Trump and Putin, behind the scenes

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Hmm, not interfering, right?

President Trump reportedly pressed multiple Senate Republicans to end the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, according to a new report. Multiple lawmakers and aides told The New York Times that Trump asked several top Republicans, including committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to end the investigation quickly.

Trump asked Senate Republicans to end Russia election interference investigation: report | TheHill

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Obama's sanctions were not the catalyst for Flynn's contact with Kislyak — they were in touch as early as December 1, when they met at Trump Tower along with Kushner. Kushner reportedly asked Kislyak during that meeting whether the transition team could set up a back-channel line of communication with Moscow, which would evade detection by the US intelligence community, to discuss issues related to terrorism and the Syrian civil war. About three weeks later, on December 22, "a very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team directed Flynn to contact officials from foreign governments, including Russia, to learn where each government stood" on a resolution proposed by Egypt to the UN Security Council that would condemn Israel's practice of building settlements on disputed lands, the statement of offense says. That senior transition official was Kushner, according to Bloomberg View.

Flynn's calls with Russian ambassador could implicate Kushner, Trump officials - Business Insider

What we have, some stylized facts:

• Russia meddled into the US elections, heavily favoring Trump
  
• We know of several attempts by the Russians to entice Trump's campaign with dirt on Hillary. At least one of these was met favorably ("I love it!" from Donald Trump Jr.)
  
• We know of Trump's curious admiration for Putin, the one guy he never criticizes in public
  
• We know of a curious softening in policy towards Russia regarding armaments to Ukraine during the Republican convention
  
• Trump's team had numerous contacts with the Russians, both before and after the election
  
• They all lied or "forgot" about those contacts, all of them. Kushner, Flynn, Don Jr., Sessions, Manafort, etc. etc. 
  
• They said Flynn's contact with the Russian ambassador was casual and they only exchanged pleasantries was a lie
  
• We know that Flynn was directed by Kushner to contact the Russian ambassador.
  
• Trump personally has tried to scuttle any investigation, firing Comey, laying heavily on members of the Senate to wrap up the Senate's committee. 
  
• We also know Trump riled against Sessions and humiliated him publicly several times because Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation (for "incomplete" filing of contacts with the Russians).
  
• We know that Flynn, despite being a heavy fish for Mueller to catch, got off lightly, this is most likely because he offered damaging info on an even bigger fish.
  

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If Trump knew that Flynn was in the FBI's crosshairs when he asked former FBI Director James Comey, whom he later fired, to consider "letting Flynn go" the day after Flynn resigned, that could dramatically bolster the obstruction case federal prosecutors are building against him.  "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go," Trump told Comey on February 14, according to Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in June. "He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go." Comey gave no indication that he would consider Trump's request. Three months later, Trump abruptly fired Comey, wo was leading the FBI's Russia investigation at the time. 

Former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa largely agreed. "I think if the President knew Flynn had done anything illegal at the time he asked Comey to drop investigation, then yes, it strengthens the [obstruction] case," she said on Saturday. "I think it also has to be looked at in the context of both him and others on the campaign simultaneously and blanketly denying any contacts with Russia, when the statement of facts Flynn pled to clearly shows the opposite," Rangappa added. "So asking Comey to drop investigation knowing he had lied to FBI, combined with the pattern of lying about the existence and nature of across his campaign evidences a (corrupt) intent to prevent what would be uncovered by the investigation."

Trump defends Flynn: 'There was nothing to hide!' - Business Insider

Flynn, who was Trump’s national security adviser for 24 days and was also a top campaign adviser, has admitted to lying to the FBI about two of his conversations with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December 2016. But here’s the kicker: Flynn told investigators that “a very senior member” of Trump’s presidential transition team told him to make contact with Russian government officials — in other words, he’s now claiming he was just following orders when he went to talk to the Russians. A “confidant” of Flynn’s also told ABC News that Flynn is prepared to testify that Trump "directed him to make contact with the Russians" once he was the president-elect. The confidant also claims that Flynn feels Trump has “abandoned” him.

Which means that Flynn’s plea deal and cooperation with the Mueller investigation could potentially implicate senior members of Trump’s inner circle, or even the president himself, in at the very least some questionable behavior. Indeed, reports have suggested that Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner may have been one of the senior officials of the transition team who directed Flynn to speak to the Russians.
So at this point, Trump has two options for how to respond to all of this: try to make it all go away, or just try to minimize the potential damage. In other words: betray Flynn or fire Mueller.

Michael Flynn’s plea deal leaves Trump with two bleak options - Vox

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Mr Flynn's assertions about his conversations with the transition team run directly counter to statements made by Mr Trump in a February press conference in which he said Mr Flynn was acting against orders when he reached out to Mr Kislyak. In fact the White House said at the time that the president dismissed Mr Flynn as national security adviser because he lied to Vice-President Mike Pence about his Russian contacts. The true nature of Mr Flynn's conversations with Mr Kislyak first came out thanks to leaks to the press of information gleaned from government surveillance of Mr Kislyak. If Mr Flynn has evidence corroborating his account of December contacts with the Trump transition team - which was headed by Mr Pence himself - the White House's explanation for its handling of the Flynn situation, denials of knowledge and all, starts to crumble.

Trump-Russia: Six big takeaways from the Flynn deal - BBC News

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But taking his feud with the FBI and defense of Flynn into the court of public opinion may backfire for the president. A tweet he sent on Saturday showed why: It seemed to indicate that he knew Flynn had lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to drop the investigation into Flynn raising more questions about whether he tried to obstruct justice. The White House scrambled to clean up the mess Trump's tweet had created, claiming hours later that Trump's lawyer John Dowd had crafted the tweet inartfully. Legal experts were incredulous. "Most lawyers I know are so careful about what they write that they triple-check every letter they send out," said former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. "We’re supposed to believe Trump’s lawyer wrote a false tweet about the Mueller investigation and sent it out through the President’s account?" A pardon, moreover, would be essentially useless at this point, said former Department of Justice spokesman Matt Miller — and Flynn is likely aware of that.

Trump escalates war with FBI, defense of Flynn after guilty plea - Business Insider

And when he realized his mistake he blamed his lawyer for the tweet, which has no credibility as lawyers would be orders of magnitude more careful and Trump just tweets what's on his mind without thinking of consequences.

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Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Sunday the evidence of coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia is "pretty damning." "The Russians offered help. The campaign accepted help. The Russians gave help. And the president made full use of that help," Schiff said during an interview on CNN's "State of the Union." "And that's pretty damning, whether it is proof beyond a reasonable doubt of conspiracy or not," he continued. Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, which is conducting a probe into possible Russian election hacking, said people need to look at the "pattern of chronology."

Schiff: Evidence of coordination between Trump campaign and Russia ‘pretty damning’ | TheHill

The fiancée of George Papadopoulos, the early foreign-policy adviser and aide to President Donald Trump's campaign team who in October pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, disputed top officials' characterization of him as a "low-level volunteer" and a "coffee boy." Simona Mangiante, Papadopoulos' fiancée, told ABC News that his job on the campaign was to "set up meetings with leaders all over the world" for senior campaign officials. Mangiante said Papadopoulos was "constantly in touch with high-level officials in the campaign." She said she had seen correspondence proving it. On October 3, the special counsel Robert Mueller's office filed charges against Papadopoulos saying he lied to FBI agents on January 27 about "the timing, extent, and nature of his relationships and interactions with certain foreign nationals whom he understood to have close connections with senior Russian government officials." Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to the charges, and the proceedings that followed his plea agreement indicate he is cooperating with the investigation into Russia's election meddling and whether any Trump associates colluded with Russian officials.

Fiancee of Papadopoulos: He was constantly in touch with Trump campaign - Business Insider

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And off course, the right-wingers are trying to create some fake scandal to legitimize Robert Mueller:

The FBI agent removed from the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election lambasted then-presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Attorney General Eric Holder in texts to an FBI lawyer, as well as his previously reported negative remarks about President Trump.  Found in the 375 text messages given to Congress by the Justice Department, senior counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok reportedly called supporters of Sanders "idiots," as reported Thursday by Wall Street Journal.  Strzok and attorney Lisa Page also panned Holder, who would have once been their boss at the Justice Department.

FBI agent removed from Russia probe also lambasted Sanders, Holder in texts | TheHill

• On any large investigation you have people holding all sorts of political views.
  
• Finding a (private!) text of one or two investigators that aren't flattering for the person under investigation isn't a sign of bias.
  
• As is shown here, the agent in question (who was removed from the investigation) also tweeted negative things about Democrats.
  
• You can have political views and still engage in a professional, unbiased investigation.
  
• We're sure there are also people in the investigation that are Trump supporters.
  

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President Trump reportedly said before being sworn in to office that admitting Russia hacked Democratic Party emails was a "trap." Before Trump assumed office, aides urged him to acknowledge the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential race, The Washington Post reported. “This was part of the normalization process,” one of the aides said, according to the newspaper. “There was a big effort to get him to be a standard president.” On Jan. 11, before Trump was sworn in, he told reporters that "as far as hacking, I think it was Russia." “We also get hacked by other countries and other people," he added. Following his comments, Trump reportedly told aides the remarks were "not me." "It wasn't right," he said, according to the newspaper.

Trump described admitting Kremlin hacked Dem emails as a ‘trap’: report | TheHill

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White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley on Friday said recently revealed FBI records show "extreme bias" against President Donald Trump among leadership at the FBI. Recently disclosed text messages between two FBI agents who had been assigned to the ongoing investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 presidential election revealed a reference to Trump as an "idiot," among other things. Trump's allies have also homed in on revelations that a senior FBI official made edits to soften former FBI Director James Comey’s statement concerning the agency's probe into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. Gidley called the records "eye-opening" and "deeply troubling."  "There is extreme bias against this president with high-up members of the team there at the FBI who were investigating Hillary Clinton at the time," Gidley told "Fox & Friends on Friday morning. Trump, who recently described the country's top law enforcement agency as "in tatters," is scheduled to deliver a speech at an FBI Academy graduation ceremony on Friday. Gidley said the president has "full faith and confidence" in the rank-and-file members of the Department of Justice and the FBI.

FBI, Peter Strzok texts show 'extreme bias' toward Trump, WH says - Business Insider

Yea, a few personal communications shows this.. 

In any large group of people you'll find at least some people despising Trump, especially if these people are educated (and Trump has gone after the FBI from the beginning). But you will also find people despising Hillary..

Unearthing a few of these communications proves exactly nothing.

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A member of the National Rifle Association with Kremlin connections contacted the Trump campaign last year about setting up a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the then-Republican candidate, a report on Sunday said. “Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump,” Paul Erickson wrote in the May 2016 email to campaign adviser Rick Dearborn, according to the New York Times. The email included the subject line: “Kremlin Connection.” “He wants to extend an invitation to Mr. Trump to visit him in the Kremlin before the election. Let’s talk through what has transpired and Senator Sessions’s advice on how to proceed,” Erickson , a conservative operative, wrote, referring to then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, a foreign policy adviser to Trump. Sessions is now the U.S. attorney general. Erickson in the email wrote that Russia was “quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S.” and wanted to use the NRA’s annual convention in Louisville, Ky., as a “first contact.” Erickson has a close connection to Alexander Torshin, a top player in Putin’s United Russia party.

NRA member offered Trump campaign a ‘Kremlin connection’: report - MarketWatch

This is a little older but worth reminding. Why did he lie??

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was charged Friday with one count of making false statements to federal investigators. He is expected to plead guilty to the charge on Friday. Experts say it's a sign he's cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Michael Flynn charged with lying to FBI about conversations with Russian ambassador - Business Insider

Attorney General Jeff Sessions argued in 1999 as an Alabama senator that then-President Clinton could be removed from office for obstructing justice amid an investigation into his relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The Justice Department head's argument during the Clinton impeachment trial more than two decades ago contradicts the claim of President Trump's personal lawyer that the president cannot legally obstruct justice.

Sessions argued presidents can obstruct justice in Clinton impeachment trial | TheHill

During a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower, Donald Trump Jr. asked Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya for evidence of illegal donations to the Clinton Foundation, according to a new report. NBC News reports that Veselnitskaya told the Senate Judiciary Committee about Trump Jr.’s request. She told the committee in written answers to questions that she had no evidence of illegal donations and that when she told Trump Jr. that, he became uninterested in the meeting.

Trump Jr. asked Russian lawyer for evidence of illegal Clinton Foundation donations: report | TheHill