Trump and Putin, behind the scenes

[Admin]

Again, it may be nothing, but if you take all of these 'incidents' and memory losses together..

Sessions has slapped away suggestions that he should recuse himself from the investigation. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham commented on The Post's report during a CNN event on Wednesday night, saying "for sure you need a special prosecutor" if Sessions indeed spoke with the Kremlin. "Misleading the Senate in sworn testimony about one's own contacts with the Russians is a good way to go to jail," Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, said in a tweet on Wednesday.

Report: Jeff Sessions met with Russian ambassador at least twice during the election - Business Insider

Apart from almost surely lying under oath..

Could these meetings have been entirely appropriate? Yes. Sessions was a senior member of the Senate armed services committee and his spokeswoman has said that, in that capacity, he had more than 25 conversations with foreign ambassadors.

But the Washington Post asked all 26 members of the Senate armed services committee at that time whether they, too, had met with Kislyak. Of the 20 senators who responded, each said they had not had any such meeting. Claire McCaskill, the Democratic senator from Missouri, went further, tweeting: Follow Claire McCaskill ✔ @clairecmc I've been on the Armed Services Com for 10 years.No call or meeting w/Russian ambassador. Ever. Ambassadors call members of Foreign Rel Com.

Jeff Sessions and the Russia connection: what happened and why does it matter? | US news | The Guardian

However...

But tweets quickly unearthed contradicted her claim:

Off to meeting w/Russian Ambassador. Upset about the arbitrary/cruel decision to end all US adoptions,even those in process.
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) January 30, 2013

Today calls with British, Russian, and German Ambassadors re: Iran deal. #doingmyhomework
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) August 6, 2015

McCaskill's apparently contradictory tweets raise questions about how frequently and under what circumstances lawmakers meet with foreign ambassadors. 
McCaskill later tweeted a response, noting that she has never met "one on one" with the Russian ambassador in her capacity as a member of the Armed Services Committee. 

Claire McCaskill tweets contradictory statements about Russian ambassador meetings - Business Insider

[Admin]

And then there is this..

President George W. Bush's top ethics lawyer told Business Insider on Thursday that while it was "debatable" whether Attorney General Jeff Sessions perjured himself during his Senate confirmation hearing, he must resign.

Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who was the chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007, added the latest Russia-related White House firestorm could leave Sessions open to the risk of "blackmailing." "The thing with Sessions is that the Russians almost certainly have a recording of these conversations or detailed notes about the conversations," he said.

Painter continued: "And so, they've got something over Sessions. Sessions will be asked what was said in these conversations. And if that doesn't match what the Russians have in their records ... then they've got him, and they have this over him for the rest of his term. We have no idea of knowing whether we're in that situation, but it's just way too high a risk." 

...

He compared it to the circumstances that played out around Richard Kleindienst, an attorney general for President Richard Nixon. In 1972, Kleindienst, then acting attorney general, appeared before the Senate Judiciary committee for a confirmation hearing. He was asked about White House interference in an antitrust suit against International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, and whether he ever spoke with anyone in the administration about the case.

He said he did not, which was not true, as Painter outlined in a New York Times op-ed. When it was uncovered that Kleindienst, after being confirmed as attorney general, was not truthful, he said he believed the questions asked during his hearing were limited to a particular time period. But that excuse didn't pass muster with the special prosecutor who was investigating the Watergate scandal, and Kleindienst was forced to resign. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failing to provide accurate information to Congress.

Richard Painter: Sessions might not be guilty of perjury, but he has to resign - Business Insider

[Admin]

And now this..

The Trump campaign's national-security policy representative for the Republican National Convention, J.D. Gordon, told CNN on Thursday that he pushed to alter an amendment to the GOP's draft policy on Ukraine at the Republican National Convention last year to further align it with President Donald Trump's views.

Gordon's remarks represent a dramatic shift from previous comments, and they come as Attorney General Jeff Sessions faces intense scrutiny over two previously undisclosed meetings with Russia's ambassador to the US — one of which was timed to the convention.

In January, Gordon told Business Insider that he "never left" his "assigned side table" nor spoke publicly at the GOP national security subcommittee meeting, where the amendment — which originally called for "providing lethal defense weapons" to the Ukrainian army to fend off Russian-backed separatists — was read aloud, debated, and ultimately watered down to "providing appropriate assistance" to Ukraine.

JD Gordon, Trump adviser, changes story about GOP Ukraine shift - Business Insider

Donald Trump appears to have pushed for the Republicans to adopt a pro-Moscow policy over Ukraine just as his senior aides with meeting with Russia’s US Ambassador.

At the Republican National Convention last summer, the party agreed to insert language into its platform that opposed arming or providing Ukraine with weapons to take on pro-Russian rebels. At the time, Mr Trump told an interviewer he “wasn’t involved in it”.

But now, a former adviser to Mr Trump has revealed that the push to change the platform came after the direct intervention of the New York tycoon. Mr Trump had hinted as to his views on Ukraine during a speech in the spring of 2016, where the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, was among the guests.

Republicans adopted pro-Russia stance on Ukraine just after Trump officials met with Russian ambassador | The Independent

[Admin]

President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus have for months claimed that no one from the Trump campaign had communications with Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia. It is now clear that these claims were false.

As Russia — according to multiple U.S. intelligence agencies — worked to interfere in the 2016 presidential election to aid Trump and undermine Hillary Clinton, Trump and his team claimed total ignorance. But at least four Trump campaign figures apparently met with the Russian ambassador and/or other Putin representatives.

Trump said no one from his campaign met with Russia, but at least 4 people did

The article goes on to list the people. And these are only the ones we know off so far. Several of them lied about it.

[Admin]

Let's see, what does Putin want?

• A weaker NATO
  
• A weaker EU
  
• A less interventionist US
  
• Keeping Crimea
  
• Unopposed meddling into the affairs of neighboring states, like Ukraine
  
• Get rid of the sanctions imposed after the annexation of Crimea
  

Guess what? On ALL of these, he's found a willing instrument in Trump, most of these are breaking with long standing Republican tradition. At one time or another, Trump has argued:

• NATO is outdated
  
• The EU is outdated
  
• He rejoiced about Brexit
  
• The US shouldn't do nation building and solve other countries problems
  
• Maybe we should allow Russia to keep Crimea
  
• Russia wouldn't move military into Ukraine (they're already there, but anyway)
  
• Continuously rubbished the notion that the Russians hacked the DNC and the email of its chairman
  
• Even when US intelligence agencies unanimously came to that conclusion
  
• He then rubbished these agencies
  
• He also publicly exhorted the Russians to hack Clinton to find the 30,000 personal emails
  
• He has continuously praised Putin at almost every occasion
  
• He managed to considerably soften the Republican platform towards Russia during the Convention
  

[Admin]

The funny thing is, if Trump is right and his phone was tapped it is actually pretty bad news for him..

If the FBI felt Trump’s campaign warranted wiretaps and a federal judge signed off on surveillance, then it could mean there was noteworthy communication between Trump’s team and influential Russian officials.

In January, the Guardian reported that the FBI had submitted a formal application to the FISA court for the surveillance of four Trump campaign officials, but that the application was rejected because it was too broad. A second, more narrow application was submitted and, according to at least one report, was granted.

If that’s the case, then it provides some of the most compelling evidence yet that the intelligence community believes there was direct communication between the Trump campaign and allies in Russia[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)].[/color]

Trump claims he was wiretapped. If he’s right, it could be his undoing.

[Admin]

It gets weirder by the day..

Raddatz then said that if the claim was true, Trump may have been disclosing classified information. "A FISA court order wiretap is highly classified information. Why is it acceptable for the president to tweet something like that out?" Raddatz asked.

"I don't think he's tweeting out classified information. He's talking about could this have happened? Did this happen?" Sanders replied. As the conversation appeared to wind down, Raddatz pressed yet again to present clear evidence that proved Obama wiretapped Trump. "You keep saying, if, if, if. The president of the United States said it was a fact. He didn't say I read a story in Breitbart or 'The New York Times' or wherever else. He said, just found out that Obama had my wires tapped in Trump Tower. That's not an if," Raddatz said.

"I will let the president speak for himself," Sanders replied. "You're his spokesperson," Raddatz said "And I'm speaking about it right now," Sanders said. "But you're backing off of it. You're backing off of it," Raddatz said.

Martha Raddatz grills Trump spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanderes over Obama wiretap allegations - Business Insider

So either Trump was speaking about a fact or he was merely hypothetical. But you can't have it both ways, as his spokesperson (Sanders) tries.

If Trump was speaking about a fact, and he clearly presented it as a fact, then:

• He was tweeting out classified information, that really isn't ok.
  
• He is in significant trouble, as if there was indeed a wiretrap, a FISA court must have seen probable cause for it.
  

Good luck to that..

[Admin]

FBI Director James Comey told the US Justice Department on Saturday to reject President Donald Trump's baseless claim that President Barack Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump's phones, according to The New York Times. Comey argued that Trump's claim is false and has no supporting evidence, The Times reported, citing senior US officials. The Justice Department has yet to release a statement, however.

FBI Director asked Justice Department to reject Trump's wiretapping claim - Business Insider

[Admin]

Of course he doesn't accept..

The charge has been denied by Obama, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and, reportedly, FBI Director James Comey. Sanders told "Good Morning America" anchor George Stephanopoulos that Trump did not accept Comey's denial, which had been reported by The New York Times and CNN. "No, I don't think he does, George," Sanders said when asked directly if the president accepted the FBI director's denial.

Trump does not accept FBI denial over phone-tap claims - Business Insider

[Admin]

Denials, denials, but these have been proven lies already..

One fundamental issue in this scandal is what interactions occurred between Trump and his associates and Vladimir Putin's regime and its agents. Trump and his political aides have repeatedly insisted there were no communications between the Trump camp and Russians during the campaign. 

Days after the election—in response to news reports quoting Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov saying that "there were contacts" between the Trump team and the Kremlin—Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks claimed the campaign had "no contact with Russian officials" before the election. After the conclusion of a January 11 press conference, Trump insisted his campaign had no contact with Russia. At a February 14 White House briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer asserted there had been no communications between the Trump campaign and Russians. And Trump has frequently declared—as he did at a press conference last month—"I have nothing to do with Russia." (That is false. Trump has repeatedly tried to do business in Russia, and he held his the Miss Universe contest, which he owned until 2015, in Moscow, in partnership with oligarch Aras Agalarov, with whom Trump was pursuing other deals in Russia.)

The public record contradicts the denials of the Trump crew. Flynn, Sessions, onetime Trump foreign policy advisers Carter Page and J.D. Gordon, and former campaign manager Paul Manafort each had some degree of contact with Russian officials during the campaign. Perhaps the most intriguing interaction involved Flynn.

One Simple Question That Could Break the Trump-Russia Scandal Wide Open | Mother Jones

On Thursday and Friday, former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page, a businessman with extensive ties to Russia, appeared in two strange, stumbling cable TV interviews, first with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes and then with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Speaking to Hayes, Page admitted to meeting with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, something he’d previously denied. With both Hayes and Cooper, Page was preoccupied by his own sense of victimization: He complained to Cooper about being made “public enemy No. 1” as a result of Democratic allegations about Trump and Russia. In both interviews, he was squirrely and evasive; it’s hard to imagine why he agreed to appear on television in the first place. What’s clear is that he seemed panicked.

Why did Trump and two associates freak out after Jeff Sessions’ recusal?