Trump and Putin, behind the scenes

[Admin]

Hmm..

Donald Trump Jr. told high-level campaign officials including Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner that WikiLeaks contacted him on September 20, 2016. The Atlantic published the full, secret correspondance between Trump Jr. and the Wikileaks account, which spanned 10 months. Trump Jr. is under scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to NBC. Kushner has reportedly turned over documents to Mueller.

Trump praised WikiLeaks hundreds of times along the campaign trail for publishing emails that had been stolen from the Democratic National Committee by hackers linked to Russia. On October 10, Trump told a crowd of supporters: "I love WikiLeaks!"

Two days later, WikiLeaks sent Trump Jr. another private Twitter message: “Hey Donald, great to see you and your dad talking about our publications. Strongly suggest your dad tweets this link if he mentions us. There’s many great stories the press are missing and we’re sure some of your follows [sic] will find it. Btw we just released Podesta Emails Part 4." Trump Jr. did not respond. But fifteen minutes later, Trump Sr. tweeted: "Very little pick-up by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by Wikileaks. So dishonest! Rigged system!"

The correspondence began about two weeks before WikiLeaks published emails stolen from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, which Trump Jr. promoted on his Twitter account (two days after WikiLeaks asked him to, according to The Atlantic).

The US intelligence community concluded in January that Russia used WikiLeaks as a tool to interfere in the election. In April, CIA Director Mike Pompeo characterized WikiLeaks as a "non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia." He added that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was “a fraud” and “a coward.”

Donald Trump Jr's WikiLeaks communication was flagged to Kushner, Bannon - Business Insider

Let's see

• Trump Jr. has correspondence with Wikileaks.
  
• You know, the Wikileaks that their own CIA director Mike Pompeo has characterized as a "non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia."
  
• Trump Jr. doesn't even know with whom he is conversing.
  
• 15 Minutes after Trump Jr. receives a link to the hacked Podesta emails his father tweets about them. Just a coincidence, right?
  
• He did tell Kuchner, Conway, Bannon, but not his daddy?
  

[Admin]

Nothing to see here!

Before the special council Robert Mueller was installed, the Trump campaign vehemently denied there were any contacts with the Russians. Just from memory:

• There was Michael Flynn, then he lied about the content to VP Pence, and he had to go.
  
• There was Jeff Sessions with a failing memory on disclosure forms, then he had to recuse himself (which everybody thought was the only thing he could do except the President)
  
• There is Kuchner with an equally failing memory about his contacts with Russians (which included a plan to establish a backdoor communication channel with the Russians to evade US intelligence services and a meeting with a dodgy banker on the sanction list)
  
• Then there is Don Jr., conversing with Wikileaks
  
• Then there is Don Jr., being contacted by a Russian lawyer with Kremlin ties who told him the Kremlin is supporting Trump's campaign and they have dirt on Hillary. His response: "I love it!"
  
• Then there is Daddy dictating the answer that this was a meeting about adoption, which almost instantly blew up after the emails emerged.
  
• Then there is Trump Sr. firing Comey, first because of a ridiculous Rosenstein letter (he had mistreated Hillary) but a couple of days later Trump Sr. admitted the real reason, the Russian investigation.
  
• Then there is Trump Sr. not accepting the US intelligence conclusion that Russians meddled in the US election and hacked the DNC and Podesta's email accounts.
  
• Then there is Trump Sr. absolutely failing to even once criticize Putin, instead praising him multiple times.
  
• Then there is the curious change in policy towards Ukraine during the Republican convention, softening support for the Ukrainians.
  
• Then there is Papadopoulos, trying to broker a meeting between candidate Trump and Putin, and communicating this multiple times higher up the campaign.
  
• Then there is Carter Page with his Russian contacts.
  
• Then there is Roger Stone, who seemed to have known in advance about Wikileaks going to publish the hacked Podesta's emails and admitted he was in contact with a Russian hacker widely suspected as the culprit. 
  
• Then there is campaign manager Steve Bannon, with a well known history (even back then when he was appointed campaign manager) of supporting Russian backed politicians in Ukraine, and having dodgy dealings with Russian oligarchs tied to Putin
  
• Then there are the ruses to deflect attention from the White House and David Nunes.
  
• Then there are the attacks on the integrity of Special Council Robert Mueller. 
  
• Then there are the curiously well directed Russian Tweets and FB ads at really sensitive swing election spots. Were they really that sophisticated?
  

We're sure this list is far from comprehensive, but what matters most is that at no moment has the Trump campaign been open and transparent. If there was really nothing to see, why not cooperating fully, instead of endless foot dragging, memory loss, twisting stories, deflections and attacks?

[Admin]

Trump Jr.'s release of the "entire chain of messages" comes after The Atlantic obtained and published the messages. Throughout the 2016 election, WikiLeaks consistently published leaked and hacked emails from the Clinton campaign, but spared the Trump campaign. President Donald Trump said on the campaign trail that he loved WikiLeaks, and would often discuss the leaked information.

Special counsel Robert Mueller, the investigator tasked with looking into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia — which is suspected to coordinate with WikiLeaks — has scrutinized Trump Jr.'s contact with Russian agents in the past. Trump Jr. also failed to disclose all his meetings with Russian-linked figures, and has since defended his actions as opposition research.

In the released messages posted by Trump Jr., WikiLeaks appears to be pressing him for access into the campaign and to push its publications. Trump Jr. seems to show little interest and replies only three times. But the correspondence is incomplete, and doesn't match the full depth of the messages as reported by the Atlantic — suggesting it's possible he could have responded other times on another platform, for example..

Trump Jr. releases partial record of Twitter messages with WikiLeaks - Business Insider

So:

• After having denied any contacts with Russians, Trump Jr. is once again caught out.
  
• He only publishes the communication after the media were going to do it, just like with the emails that set up the meeting with the Russian lawyer.
  
• Then he claims full transparency, but he was only forced into it
  
• And it remains to be seen how full that transparency was.
  
• Isn't it curious how Wikileaks only published dirt on one campaign?
  
• Isn't it curious how Wikileaks cooperated with the Russians?
  
• Isn't it curious how Trump and others in his campaign loved Wikileaks, despite Trump's own CIA head characterizing it as a hostile foreign intelligence service? 
  

One should click the link of the article and see some of these conversations between Jr. and Wikileaks. No collusion??

[Admin]

According to those direct messages, Trump Jr.’s last message to Wikileaks was sent on October 3, 2016 — four days before the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Election Security released a joint statement publicly accusing WikiLeaks of being a Kremlin front.

“The recent disclosures of alleged hacked e-mails on sites like DCLeaks.com and WikiLeaks and by the Guccifer 2.0 online persona are consistent with the methods and motivations of Russian-directed efforts,” the statement said. “These thefts and disclosures are intended to interfere with the US election process… We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia’s senior-most officials could have authorized these activities.”

While Trump Jr. could argue he stopped sending messages to WikiLeaks as soon as U.S. intelligence agencies publicly accused it of being a Kremlin front, his willingness to collaborate with WikiLeaks seems to have extended past the statement’s release on October 7.

On October 12, WikiLeaks sent Trump Jr. a message lauding Trump Sr. for “talking about our publications” during campaign rallies, and suggested “your dad tweets this link if he mentions us.”

Fifteen minutes later, Trump Sr. posted a tweet complaining that there was “Very little pick-up by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks. So dishonest! Rigged system!” And two days later, Trump Jr. tweeted out the very link WikiLeaks suggested.

During the last month of the campaign, Trump Sr. mentioned WikiLeaks 164 times, with many of them occurring after the intelligence agencies released their joint statement. Despite the fact that stolen emails published by WikiLeaks were a central part of his closing message, Trump later insisted that WikiLeaks had “absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election.”

The big problem with Donald Trump Jr.’s excuse for collaborating with WikiLeaks – ThinkProgress

[Admin]

The FBI is reviewing a series of wire transfers totaling more than $380,000 sent in August and September of last year by the Russian government to its embassies around the world. Most had the memo "to finance election campaign of 2016." It is unclear which "election campaign" the money was for — the US campaign was in full swing, but Russia's lower house of Parliament was also set to hold an election on September 18. Still, the wire transfers could shed light on a key claim made in the dossier alleging ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. 

A dossier compiled by the former British spy Christopher Steele alleging ties between President Donald Trump's campaign and Moscow claimed that Russian "diplomatic staff" paid "relevant assets" to provide "a two-way flow of intelligence and other useful information." "Source E claimed that Russian diplomatic staff in key cities such as New York, Washington DC and Miami were using the emigre 'pension' distribution system as cover," the dossier reads. "The operation therefore depended on key people in the US Russian emigre community for its success. Tens of thousands of dollars were involved."

FBI examining Russian wire transfers to embassies to finance election - Business Insider

Maybe nothing, but let's see..

[Admin]

Christopher Steele, the former British intelligence officer who compiled an explosive dossier of allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, believes it to 70% to 90% accurate, according to a new book on the covert Russian intervention in the 2016 US election. The book, Collusion: How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win, by Guardian journalist Luke Harding, quotes Steele as telling friends that he believes his reports – based on sources cultivated over three decades of intelligence work – will be vindicated as the US special counsel investigation digs deeper into contacts between Trump, his associates and Moscow. “I’ve been dealing with this country for thirty years. Why would I invent this stuff?” Steele is quoted as saying. One of the reasons his dossier was taken seriously in Washington in 2016 was Steele’s reputation in the US for producing reliable reports on Russia, according to Harding’s book.

Years earlier, Steele shared the results of his investigation of the global football organisation, Fifa, with a senior FBI official in Rome that let to an investigation by US federal prosecutors, and ultimately the arrest of seven Fifa officials. “The episode burnished Steele’s reputation inside the US intelligence community and the FBI. Here was a pro, a well-connected Brit, who understood Russian espionage and its subterranean tricks. Steele was regarded as credible,” Harding writes.

Christopher Steele believes his dossier on Trump-Russia is 70-90% accurate | US news | The Guardian

And much more about Chris Steele and the Russia investigation here: 
How Trump walked into Putin’s web | News | The Guardian

[Admin]

The plot thickens..

Jared Kushner was copied on emails sent to the Trump campaign last year from Sergei Millian, a Belarus-born businessman who was reportedly a key source in the explosive dossier alleging ties between Trump and Russia. Millian told associates last year that he was in regular touch with George Papadopoulos — a campaign foreign policy adviser who lied to the FBI about the extent and nature of his contacts with Kremlin-linked foreign nationals. Millian's relationship with Papadopoulos, who was told in April 2016 that the Kremlin had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, raises questions about what they discussed during the election and what they relayed to campaign officials.

Jared Kushner received emails from Sergei Millian, a dossier source - Business Insider

[Admin]

Senior White House Adviser Jared Kushner has spent much of the past few months playing a cat-and-mouse game with special counsel Robert Mueller and his team of investigators working to unearth possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. But several media reports this week detailing missing documents that the president’s son-in-law may have kept from congressional investigators suggest that the walls around him may be closing in. On Friday, The New York Times reported that Kushner had been forwarded a chain of emails during the 2016 campaign from someone looking to set up a meeting between then-candidate Trump’s people and Vladimir Putin. Senate Judiciary Committee members have accused Kushner of hiding the emails from investigators, among a number of other things. According to the report, Alexander Torshin, deputy governor of the Russian central bank, sought to meet with Trump in May 2016, reaching out through a Christian advocate from West Virginia named Rick Clay. The Times noted that Torshin “has been linked both to Russia’s security services and organized crime,” and allegedly laundered money for the Russian mob through Spanish banks during his time in Parliament, a charge he has denied.

The walls are closing in on Jared Kushner – ThinkProgress

[Admin]

And yet another one whose memory suddenly and mysteriously fails multiple times in relation to contacts with Russia..

Jared Kushner insists he's got nothing to hide when it comes to Russia. Yet he keeps failing to disclose things that raise real questions about whether he tried to collude with Moscow during the campaign — and whether he's been trying to cover it up ever since. Just last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee notified Kushner’s attorneythat Kushner had failed to provide them with some vital emails regarding their investigation into possible collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and Moscow.

Those emails indicate that Kushner knew about multiple attempts by Russian officials to get in touch with the Trump campaign in 2016. They also indicate that he knew Donald Trump Jr. had secretly corresponded with WikiLeaks, the radical transparency organization that released emails during the campaign season stolen from the Democratic National Committee's servers. In July, Kushner had told congressional investigators that he couldn’t recall any communication between the campaign and WikiLeaks — an assertion that’s at odds with what the committee now knows. 

This is far from the first time that crucial pieces of information about Kushner’s Russia ties or business holdings seem to have mysteriously escaped his memory. He failed to include the names of more than 100 foreign officials whom he met with in the years before joining the White House on his application for national security clearance — including top Russian officials.

He’s had to change his financial disclosure forms detailing his divestment from his business empire at least 39 times. He’s neglected to mention the Russian technology magnate that owns a stake in a company he co-owns. And when he offers explanations for the oversights, they’re loaded with deflections such as when he said that a busy schedule and email overload made it hard for him to remember communications with foreign officials.

Here’s a brief guide to all of the things Kushner has conveniently forgotten — and that special counsel Robert Mueller may wind up grilling him about.

All the times Jared Kushner has failed to tell Congress something important - Vox

[Admin]

President Donald Trump sparked widespread concern within the US and Israeli intelligence communities earlier this year when he disclosed details of a highly classified Israeli operation to Russian officials, according to a new Vanity Fair report. The Washington Post first reported in May that Trump told Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and ambassador to the US at the time, Sergey Kislyak, about the terrorist group ISIS's work to develop a laptop bomb that could pass through airport security undetected — information Trump had received from Israeli intelligence officials.

The information was highly classified and had not been disclosed even to close American allies. Vanity Fair reported on Wednesday that a top American spy told Israeli intelligence officials during a meeting at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, a few weeks before Trump's inauguration that US intelligence believed Russian President Vladimir Putin had "leverages of pressure" over Trump. The report said that American official warned that information provided to the White House could be leaked to the Russians and, therefore, eventually to their ally Iran, Israel's greatest adversary..

When this surfaced in news reports, Israeli and US intelligence officials were infuriated, Vanity Fair reported. "Trump betrayed us," a senior Israeli military official told the news outlet. "And if we can't trust him, then we're going to have to do what is necessary on our own if our back is up against the wall with Iran." Michael Morell, a former CIA deputy director, told CBS News in May that Trump's apparently unvetted disclosure was "highly damaging" and would negatively affect the US's relationships with foreign allies. "Third countries who provide the United States with intelligence information will now have pause," Morell said.

New details about Trump's Oval Office meeting with Russians - Business Insider