Trump and Putin, behind the scenes

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How many times have all these people denied that they had contact with any Russians during the election campaign??

The Washington Post reported Roger Stone, a former campaign consultant and close associate to President Donald Trump, has admitted to meeting with a Russian contact during the 2016 presidential election. Stone met with a Russian national who has claimed to work as an FBI informant in the past, leading Stone and a Trump campaign communications adviser to claim the meeting was a setup by US law enforcement. It's the latest in a string of meetings reported between people in Trump's orbit and Russian nationals.

Roger Stone says he met with Russian Henry Greenberg during campaign - Business Insider

And then, one by one it's falling apart. Stone is just another one in the list, there are now 11, despite the vehement denials that there was even one:

As The Post details, “Stone and Caputo’s interactions with Greenberg mean that at least 11 Trump associates or campaign officials have acknowledged interactions with a Russian during the election season or presidential transition.” In December 2016 and January 2017, incoming White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and Vice President-elect Mike Pence both categorically denied during TV interviews that there was any contact between the Trump campaign and Russia at all.

Trump encourages Post employees to strike, hours after paper breaks bombshell Russia collusion story – ThinkProgress

And this is how Trump reacts hours later:

Just hours after The Washington Post published a bombshell story about a previously undisclosed May 2016 meeting between Roger Stone and a Russian national who promised political dirt about Hillary Clinton, President Trump encouraged Post employees to go on strike. “Washington Post employees want to go on strike because Bezos isn’t paying them enough,” Trump tweeted. “I think a really long strike would be a great idea. Employees would get more money and we would get rid of Fake News for an extended period of time! Is @WaPo a registered lobbyist?”

Trump’s tweet, coming as it does on the heels of the Post’s report, is the latest evidence that his repeated attacks on Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos are motivated by the publication’s coverage of Trump — not any sort of principled concern about the state of the postal service or well-being of Post employees.

Trump encourages Post employees to strike, hours after paper breaks bombshell Russia collusion story – ThinkProgress

And Roger Stone keeps forgetting..

Stone failed to disclose his meeting with Greenberg during his sworn testimony to the House Intelligence Committee in September 2017. During an interview on Sunday morning on C-SPAN, Stone said he simply forgot about the the episode until the Post’s report. The Post’s report comes less than a month after The Wall Street Journal obtained emails indicating Stone withheld key documents from the House Intelligence Committee that indicate he lied about his communications with a radio host he hoped would serve as a backchannel to WikiLeaks during the 2016 campaign.

Trump encourages Post employees to strike, hours after paper breaks bombshell Russia collusion story – ThinkProgress

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Just two years after working to put Donald Trump in the White House, Russian leader Vladimir Putin is now getting help from Trump to achieve foreign policy objectives that Russia has sought for years. Trump has loudly criticized the NATO military alliance as unduly burdensome for the United States. He has started a trade war with many of those same allies. And on his way to the G-7 summit of industrialized democracies Friday morning, he suggested that those nations re-admit Russia to the gathering ― even though Russia continues to occupy part of Ukraine, the reason it was expelled from the group in the first place.

Trump’s Policies Paying Off For Man Who Helped Make Him President: Vladimir Putin

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Basically unbelievable, going against his whole intelligence community:

President Trump cited Russia's denial of meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election in a tweet early Thursday, asking why former FBI Director James Comey did not examine the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) hacked email server.  "Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!" the president said. "Where is the DNC Server, and why didn’t Shady James Comey and the now disgraced FBI agents take and closely examine it?" he added. "Why isn’t Hillary/Russia being looked at? So many questions, so much corruption!"

Trump cites Russia’s denial of meddling: ‘Where is the DNC Server?’ | TheHill

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President Trump is insisting on meeting Vladimir Putin one on one, without any aides present, according to CNN. Trump appears to have a special affinity for private meetings with Putin. When the two met last year in Hamburg, Germany they met first with only Rex Tillerson present on the U.S. side. Trump and Putin later had an unscheduled meeting in which Trump met for roughly an hour with Putin and Putin’s English language translator. In other words, in the second meeting, no one from the U.S. was privy to what was discussed. The United States has no record or knowledge of what was discussed, other than what President Trump may have chosen to share after the fact.

In Helsinki, it appears (if I’m reading the CNN story right) that the two men will meet with translators, presumably one from each country. This is a little different. There would be one more person from the U.S. government: the translator. But a translator cannot be a notetaker in the same setting. So even though a U.S. translator would have some recollection of what was discussed, there would be no formal or detailed record. Most expressed concerns about this frame those concerns around an unsophisticated Trump being coddled or buttered up by Putin into agreeing to something he shouldn’t. But this has always struck me as a polite way to hinting at a more obvious and sinister concern: why Trump apparently needs to keep secret from his own government what he discusses or agrees to with Putin. It is very hard for me to imagine an innocent explanation for this.

Trump’s Unseen Battle With the US Government – Talking Points Memo

Very hard indeed..

President Trump on Thursday waved off concerns about Russian President Vladimir Putin's intentions as he prepares to meet with his Russian counterpart in Finland later this month. Speaking at a campaign-style rally in Montana, Trump attacked critics who have questioned his preparedness for the July 16 summit with Putin and made light of Putin's past as a top-ranking intelligence official. "They’re going ‘Will President Trump be prepared, you know, President Putin is KGB and this and that,’" Trump said. "You know what? Putin’s fine. He’s fine. We’re all fine. We’re people. Will I be prepared? Totally prepared. I’ve been preparing for this stuff my whole life." In fact, Putin served for years in the KGB, the now-defunct Soviet intelligence agency, before becoming the director of its successor, the FSB.

Trump dismisses concerns about Russia: 'Putin's fine' | TheHill

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Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster reportedly complained during his time in the White House about President Trump’s stance toward Russian President Vladimir Putin. "The president thinks he can be friends with Putin,” McMaster said, according to a report published in The Washington Post on Friday that cited U.S. officials. "I don’t know why, or why he would want to be," McMaster was quoted as saying. The comments came in a report looking ahead to Trump's trip to Europe next week, where he will meet with NATO allies before holding a summit with Putin in Helsinki on July 16. Trump publicly scolded McMaster in February after his national security adviser said there was "incontrovertible” proof that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election..

McMaster complained that Trump 'thinks he can be friends with Putin': report | TheHill

Amazing stuff:

President Donald Trump treats Russian President Vladimir Putin as a confidant while bullying and ignoring other world leaders. Putin, meanwhile, is playing to Trump's strengths and weaknesses — the two men often commiserate over how the "fake news" and "deep state" are against them. "It's not us," Putin reportedly told Trump during one recent conversation. "It's the subordinates fighting against our friendship."

Trump treats Putin like a 'confidant,' commiserates about how the 'fake news' and 'deep state' are against them - Business Insider

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The special counsel Robert Mueller's office on Friday indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers related to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee before the 2016 US election. This is the first time Mueller's office has directly pointed a finger at the Russian government for meddling in the race. Mueller's office charged the intelligence officers with 11 counts related to conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering.

Mueller indicts 12 Russian officers for hacking the DNC - Business Insider

But according to the President this is all a witch hunt..

In addition:

Additionally, the indictment says the conspirators — in this case, Guccifer 2.0 — also communicated with US persons about the release of stolen documents. In one instance, it says, the conspirator posing as Guccifer 2.0 contacted a person who was "in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trump." The conspirator wrote to this person thanking them for "writing back" and asking whether they found anything "interesting in the docs i posted," the indictment says. The document does not name or charge any Americans with crimes. Previous reporting has found that Roger Stone, the longtime Republican strategist who informally advised the Trump campaign, was in touch with Guccifer 2.0 before the election. The indictment also alleges that the intelligence officers transferred stolen documents to an unidentified third-party organization and used it to release information and discuss the timing of those releases so they would have the maximum impact during the campaign.

Mueller indicts 12 Russian officers for hacking the DNC - Business Insider

And yet another coincidence..

Russian hackers apparently made their first attempt to breach 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's private emails around the same time that then-candidate Donald Trump publicly called on Russia to recover the missing emails from her private server A new indictment released Friday as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Moscow’s election meddling details the attempts by Russian officials to infiltrate Clinton's personal emails, her campaign's emails and other private information belonging to Democratic campaign officials.

Indictment: Russians tried to hack Clinton around when Trump publicly asked them to | TheHill

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And Don Jr. still hasn't come clean about that meeting..

Donald Trump’s denial of collusion with Russia suffered yet another blow on Friday when it emerged that his son failed to disclose the presence of a former Soviet military officer at the now notorious meeting. Who is Rinat Akhmetshin? The mystery man at Trump Jr's Russia meeting Read more Rinat Akhmetshin – who claims he served in a counter-intelligence unit but never formally trained as a spy – told the Associated Press that he attended the meeting with Donald Trump Jr, which was billed as part of a Russian government effort to boost Trump’s election campaign. The latest revelation came as news reports suggested there were at least eight attendees at the meeting, which occurred at Trump’s eponymous New York tower shortly after he effectively clinched the Republican presidential nomination. The presence of additional participants contradicted Trump Jr’s assertion this week to the Fox News host Sean Hannity that all of the information about the meeting had been publicly disclosed.

Ex-Soviet counter-intelligence officer says he attended Trump Jr meeting | US news | The Guardian

But Trump is still at it, amazing..

He later referred to the Russia investigation as "rigged" and a "witch hunt," despite being briefed by Rosenstein on the developments earlier in the week..

Trump should cancel Putin summit after Mueller indictments, Congress says - Business Insider

As ThinkProgress has detailed, the charges indicate that on the same day Trump infamously encouraged Russian hackers to go after Hillary Clinton during a news conference — July 27, 2016 — Russian hackers “attempted after hours to spearphish for the first time email accounts at a domain hosted by a third-party provided and used by Clinton’s personal office. At or around the same time, they also targeted seventy-six email addresses at the domain for the Clinton Campaign.”

Republicans respond to latest Mueller indictment with desperate gaslighting – ThinkProgress

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Other interesting tidbids..

But buried within the indictment is another explosive charge: an unnamed congressional candidate explicitly reached out to the Russian hackers seeking damaging information about his or her political opponent. “The Conspirators, posing as Guccifer 2.0, received a request for stolen documents from a candidate for the U.S. Congress,” reads the indictment. “The Conspirators responded using the Guccifer 2.0 persona and sent the candidate stolen documents related to the candidate’s opponent.” The request was made on August 15, 2016, less than three months before election day and less than three weeks after Donald Trump publicly asked Russia to hackHillary Clinton’s emails.

A congressional candidate requested the help of Russian intelligence agents during 2016 election – ThinkProgress

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And again blaming everyone but himself..

"The stories you hear about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration," the president tweeted. "Why didn't they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?" Earlier, he tweeted, "...Where is the DNC Server, and why didn't the FBI take possession of it? Deep State?"

Trump's tweets came a day after the special counsel Robert Mueller brought charges against 12 Russian military intelligence officers, accusing them of hacking, aggravated identity theft, and money laundering. The indictment was a monumental development in the ongoing Russia investigation because it marks the first time Mueller has directly pointed a finger at the Russian government for its efforts to meddle in the election. 

It has been widely reported that Obama tried to push a bipartisan response to Russian election interference in September 2016 but that the effort was "watered down" by Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, former Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough said. Former Vice President Joe Biden expressed the same frustration with partisan interests that got in the way of pursuing the Russian meddling, saying in January that it was "all about the political play."

After the CIA concluded later that year that Russia had interfered in the race to help elevate Trump to the presidency, Obama responded by imposing new sanctions on Russia and expelling 35 Russian diplomats in December 2016. Obama imposed sanctions on Russia and expelled 35 Russian diplomats in December 2016 over the hacking.

Trump also continued his campaign to undermine the investigation in a press conference during his UK visit Friday, calling it "rigged."

Trump tried to dodge a major development in the Russia investigation - Business Insider

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The conservatives that jumped on the Russian propaganda..

Here are notable conservatives, several of whom now occupy top positions in the White House, who promoted Russian propaganda during the 2016 election. None of the following tweets have been deleted. Donald Trump In addition to mentioning Wikileaks 164 times in the final month of the campaign alone, then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump promoted the emails that were stolen by Russian intelligence agents in numerous tweets:

Donald Trump Jr. The president’s oldest son also promoted the information that had been stolen from his father’s opponent by Russian intelligence agents:

Eric Trump Trump’s middle son also amplified the Russian propaganda efforts and expressed disappointment that there wasn’t more media coverage:

Sean Hannity The Fox News host was all about the material that had been stolen by Russian intelligence agents and claimed Wikileaks had never been wrong:

Bill O’Reilly The former Fox News host also promoted the material that had been stolen by Russian intelligence agents:

Kellyanne Conway Trump’s 2016 campaign manager and current counselor also amplified the Russian propaganda efforts:

Sarah Huckabee Sanders The White House press secretary and former senior adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign provided links to the material that had been stolen by Russian intelligence agents:

Dan Scavino The White House director of social media also promoted Russia’s propaganda efforts in his role as the Trump campaign’s director of social media:

Laura Ingraham The Fox News host boosted Russia’s propaganda efforts by linking directly to Wikileaks and expressed disappointment that more Republicans weren’t mentioning the material that had been stolen by Russian intelligence agents:

Michael Cohen Trump’s former attorney also shared material from the Russian propaganda campaign:

These prominent conservatives shared material stolen by Russian intelligence – ThinkProgress

See article for numerous examples of tweets.