Trump and Putin, behind the scenes

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Another meeting which they forgot to declare, and with pretty unsavory people..

President Donald Trump's son, son-in-law, and campaign chairman met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya just weeks after Trump clinched the Republican nomination, The New York Times reported on Saturday. Veselnitskaya is known for waging a harsh campaign against the 2012 Magnitsky Act, which blacklisted Russians suspected of human rights abuses, and has strong ties to the Kremlin. She is married to a former deputy transportation minister of the Moscow region, and her clients have included Russian state-owned businesses.


She is also the family lawyer for Denis Katsyv, the son of senior Russian government official Pyotr Katsyv and owner of the Cyprus-incorporated real-estate company Prevezon. Prevezon was under investigation by the Department of Justice at the time the meeting occurred over whether it laundered millions of dollars into New York City real estate.

The case, which was settled for approximately $6 million in May, garnered high-profile attention given its ties to the $230 million Russian tax-fraud scheme uncovered by Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, whose suspicious death aroused international media attention in November 2009. Magnitsky uncovered the scheme, which became one of the biggest corruption scandals of Russian President Vladimir Putin's presidency, in 2008 on behalf of the investment advisory firm Hermitage Capital. Magnitsky was later thrown in jail and died in custody, and an independent human-rights commission found he had been illegally arrested and beaten. The Kremlin maintains that Magnitsky died of a heart attack.

Trump team met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya during the campaign - Business Insider

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A senior Senate Republican on Sunday said President Trump’s plan to work with Russia on cybersecurity is “pretty close” to the “dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called Trump’s Friday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin “disastrous” and said the president has a “blind spot” on Russia. “When it comes to Russia I am dumbfounded, I am disappointed, and at the end of the day he’s hurting his presidency by not embracing the fact that Putin is a bad guy,” Graham said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press.” “He is literally the only person I know of who doesn’t believe Russia attacked our election in 2016,” Graham said of Trump, who has said that “nobody really knows” whether the Russians were behind attempts to hack the 2016 presidential election.

Graham unloads on Trump: Blind spot on Russia 'undermining his entire presidency' | TheHill

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Good luck with this..

Corey Lewandowski said Sunday the Russian election meddling "issue is officially dead" after President Trump discussed the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their closed-door meeting at the G-20 summit. "Now, the president is taking this issue directly to the president of Russia and raised it, so now I think the issue is officially dead," Lewandowski, who served as Trump's campaign manager, said on "Fox & Friends."

Lewandowski: Russian election meddling ‘issue is officially dead’ | TheHill

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In a surprise move coming out of the G-20 meetings with the world's most powerful leaders, President Trump on Sunday shifted conversation from trade or healthcare or climate change — all key topics at the summit — to his proposed "Cyber Security unit," a joint operation with Russia focusing on cyberattacks. Lawmakers and members of Trump's administration on Sunday had strongly mixed opinions about the idea of working together with Russia on the issue of cybersecurity. Some chided the idea as "dumb" and "naive," while others praised the effort, saying it was important the U.S. cooperate with Russia, in part to ensure the Kremlin does not turn its efforts on the U.S. again in the future.

Trump's talk of cybersecurity unit with Russia takes the spotlight | TheHill

Either Trump is extraordinarily naive or he thinks we are.

Russia is the main source of these cyberattacks and they are unlikely to quit anytime soon. It has been far too successful for them.

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Russia has reportedly hacked into U.S. nuclear power plant systems as well as other energy companies, The Washington Post reported Saturday. The government-backed cyber intrusion appears to be an attempt to size up the capabilities of the energy companies' networks, U.S. government officials told the newspaper. The officials said the hackers appear to have accessed files related to the sites' business operations, like personnel. There were not signs that the hackers attempted to seize control of or disrupt the power systems..

Russians hacked US nuclear power plant systems: report | TheHill

But still, we should work together with the Russians to solve this problem, right?

[Admin]

This is getting more bizarre by the moment..

WikiLeaks suggested on Sunday that its founder, Julian Assange, should lead the U.S.-Russian cyber security unit after President Trump announced the idea on Twitter. “Why not put @JulianAssange in charge of it? He's trusted by the public and has the CIA's best stuff anyway,” WikiLeaks tweeted, replying to Trump’s tweet announcing he and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the idea.

WikiLeaks proposes Assange to lead Trump’s US-Russia cyber security unit | TheHill

Republicans not so long ago thought Assange was a traitor..

[Admin]

So even if Trump Jr. version of events is correct, they would have cooperated with the Russians given a chance, that much is now crystal clear..

President Donald Trump's oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was promised damaging information about then-candidate Hillary Clinton when he agreed to meet with a Russian lawyer with connections to the Kremlin in June 2016, The New York Times reported on Sunday. The article cited three advisers to the White House who were briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it.

The Times first reported on the meeting with the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, on Saturday. It was arranged by Donald Trump Jr., and was attended by him, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort. It is the first confirmed meeting between a Russian citizen and the Trump campaign. Veselnitskaya has strong ties to the Kremlin and is known for waging a harsh campaign against the 2012 Magnitsky Act, which blacklisted Russians suspected of human-rights abuses. Putin has called the Magnitsky Act "outrageous" and retaliated by barring Americans from adopting Russian children. 

Veselnitskaya was also married to a former deputy transportation minister of the Moscow region, and  her clients have included Russian state-owned businesses. Trump Jr. said in a statement to The Times on Sunday that in the meeting, "after pleasantries were exchanged, the woman stated that she had information that individuals connected to Russia were funding the Democratic National Committee and supporting Ms. Clinton." The statement continued, "Her statements were vague, ambiguous and made no sense. No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information."

Trump Jr. said she steered the conversation to the adoption program Putin had cut off and the Magnitsky Act. "It became clear to me that this was the true agenda all along and that the claims of potentially helpful information were a pretext for the meeting," he said, implying his primary interest in accepting the meeting was to obtain damning information on Clinton from the Russians. 

When Trump Jr. was first reached for comment about the meeting on Saturday, he did not mention the meeting was arranged after he was promised compromising information on Clinton. In his initial statement to The Times, Trump Jr. said it was a "short introductory meeting," and that he had "asked Jared and Paul to stop by."

Donald Trump Jr. was promised damaging info on Clinton before meeting with a Russian lawyer - Business Insider

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Here is what a Bush ethics lawyer thinks of the previous entry in this thread..

An ethics lawyer under former President George W. Bush blasted Donald Trump Jr. for meeting with a Russian lawyer who claimed to have compromising information on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the campaign, saying it “borders on treason.” “This was an effort to get opposition research on an opponent in an American political campaign from the Russians, who were known to be engaged in spying inside the United States,” Richard Painter said Sunday on MSNBC. “We do not get our opposition research from spies, we do not collaborate with Russian spies, unless we want to be accused of treason.”

Ex-Bush ethics lawyer on Trump Jr: 'This borders on treason' | TheHill

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Oops..

Donald Trump Jr. provided two significantly different statements over the weekend to address a Trump Tower meeting he took with a Russian lawyer last June. His most recent statement acknowledged that he was promised information on soon-to-be Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. His original statement left out this key point.

His first statement was issued Saturday, as The New York Times revealed the existence of the meeting among Trump Jr., then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, now a senior White House adviser and Trump's son-in-law, and the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.
The initial story highlighted the meeting's existence, to which Trump Jr. responded that it "was a short introductory meeting" that focused on "a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government."

But on Sunday, the Times followed up on its original story with the detail that Trump Jr. was promised damaging information about Clinton before agreeing to meet with Veselnitskaya, a Kremlin-connected lawyer. Three advisers to the White House were were briefed on the meeting, in addition to two others with knowledge of it, told the Times of the promise following the Saturday story confirming the meeting's existence. Although it was unclear whether Veselnitskaya produced any damaging information on Clinton, the sources who spoke with the Times said she was expected to provide such knowledge.

The new details led to Trump Jr.'s second statement. In it, he confirmed that the meeting was taken on the premise that Veselnitskaya had information related to Clinton — and that the adoption issue was not what he believed was the purpose of the meeting.

Donald Trump Jr. account on Russian lawyer meeting varies with day - Business Insider

Indeed, why would you take Manafort and Kuchner to a meeting about an adoption scheme?? Let's just summarize:

• At the minimum, it shows Trump's inner circle were willing to engage with the Russians to dig dirt on Clinton.
  
• Yet again, they have to change their story after information comes out.
  
• Yet again, we have to ask why Kuchner, who was present at this meeting, didn't disclose it, especially given the purpose of the meeting..
  

[Admin]

The New York Times had a big scoop Sunday that Donald Trump Jr. took a meeting with a Russian lawyer to try to get dirt on Hillary Clinton. As I wrote yesterday, that article was interesting for many reasons — for instance, it showed some Trump advisers were open to at least getting useful anti-Clinton information with Russians, and Trump Jr. has changed his story on what happened several times.

But one of the most interesting aspects of the story itself was actually the sourcing. Reporters Jo Becker, Matt Apuzzo, and Adam Goldman said the story was based on accounts from “three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it.” Here’s why that sourcing is intriguing.

First, the fact that these are White House advisers makes this story’s sourcing appear to differ from many other Trump/Russia investigation-related stories, which often seem to have been leaked from Congress or from law enforcement or intelligence agencies.

Second, these sources were apparently okay with being identified as White House advisers rather than demanding a more vague attribution to better hide their identities, such as “US officials.” That seems to suggest a strategic leak.

Third, there’s the number — this isn’t just one White House adviser, it’s coming from three. Again, that suggests a coordinated leak. It’s rare that three separate White House advisers would separately go rogue to leak about something, especially something that appears to be damaging information about the president’s son.

The latest Trump/Russia leaks came from inside the White House - Vox