gmail addresses or via the DNC that were related to the Hillary Clinton 2016 Presidential campaign were published on the DCLeaks and WikiLeaks websites.[89]
- July 22: WikiLeaks publishes the first set of hacked DNC emails, one day before the Democratic National Convention kicks off in Philadelphia.[32]
Trump tries to cover up Russia's involvement: August 16, 2017
[edit]Julian Assange
[edit]Julian Assange was intimately connected with the leaking of the stolen emails by WikiLeaks. According to court testimony, Trump tried to use Julian Assange to cover up Russia's involvement in the election interference.
On August 16, 2017, US Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher visited Julian Assange in London and told him that Trump would pardon him on condition that he would agree to say that Russia was not involved in the hacking and leaking of the stolen emails.[91][92][93] Assange's lawyer said in court that "he had evidence that a quid pro quo was put to Assange by Rohrabacher, who was known as Putin’s favorite congressman".[91][94] At his extradition hearings in 2020, Assange's defense team alleged in court that this offer was made "on instructions from the president",[91] a claim accepted by lawyers representing the United States government.[94] Trump and Rohrabacher subsequently said they had never spoken about the offer and Rohrabacher said he had made the offer on his own initiative.[92][93][95]
Assange did deny Russian involvement[96] and also insinuated that Seth Rich may have been involved:
In an interview with Yahoo News, Rohrabacher said ... he had solicited evidence that instead of Russia, it was the murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich who had been behind the hacking. ... According to a Yahoo News investigation, Russian intelligence encouraged the theory, but it was Assange, aided by Infowars' Alex Jones and Fox News' Sean Hannity, who can be credited with giving the conspiracy theory life. According to former special counsel Robert Mueller's report, Assange hoped to "obscure the source of the materials that WikiLeaks was releasing" by focusing on Rich.[97]
Dana Rohrabacher
[edit]Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican congressman and Trump ally, is known as "Putin's favorite congressman".[94] His strong pro-Russia and pro-Putin opinions[98][99] have raised questions about his relationship with Vladimir Putin and the Russian government.[98]
Carter Page told of emails: July 8, 2016
[edit]On July , Page made a five-day trip to Moscow, (source) ostensibly to hold a speech as a private person.
From Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections (July 2016 – election day):
- Carter Page makes a five-day trip to Moscow.[100] The Steele dossier alleges that in July, Page secretly met Rosneft chairman Igor Sechin in Moscow, together with a "senior Kremlin Internal Affairs official, DIVYEKIN", that Sechin offered Trump a 19% stake in Rosneft (worth about $11 billion) in exchange for lifting the sanctions against Russia after his election,[101][102] and that Page confirmed, on Trump's "full authority", that he intended to lift the sanctions.[103][104][105]
Andrew Prokop points out that discrepancies between Page's version of what he did there and his often-evasive testimony to Congress may indicate he is "hiding something".[100]
In July 2016, Carter Page visited Moscow, and the Steele dossier describes how Igor Divyekin allegedly told Page that the Kremlin could release kompromat on Clinton to the Trump campaign.[106]
Congressional Democrats noticed the similarity of this offer to the one made to Papadopoulos. They wrote that "This closely tracks what other Russian contacts were informing another Trump foreign policy advisor, George Papadopoulos."[106] This is yet another clue as to why the FBI saw the dossier as worth investigating. It accurately contained independent confirmation of facts they knew from other sources. Steele's Russian sources confirmed what the FBI already knew from Papadopoulos.
The Inspector General's Report described how Page denied "having met with Sechin and Divyekin, or even knowing who Divyekin was; if true, those statements contradicted the claims in Steele's Report 94 that Page had met secretly with Sechin and Divyekin about future cooperation with Russia and shared derogatory information about candidate Clinton."[9]: 364–365
Note the "if true". With what we know about Carter Page and all of his evasive and contradictory testimony, one should not assume anything he says is true. It is not without ground the FBI suspected he was a Russian agent.
On February 11, 2021, Page lost a defamation suit he had filed against Yahoo! News and HuffPost for their articles that described his activities mentioned in the Steele dossier. The judge said that Page admitted the articles about his potential contacts with Russian officials were essentially true.[107]
Links between Trump associates and Russian officials
[edit]The Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee report "showed extensive evidence of contacts between Trump campaign advisers and people tied to the Kremlin — including a longstanding associate of the onetime Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Konstantin V. Kilimnik, whom the report identified as a 'Russian intelligence officer'."[108]
The Mueller report showed that "Donald J. Trump and 18 of his associates had at least 140 contacts with Russian nationals and WikiLeaks, or their intermediaries, during the 2016 campaign and presidential transition, according to a New York Times analysis."[66]
The Moscow Project – an initiative of the Center for American Progress – had, by June 3, 2019, documented "272 contacts between Trump's team and Russia-linked operatives ... including at least 38 meetings.... None of these contacts were ever reported to the proper authorities. Instead, the Trump team tried to cover up every single one of them."[109]
The Mueller Report showed that Donald J. Trump had at least 13 Russian contacts [66]
The Mueller Report showed that Michael D. Cohen had at least 25 Russian contacts [66]
The Mueller Report showed that Donald Trump Jr. had at least 17 Russian contacts [66]
The Mueller Report showed that George Papadopoulos had at least 16 Russian contacts [66]
The Mueller Report showed that Paul Manafort had at least 7 Russian contacts [66]
The Mueller Report showed that Michael T. Flynn had at least 5 Russian contacts [66]
The Mueller Report showed that Jared Kushner had at least 6 Russian contacts [66]
The Mueller Report showed that Roger J. Stone Jr. had at least 18 Russian contacts [66]
- Trump administration members
- Trump campaign members
- Michael R. Caputo
- Paul Manafort
- Rick Gates
- Carter Page
- George Papadopoulos
- Roger Stone
- Donald Trump Jr.
- Trump business partners
- Trump supporters
Michael Cohen
[edit]The Mueller Report showed that Michael D. Cohen had at least 25 Russian contacts [66]
Cohen was ultimately convicted of making false statements. He was not pardoned by Trump.
Michael Flynn
[edit]The Mueller Report showed that Michael T. Flynn had at least 5 Russian contacts.[66]
"Judge orders public release of what Michael Flynn said in call to Russian ambassador"[43]
Flynn was ultimately convicted of making false statements. He was pardoned by Trump.
Rick Gates
[edit]Rudy Giuliani
[edit]Paul Manafort
[edit]The Mueller Report showed that Paul Manafort had at least 7 Russian contacts.[66]
"Paul Manafort, who was Trump’s campaign manager at the time the first emails went public, has longstanding ties to the Russian state. He resigned in late August 2016 — right in the middle of the campaign — after a secret ledger was discovered with his name in it, suggesting he had quietly received $12.7 million between 2007 and 2012 from Ukraine’s pro-Russian former president, Viktor Yanukovych.
Just this week, evidence emerged that Manafort had, as recently as 2009, been paid by a Russian oligarch to lobby on behalf of the Kremlin in Washington."[56]
Paul Manafort shared data with a Russian spy.[110]
Manafort was, during his time in the campaign, sharing data with Russian intelligence agent Konstantin V Kilimnik, while campaign advisor Jeff Sessions was sharing information with the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Manafort, Donald Trump Jr and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner held an illegal meeting in Trump Tower with a Kremlin-linked lawyer on 9 June 2016, where they were promised damaging material on the Clinton campaign.[110]
Manafort was ultimately convicted of many crimes. He was pardoned by Trump.
Jared Kusner
[edit]The Mueller Report showed that Jared Kushner had at least 6 Russian contacts.[66]
Carter Page
[edit]Page is evasive....
The Committee had significant challenges in its attempt to understand Page's activities, including his role as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump Campaign. After weeks of negotiation and an eventual Committee subpoena, Page produced some electronic documents, some of which included his own annotations and alterations to the original document form, and sat for an interview that lasted six and a half hours. Page's responses to basic questions were meandering, avoidant, and involved several long diversions. Despite the meticulous records Page kept on his personal hard drive detailing his daily routines, he was unable to recall any details of his trips to Moscow, or the names of senior Russian officials with whom he met, despite using his engagements with them to build his credentials within the Campaign.[111] (pp. 529-530)
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Erik Prince
[edit]Jeff Sessions
[edit]Mr. Sessions, the attorney general, said during his Senate confirmation hearing that he did not have any contacts with Russian officials while he was actively campaigning for Mr. Trump. In fact, he met with Mr. Kislyak twice, once in his Senate office and once at the Republican National Convention.[1]
Roger Stone
[edit]The Mueller Report showed that Roger Stone had at least 18 Russian contacts.[66]
The Intelligence Committee sought to track calls between Mr. Trump and Roger J. Stone Jr. — an adviser to the Trump campaign who was in contact with Guccifer 2.0, the online pseudonym for Russian intelligence operatives dumping the Democratic emails — in an effort to discover what Mr. Stone might have told Mr. Trump about the hacked emails. In written answers to Mr. Mueller, Mr. Trump said he could not recall discussing WikiLeaks with Mr. Stone, a response challenged in the Senate report. “The committee assesses that Trump did, in fact, speak with Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his Campaign about Stone’s access to WikiLeaks on multiple occasions,” the report said.[108]
"Also in August, longtime conservative political operative and close Trump confidant Roger Stone said he was in touch with WikiLeaks, the source through which Russia released the hacked emails to the public. On October 2, Stone sent a tweet hinting he had inside knowledge that WikiLeaks was about to torpedo Clinton’s campaign."[56]
Cohen testified that Trump knew about this.
The closest Mueller has publicly come so far to establishing a link between Trump’s campaign and the Russian hackers is through Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidant whom Mueller charged in January with obstruction of justice, making false statements to Congress, and witness tampering. In a court filing last month, Mueller linked Stone directly to one of the Russian military-intelligence (GRU) officers, writing that the search warrants his team conducted against the GRU revealed that Guccifer 2.0, a fictitious online persona created by the Russians, “interacted directly with Stone concerning other stolen materials posted separately online.” Stone has said he had “a short and innocuous Direct Message Exchange with Guccifer 2.0” in August 2016, in which Guccifer offered to “help” him. The January indictment of Stone also offered the clearest link yet between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks, and suggested that the campaign might have known about additional stolen emails before they were released. Many questions are still unanswered. One of them is whether Stone and the Trump campaign coordinated WikiLeaks’ release of the stolen Podesta emails to distract from the Access Hollywood tape, which showed Trump making vulgar comments about women. The emails were dumped just minutes after the tape was released on October 7, 2016, and the Stone indictment reveals a tantalizing new detail: Shortly after the Podesta emails were released, a Trump-campaign associate texted Stone “Well done.”[112]
Stone was ultimately convicted on seven counts. He was pardoned by Trump.
Donald J. Trump
[edit]The Mueller Report showed that Donald J. Trump had at least 13 Russian contacts.[66]
KOMPROMAT on Trump
It did, however, spend pages describing Mr. Trump’s relationships with women in Moscow during his trips there starting in the mid-1990s, when he began looking for sites to build a Trump Tower. Mr. Deere, the White House spokesman, did not comment on those details in the report.
According to the report, Mr. Trump met a former Miss Moscow at a party during one trip in 1996. After the party, a Trump associate told others he had seen Mr. Trump with the woman on multiple occasions and that they “might have had a brief romantic relationship.”
The report also raised the possibility that, during that trip, Mr. Trump spent the night with two young women who joined him the next morning at a business meeting with the mayor of Moscow.[108]
Donald Trump Jr.
[edit]The Mueller Report showed that Donald Trump Jr. had at least 17 Russian contacts.[66]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Mueller Report, Vol. I, p. 2: "In evaluating whether evidence about collective action of multiple individuals constituted a crime, we applied the framework of conspiracy law, not the concept of "collusion." In so doing, the Office recognized that the word "collud[e]" was used in communications with the Acting Attorney General confirming certain aspects of the investigation's scope and that the term has frequently been invoked in public reporting about the investigation. But collusion is not a specific offense or theory of liability found in the United States Code, nor is it a term of art in federal criminal law. For those reasons, the Office's focus in analyzing questions of joint criminal liability was on conspiracy as defined in federal law."
- ^ Mueller Report, Vol. I, p. 2: "In connection with that analysis, we addressed the factual question whether members of the Trump Campaign "coordinat[ed]" — a term that appears in the appointment order — with Russian election interference activities. Like collusion, "coordination" does not have a settled definition in federal criminal law. We understood coordination to require an agreement — tacit or express — between the Trump Campaign and the Russian government on election interference. That requires more than the two parties taking actions that were informed by or responsive to the other's actions or interests. We applied the term coordination in that sense when stating in the report that the investigation did not establish that the Trump Campaign coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities."
- ^ Mueller Report, Vol. I, p. 10: "The investigation did not always yield admissible information or testimony, or a complete picture of the activities undertaken by subjects of the investigation. Some individuals invoked their Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination and were not, in the Office's judgment, appropriate candidates for grants of immunity. The Office limited its pursuit of other witnesses and information-such as information known to attorneys or individuals claiming to be members of the media-in light of internal Department of Justice policies. See, e.g., Justice Manual §§ 9–13.400, 13.410. Some of the information obtained via court process, moreover, was presumptively covered by legal privilege and was screened from investigators by a filter (or "taint") team. Even when individuals testified or agreed to be interviewed, they sometimes provided information that was false or incomplete, leading to some of the false-statements charges described above. And the Office faced practical limits on its ability to access relevant evidence as well-numerous witnesses and subjects lived abroad, and documents were held outside the United States. Further, the Office learned that some of the individuals we interviewed or whose conduct we investigated-including some associated with the Trump Campaign—deleted relevant communications or communicated during the relevant period using applications that feature encryption or that do not provide for long-term retention of data or communications records. In such cases, the Office was not able to corroborate witness statements through comparison to contemporaneous communications or fully question witnesses about statements that appeared inconsistent with other known facts.
- ^ Crown prosecutor is not an office that exists in Russia; Goldstone is likely referring to the Prosecutor General of Russia here. The position has been held by Yury Chaika since 2006.[73][74]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Editorial Board (May 12, 2017). "The Trump–Russia nexus". The New York Times. Retrieved April 1, 2023.
Mr. Trump and his associates can cry themselves hoarse that there is neither smoke nor fire here. But all in all, the known facts suggest an unusually extensive network of relationships with a major foreign power. Anyone who cares about the credibility of the American electoral process should want a thorough investigation of whether and how Russia interfered in the election and through whom.
- ^ a b c d Frum, David (November 25, 2021). "It Wasn't a Hoax". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
- ^ a b LeTourneau, Nancy (May 2, 2019). "Mueller's Catch-22 On Obstruction". The Washington Monthly. Retrieved April 1, 2023.
That exposes the problem with having a criminal investigation conducted by a special counsel who is required to report charges and declinations on a president who cannot be indicted. It is a classic catch-22, defined as 'a paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules or limitations.' ... For the special counsel, he was not allowed to indict the target and the evidence didn't allow him to dismiss the charge.
- ^ a b Blake, Aaron (March 20, 2019). "Analysis - Trump just nixed a major argument against releasing the Mueller report". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 1, 2023.
- ^ a b Blake, Aaron (January 17, 2019). "Analysis - R.I.P. the 'Mueller report'?". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 1, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III (March 2019). "Mueller Report: Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election. Volume I of II" (PDF). U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved April 2, 2023. Official source
- ^ a b Phillips, Amber (May 29, 2019). "Analysis - Mueller's statement, annotated: 'If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so'". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 1, 2023.
- ^ a b Lynch, Sarah N.; Sullivan, Andy (May 29, 2019). "Mueller says he could not charge Trump as Congress weighs impeachment". Reuters. Retrieved April 1, 2023.
- ^ a b Office of the Inspector General U.S. Department of Justice (December 9, 2019). "Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane Investigation" (PDF). justice.gov. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
- ^ a b "The Steele Dossier". The Moscow Project. November 11, 2017. Archived from the original on August 1, 2021. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
- ^ a b Graham, David A. (July 10, 2017). "If There Was No Collusion With Russia, It Wasn't for Lack of Trying". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
- ^ Bump, Philip (May 29, 2019). "Analysis - Trump's mantra was once 'no collusion, no obstruction.' It isn't anymore". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ Guardian Staff (January 17, 2019). "Rudy Giuliani: 'I never said there was no collusion' by Trump campaign". The Guardian. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has insisted that he 'never said there was no collusion' between Trump's 2016 presidential election campaign and Russia – only that Trump himself was not involved.
- ^ a b Desiderio, Andrew; Cheney, Kyle (July 24, 2019). "Mueller refutes Trump's 'no collusion, no obstruction' line". Politico. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
- ^ Washington Post Staff (July 24, 2019). "Transcript of Robert S. Mueller III's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ a b c d Harding, Luke; Kirchgaessner, Stephanie; Hopkins, Nick (April 13, 2017). "British spies were first to spot Trump team's links with Russia". The Guardian. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
- ^ a b c d Harding, Luke (November 15, 2017). "How Trump walked into Putin's web". The Guardian. Retrieved May 22, 2019.
...the Russians were talking to people associated with Trump. The precise nature of these exchanges has not been made public, but according to sources in the US and the UK, they formed a suspicious pattern.
- ^ a b c Rosenberg, Matthew; Goldman, Adam; Schmidt, Michael S. (March 1, 2017). "Obama Administration Rushed to Preserve Intelligence of Russian Election Hacking". The New York Times. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
- ^ Wood, Paul (January 12, 2017). "Trump 'compromising' claims: How and why did we get here?". BBC News. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
- ^ Noack, Rick (January 26, 2018). "The Dutch were a secret U.S. ally in war against Russian hackers, local media reveal". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
- ^ a b Filipov, David; Roth, Andrew (November 10, 2016). "Moscow had contacts with Trump team during campaign, Russian diplomat says". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ Nelson, Louis (November 10, 2016). "Report: Trump's team had contacts with Moscow during campaign". Politico. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
- ^ Schick, Nina (2020). Deep Fakes and the Infocalypse. United Kingdom: Monoray. pp. 60–75. ISBN 978-1-913183-52-3.
- ^ "Russian Project Lakhta Member Charged with Wire Fraud Conspiracy". www.justice.gov. September 10, 2020. Retrieved September 5, 2021.
- ^ Ross, Brian; Schwartz, Rhonda; Meek, James Gordon (December 15, 2016). "Officials: Master Spy Vladimir Putin Now Directly Linked to US Hacking". ABC News. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- ^ Hosenball, Mark (August 18, 2020). Mohammed, Arshad (ed.). "Factbox: Key findings from Senate inquiry into Russian interference in 2016 U.S. election". Reuters. Washington. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- ^ a b Ostriker, Rebecca; Puzzanghera, Jim; Finucane, Martin; Datar, Saurabh; Uraizee, Irfan; Garvin, Patrick (April 18, 2019). "What the Mueller report says about Trump and more". The Boston Globe. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- ^ a b Law, Tara (April 19, 2019). "Here Are the Biggest Takeaways From the Mueller Report". Time. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- ^ Crowley, Michael; Pager, Tyler (July 27, 2016). "Trump urges Russia to hack Clinton's email". Politico. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
Donald Trump invited Russia to hack Hillary Clinton's emails on Wednesday, asking one of America's longstanding geopolitical adversaries to find 'the 30,000 emails that are missing' from the personal server she used during her time as secretary of state.
'I will tell you this, Russia: If you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,' the Republican nominee said at a news conference in Florida. 'I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.' - ^ "No evidence Clinton server was compromised, FBI says". CBS News. August 29, 2018. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
- ^ Fichera, Angelo (August 24, 2018). "Clinton's Emails, Weiner's Laptop and a Falsehood". FactCheck.org. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- ^ a b c Bertrand, Natasha (October 6, 2017). "Mueller reportedly interviewed the author of the Trump–Russia dossier—here's what it alleges, and how it aligned with reality". Business Insider. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
- ^ Bump, Philip (May 10, 2019). "The Deep State strikes back: Former FBI leaders rebut questions about the Russia investigation". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
- ^ Donn, Jeff (June 29, 2018). "Some questions in Trump–Russia dossier now finding answers". Associated Press. Retrieved June 29, 2018.
- ^ a b Mayer, Jane (March 12, 2018). "Christopher Steele, the Man Behind the Trump Dossier". The New Yorker. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- ^ Kessler, Glenn (April 24, 2019). "What the Steele dossier said vs. what the Mueller report said". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
- ^ Tucker, Eric; Long, Colleen; Balsamo, Michael (April 29, 2020). "FBI documents reveal that Roger Stone was in direct communication with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange". Business Insider. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
- ^ Samuelsohn, Darren; Gerstein, Josh (November 12, 2019). "What Roger Stone's trial revealed about Donald Trump and WikiLeaks". Politico. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
- ^ a b c d e ODNI (January 6, 2017). Background to 'Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections': The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution (PDF) (Report). Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
- ^ Sciutto, Jim; Perez, Evan (February 10, 2017). "US investigators corroborate some aspects of the Russia dossier". CNN. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
- ^ a b Levine, Mike (January 12, 2018). "FBI vets: What many are missing about the infamous 'dossier' amid Russia probe". ABC News. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
some of the dossier's broad implications — particularly that Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an operation to boost Trump and sow discord within the U.S. and abroad — now ring true and were embedded in the memo Steele shared with the FBI before the agency decided to open an investigation.
- ^ Yourish, Karen; Buchanan, Larry (January 26, 2019). "Mueller Report Shows Depth of Connections Between Trump Campaign and Russians". The New York Times. Retrieved October 24, 2019.
- ^ a b Leonnig, Carol D.; Helderman, Rosalind S. (May 17, 2019). "Judge orders public release of what Michael Flynn said in call to Russian ambassador". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 17, 2019.
- ^ Price, Greg (December 21, 2017). "What's True in the Trump 'Golden Shower' Dossier? Salacious Report Dogged President Throughout 2017". Newsweek. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
- ^ Harding, Luke; Sabbagh, Dan (November 1, 2019). "Trump–Russia dossier author gave evidence to UK intrusion inquiry". The Guardian. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
- ^ Grant, Sarah; Rosenberg, Chuck (December 14, 2018). "The Steele Dossier: A Retrospective". Lawfare. Retrieved December 29, 2019.
- ^ Mayer, Jane (November 25, 2019). "The Inside Story of Christopher Steele's Trump Dossier". The New Yorker. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
- ^ Hohmann, James (September 10, 2019). "The Daily 202: CIA exfiltration of Russian asset underscores the importance of human sources". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
- ^ Sciutto, Jim (September 9, 2019). "Exclusive: US extracted top spy from inside Russia in 2017". CNN. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
- ^ Barrett, Devlin; Zapotosky, Matt (April 18, 2019). "Mueller report lays out obstruction evidence against the president". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
- ^ Farley, Robert; Robertson, Lori; Gore, D'Angelo; Spencer, Saranac Hale; Fichera, Angelo; McDonald, Jessica (April 18, 2019). "What the Mueller Report Says About Obstruction". FactCheck.org. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
- ^ Mascaro, Lisa (April 18, 2019). "Mueller drops obstruction dilemma on Congress". Associated Press. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
- ^ Segers, Grace (May 29, 2019). "Mueller: If it were clear president committed no crime, "we would have said so"". CBS News. Retrieved April 3, 2023.
- ^ Bensinger, Ken; Elder, Miriam; Schoofs, Mark (January 10, 2017). "These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties To Russia". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ Kessler, Glenn (October 29, 2017). "Analysis – The 'dossier' and the uranium deal: A guide to the latest allegations". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
Steele's sources alleged there was a "well-developed conspiracy of co-operation between [the Trump campaign] and the Russian leadership".
- ^ a b c Beauchamp, Zack (March 22, 2017). "What we know about evidence of coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign". Vox. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ Morais, Betsy (April 18, 2019). "Collusion by any other name". Columbia Journalism Review. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ Multiple authors (April 19, 2019). "The Surprises in the Mueller Report". Politico. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ Ratnam, Gopal (April 19, 2019). "Mueller says messaging apps likely destroyed Trump-Russia evidence". Roll Call. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ Lemon, Jason (April 18, 2019). "Trump campaign figures deleted communications before Mueller could see them, potentially altering report". Newsweek. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ Yen, Hope (May 1, 2019). "AP Fact Check: Trump, Barr distort Mueller report findings". Associated Press. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ Lillis, Mike; Marcos, Cristina (April 23, 2019). "Democrats face Catch-22 with Trump impeachment strategy". The Hill. Retrieved April 1, 2023.
- ^ a b "Mueller Found Evidence of Collusion". The Moscow Project. April 18, 2019. Archived from the original on December 22, 2019. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
- ^ Corn, David (August 19, 2020). "A Republican-Backed Senate Report Shows Trump and His Backers Are Russian Dupes. The president and his allies fell for—and amplified—a Kremlin disinformation plot". Mother Jones. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- ^ Prokop, Andrew (February 15, 2023). "The rise of the Trump-Russia revisionists". Vox. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Yourish, Karen; Buchanan, Larry (April 19, 2019). "Mueller Report Shows Depth of Connections Between Trump Campaign and Russians". The New York Times. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
- ^ Mazzetti, Mark (September 7, 2018). "Excerpts From the New York Times Interview With George Papadopoulos". The New York Times. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ TNH Staff (September 11, 2018). "Papadopoulos Told Kotzias that the Russians Had Hillary's Emails". The National Herald. Archived from the original on September 11, 2018. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
- ^ Edelman, Adam (July 11, 2017). "Rob Goldstone: The Russia-Tied Music Publicist Behind Trump Jr. Meeting". NBC News. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
- ^ Porter, Tom (July 11, 2017). "Trump, the Russian Lawyer and the Pop Star: President's Links to Azerbaijan Oligarch Come Under Scrutiny". Newsweek. Archived from the original on February 15, 2021. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
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- ^ Sciutto, Jim; Bernstein, Carl; Cohen, Marshall (July 27, 2018). "Cohen claims Trump knew in advance of 2016 Trump Tower meeting". CNN. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
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According to one of the participants in the meeting, Don began to realize he wasn't going to be handed what he was hoping for. "The light just went out in his eyes," the participant told me recently. "He was totally disinterested."
- ^ Becker, Jo; Apuzzo, Matt; Goldman, Adam (July 8, 2017). "Trump Team Met With Lawyer Linked to Kremlin During Campaign". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 11, 2017. Retrieved July 12, 2017.
- ^ Parker, Ashley; Leonnig, Carol D.; Rucker, Philip; Hamburger, Tom (July 31, 2017). "Trump dictated son's misleading statement on meeting with Russian lawyer". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 31, 2017. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
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- ^ a b c Satter, Raphael; Donn, Jeff; Day, Chad (November 4, 2017). "Inside Story: How Russians Hacked the Democrats' Emails: How did Russian hackers pry into Clinton campaign emails? Huge effort made quick work". U.S. News & World Report. Associated Press. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
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A lawyer for Julian Assange has claimed in court that President Donald Trump offered to pardon Assange if the WikiLeaks founder agreed to help cover up Russia's involvement in hacking emails from the Democratic National Committee.
- ^ a b Bowcott, Owen; Borger, Julian (February 19, 2020). "Donald Trump 'offered Julian Assange a pardon if he denied Russia link to hack'". The Guardian. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
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Lawyers representing the United States at Julian Assange's extradition trial in Britain have accepted the claim that the WikiLeaks founder was offered a presidential pardon by a congressman on the condition that he would help cover up Russia's involvement in hacking emails from the Democratic National Committee.
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In particular, Steele's sources reported that Page met separately while in Russia with Igor Sechin ... and Igor Divyekin, a senior Kremlin official. ... Divyekin allegedly disclosed to Page that the Kremlin possessed compromising information on Clinton ("kompromat") and noted "the possibility of its being released to Candidate #l's campaign." (Note: "Candidate #1" refers to candidate Trump.) This closely tracks what other Russian contacts were informing another Trump foreign policy advisor, George Papadopoulos.
In subsequent FISA renewals, DOJ provided additional information obtained through multiple independent sources that corroborated Steele's reporting. - ^ Multiple sources:
- Leonard, Mike (February 11, 2021). "Carter Page Loses Libel Case Over 'Steele Dossier,' Russia Probe". Bloomberg Law. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
- Leonard, Mike (March 16, 2021). "Carter Page Seeks to Revive Defamation Case Over His Russia Ties". Bloomberg Law. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
- Montgomery, Jeff (February 11, 2021). "Del. Judge Nixes Carter Page Yahoo, HuffPost Defamation Suit". Law360. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
- ^ a b c Mazzetti, Mark (August 18, 2020). "Senate Panel Details Ties Between 2016 Trump Campaign and Russia". The New York Times. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
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- ^ a b Solnit, Rebecca (March 2, 2022). "It's time to confront the Trump-Putin network". The Guardian. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
- ^ "Volume V: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities" (PDF). United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. August 18, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
- ^ Bertrand, Natasha (March 22, 2019). "What Mueller Leaves Behind". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 1, 2023.
Cite error: A list-defined reference named "Mueller_Vol_2" is not used in the content (see the help page).
Further reading
[edit]- Books
- Harding, Luke (2017). Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win. Random House. ISBN 978-0-525-52093-1.
- News, magazines, and websites
- Harding, Luke (November 19, 2017). "The Hidden History of Trump's First Trip to Moscow". Politico (an excerpt of his book Collusion).
- "The Full Story: How decades of Donald Trump's business dealings and Vladimir Putin's assault on western democracy converged during the 2016 election cycle and beyond". The Moscow Project. November 11, 2017. Archived from the original on August 1, 2021. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
- "Yes, Collusion. Yes, Obstruction". The Moscow Project. November 11, 2017. Archived from the original on August 1, 2021. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
- Government sources
- "Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Schiff Opening Statement During Hearing on Russian Active Measures" (press release). Schiff's official U.S. House website. March 20, 2017.
- "Volume V: Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities" (PDF). United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. August 18, 2020. Retrieved April 5, 2023.
- "Text of declassified Dems memo about FBI's Russia probe". Associated Press. February 24, 2018. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
- Mueller Report, less-redacted version
External links
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- Mueller Report, Vol. I[2]
- ^ United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary (October 29, 2020). "Interview of Supervisory Intelligence Analyst" (PDF). judiciary.senate.gov. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
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