Bigger than Watergate

@McGentrix,

Quote Blickers:

Quote:

Trump is filling his Administration with Russian sellouts and people who are just months off the Kremlin payroll. Disgusting.

Quote McGentrix:

Quote:

First of all, that statement is so much crap. Who are they?

Here's a partial list.

A Who's Who of the Trump Campaign's Russia Connections

Everything we know about the members of Trump's campaign who had contact with the Russian government
By Tessa Stuart
March 2, 2017

http://img.wennermedia.com/article-leads-horizontal/rs-everything-you-need-to-know-about-trump-russia-scandal-c174e356-0216-4c6d-8e82-0a5c6705f510.jpg

Jeff Sessions and a number of others involved in Donald Trump's presidential campaign have had contact with the Russian government. Chip Somodevilla/Getty

On October 7th, 2016, the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security released a statement on behalf of the nation's 17 intelligence agencies, declaring their confidence that the Russian government directed the hacking of emails at the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign. The hacks and subsequent leaks, the letter said, were "intended to interfere with the US election process."

The hack had been uncovered months earlier, in June; at that time, security experts said the hackers likely had access to the DNC for a year. The same experts immediately suspected Russia was behind the attack.

Donald Trump, Clinton's rival, wasn't convinced. The Republican nominee memorably cast doubt on the origin of the hacks during a debate. "I don't think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC," Trump said in September. "Maybe it was – it could be Russia, but it could also be China. Could also be lots of other people. It also could be someone sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds."

Since Trump's election, a steady drip of reports have revealed members of his inner circle had repeated contacts with the Russian government throughout the campaign as, intelligence agencies say, the Russians were actively attempting to throw the election to Trump.

Here's what we know about those contacts.

Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager
In January, The New York Times reported that the FBI – with help from the National Security Agency, the CIA and the Treasury Department's financial crimes unit – is investigating whether intercepted communications and financial transactions demonstrate links between Russian intelligence officers and Trump's former campaign manager. (Manafort's defense was that if he did have contact with the Russians, he didn't do it knowingly. "It's not like these people wear badges that say, 'I'm a Russian intelligence officer,'" he told The Times.)

The Times story did not specify what the intercepted communiques said – but a Politico report in February described text messages, hacked from phones belonging to Manafort's daughter, that suggest Manafort was being blackmailed by a Ukrainian parliamentarian named Serhiy Leshchenko. Leshchenko reportedly threatened to turn over documents incriminating both Manafort and Trump to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and the FBI if he did not hear from Manafort.

As Trump's campaign manager, Manafort, who worked for more than 10 years as a lobbyist in Ukraine, oversaw an effort to ensure that the new Republican platform did not include a position – supported by most Republicans at the time – in favor of providing the Ukrainian government with arms it could use to fight Russian and rebel forces.

The Times previously reported in August, shortly before Manafort left the Trump campaign, that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine was in possession of a secret ledger that listed some $12.7 million in cash paid out to Manafort. In the hacked texts, Manafort's daughter refers to her father's work in Ukraine as "legally questionable" and the money he was paid for that work as "blood money."

Carter Page, former Trump foreign policy adviser
The same Times report that detailed the investigation into Manafort said investigations into two other Trump associates – Carter Page and Roger Stone – were also ongoing. Page was named a foreign policy advisor by the Trump campaign in March 2016 but took a leave of absence from the campaign in September, when reports emerged that U.S. intelligence agencies were investigating his interactions with senior Russian officials, including former Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin and Deputy Chief for Internal Policy Igor Diveykin – the man U.S. officials believed was in charge of "intelligence collected by Russian agencies about the U.S. election."

Page confirmed to MSNBC on Thursday that he met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the RNC in Cleveland as well.

Roger Stone, informal adviser
A longtime Republican operative and self-described "ratfucker," Stone was in contact with Trump throughout the run-up to the election and often appeared on television and at rallies in support of the GOP nominee, though he served no official role in the campaign. Stone claimed to have inside knowledge about the content of the emails hacked from the Clinton campaign and the timing of their release. When WikiLeaks released emails hacked from the DNC over the summer, Stone touted knowledge that more would come. In August, months before Clinton campaign manager John Podesta's emails were leaked, he tweeted a warning: "Trust me, it will soon the Podesta's time in the barrel. #CrookedHillary."

Stone later denied any foreknowledge of the leaks to The Times, calling the allegations "nonsense" and "totally false." He added, "I have no Russian influences."

General Michael Flynn, former Trump national security adviser
In late December, the day President Obama announced new sanctions against Russia in response to the Kremlin's apparent efforts to sink Clinton's candidacy and install Trump as president, Michael Flynn spoke five times with Kislyak. White House spokesman Sean Spicer later told reporters that the reason for the calls was to express condolences for two Russian tragedies: the killing of the Russian ambassador to Turkey and the shoot-down of a Russian plane carrying a choir to Syria. Vice President Mike Pence went on TV to defend Flynn, telling Face the Nation the fact that the calls took place the same day Obama announced he would expel 35 Russian diplomats was "strictly coincidental."

Flynn, the former director of national intelligence, was apparently unaware of the fact that the FBI routinely wiretaps the phone calls of the Russian delegation in Washington. Recordings and transcripts of the calls later revealed that Flynn and Kislyak, whom intelligence officials reportedly consider a top spy and spy recruiter, did indeed discuss sanctions on the calls. The same day, Vladimir Putin announced he would not retaliate against the U.S. for the sanctions, and would wait for the new administration to come in before responding. Trump later praised the "good move" by the "very smart" Russian president on Twitter.

In addition to his December 2016 calls with Kislyak, Democrats in Congress raised questions about a December 2015 trip Flynn took to Russia. During the trip, paid for by the Russian government, Flynn attended a 10th anniversary gala thrown in honor of Kremlin-funded news network RT. At the dinner, also attended by Green Party candidate Jill Stein, both Flynn and Stein were seated at Putin's table.

According to a Thursday New York Times report, "among Mr. Trump's inner circle, it is Mr. Flynn who appears to have been the main interlocutor with the Russian envoy" during the campaign.

Jeff Sessions, Trump attorney general
A bombshell Washington Post report published Wednesday night names at least two occasions on which Sessions, the former Alabama senator recently confirmed as Trump's attorney general, met with Kislyak, the Russian ambassador. According to the Post, Sessions met with Kislyak first at a Heritage Foundation event held during the July Republican National Convention and then again in September, in a private conversation in Sessions' office during "the height of what U.S. intelligence officials say was a Russian cyber campaign to upend the U.S. presidential race."

Under oath during his confirmation hearing, Sessions denied any knowledge of communication between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. "I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I did not have communications with the Russians." Amid calls to resign (from Democrats) and recuse himself from the investigation into Russian interference in the election (from Republicans), Sessions announced Thursday afternoon he would recuse himself from any investigations relating to the election.

Jared Kushner, Trump son-in-law and senior adviser
In addition to his repeated contacts with Flynn and Sessions during the campaign, the New Yorker reports that Kislyak met with Kushner during a previously undisclosed meeting at Trump Tower in December. The White House told the magazine that the point of their confab was to create "a more open line of communication in the future."

JD Gordon, former Trump campaign national security adviser
The Trump campaign's bewildering obsession with gutting a Republican Party plank that supported arming Ukraine in its fight against rebels supported by Russian forces was, at the time, widely believed to be an example of Manafort's influence. But on Thursday, JD Gordon – then national security adviser to the Trump campaign – told CNN that orders to reword the platform came directly from Trump himself. Gordon told CNN's Jim Acosta that at a March meeting in Washington, D.C., Trump instructed his advisers to pursue the language that was eventually adopted. According to Gordon, Trump said he didn't want to "go to World War III over Ukraine."

Gordon also told CNN he also met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak while in Cleveland for the convention – twice. Gordon's first meeting with Kislyak, at Case Western Reserve University, was attended by Trump advisers Carter Page and Walid Phares. He met with the Russian ambassador again at a cocktail party later that night, he said.
Source

Lots more since this article was written, but this will get you started.

2 Replies

@Blickers,

You're very self-satisfied with cutting and pasting a sorry collection of irrelevant innuendo which you (being a chump) actually think establishes some "guilt by association," eh, Blicky?

There nothing illegal alleged here, Manafort and Page left the campaign quickly and were never part of any political policy-making anyway. Why even mention them? Same with Flynn, really.

I don't see anything there that establishes the least bit of evidence that Trump or his associates, co-ordinated any russian plot to meddle in the election.

On the other hard, there is hard-core evidence that Democrats paid huge sums to get the co-operation of russian intelligence agents to fabricate and disseminate "fake news" disparaging Trump, eh?

1 Reply

@layman,

Turns out Manafort took home at least $1.2 Million of the $10 Million or so that the Kremlin front Manafort worked for said they gave him. Oh, and Manafort also lobbied Washington to pass more Putin friendly laws and standards, all without registering himself as a foreign agent.

Manafort firm received Ukraine ledger payout

https://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_960w/Boston/2011-2020/2017/04/12/BostonGlobe.com/Politics/Images/f99cb368-4a5e-4bd5-b387-f9cc13db9419.jpg

Paul Manafort served as campaign manager for Donald Trump for much of last year.

By Jack Gillum and Chad Day Associated Press April 12, 2017

WASHINGTON — Last August, a handwritten ledger surfaced in Ukraine with dollar amounts and dates next to the name of Paul Manafort, who was then Donald Trump’s campaign chairman.

Ukrainian investigators called it evidence of off-the-books payments from a pro-Russian political party — and part of a larger pattern of corruption under the country’s former president. Manafort, who worked for the party as an international political consultant, has publicly questioned the ledger’s authenticity.

Now, financial records obtained by the Associated Press confirm that at least $1.2 million in payments listed in the ledger next to Manafort’s name were actually received by his consulting firm in the United States. They include payments in 2007 and 2009, providing the first evidence that Manafort’s firm received at least some money listed in the so-called Black Ledger.

The two payments came years before Manafort became involved in Trump’s campaign but for the first time bolster the credibility of the ledger. US prosecutors have been investigating Manafort’s work in Eastern Europe as part of a larger anti-corruption probe.
Source

1 Reply

@Blickers,

Manafort worked as a consultant, for years, for Ukraine, not Russia. He did nothing illegal in taking payment although opponents in Ukraine are apparently claiming that it was illegal for Ukraine to pay some of them.

If he should have registered as a foreign agent, and didn't then that's wrong and some punishment should be due. He can line up with Hillary Clinton for that.

Still all completely devoid of any evidence that Trump colluded with russia (which is apparently not illegal anyway, since no charges have been brought against the Democrates for doing it).

0 Replies

@Blickers,

Quote:

Trump is filling his Administration with Russian sellouts and people who are just months off the Kremlin payroll. Disgusting.

To dispute this, you've made a list that is mostly made up of people not in Trump's administration.

You've also called them "sellouts". As their are several different definitions of that term ranging from an item being sold out to a band changing it's style for cash, please share what definition you are using for "sellout". I had assumed that you meant they had actually exchanged money with the Russian government for influence over things related to US government activities. Almost double-agents for Russia.

To me, meeting with someone that happens to be Russian does not make one a double agent or a spy or anything of a similar nature. Meeting someone that is Russian is just that. A meeting with someone who is Russian. Last I checked, that was not illegal and Russia is still a major player in the world.

You'd be better off looking into who in the Obama administration violated the Constitution by illegally spying on American citizens. There is actual criminality there at least.

Layman also gave good answers I see.

2 Replies

@McGentrix,

Quote:

You'd be better off looking into who in the Obama administration violated the Constitution by illegally spying on American citizens. There is actual criminality there at least.

True that, Mc. But remember, programs that were set up by the Bush government, based on the gigantic set of lies surrounding 9-11.

It's very funny watching you guys point at each others presidents -

McG: Yours is a bigger war criminal/liar/terrorist than my guy.
Whoever: No, he isn't. Yours is a bigger war criminal/liar/terrorist than my guy.
McG: blah blah blah, ....

0 Replies

@McGentrix,

Quote McGentrix:

Quote:

You've also called them "sellouts". As their are several different definitions of that term ranging from an item being sold out to a band changing it's style for cash, please share what definition you are using for "sellout". I had assumed that you meant they had actually exchanged money with the Russian government for influence over things related to US government activities.

I use the word "sellout" in regards to Russian activities as any American in political power who uses his power to further Russian interests at the expense of America and the West. It could be due to philosophical reasons, (Bannon), or financial, (Manafort and the rest of them).

Manafort worked for the Ukrainian Party of Regions, which is unabashedly pro-Russian and is supported by the Kremlin. The Ukrainian president Manafort helped to power, Victor Yanukovych, was Putin's puppet and followed Putin's orders to abandon Ukraine's dream of entering the wealthy EU and instead take Putin's "offer" of joining the broke-ass Russian economic union instead, which is composed of countries with a very low standard of living centered around Russia.

Being tied down to Russia's low standard of living was too much for the Ukrainian people and they revolted. They overthrew the Russian puppet Yanukovych and installed a new president. When you work for a Russian puppet like Yanukovych, you are working for the Kremlin, because that is where the money is coming from.

After this, Manafort struck up a partnership with a close Putin crony, billionaire oligarch Oleg Deripaska, and did quite well.

Quote NY Times:

Quote:

In addition, criminal prosecutors [in Ukraine] are investigating a group of offshore shell companies that helped members of Mr. Yanukovych’s inner circle finance their lavish lifestyles, including a palatial presidential residence with a private zoo, golf course and tennis court. Among the hundreds of murky transactions these companies engaged in was an $18 million deal to sell Ukrainian cable television assets to a partnership put together by Mr. Manafort and a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of President Vladimir V. Putin.

After that, close ally of Putin Deripaska hired Manafort at $10 Million annual salary to promote Russian interests in politics, business and media coverage, starting in 2005. That included trying to lobby Congress. It is unknown if Manafort is still working under that contract.

Manafort was Trump's campaign manager, and he was completely tied into Russia's ruling elite.

Next is Flynn. He was the "national security advisor who was heard talking to the Russian ambassador telling him not to worry about the US sanctions against Russia, when Trump's Administration takes office things will change. What a sellout.

Not to mention that Flynn had a regular TV show on RT, (Russia Today), which is Putin's personal propaganda outlet. And to top it off, Flynn was seated at the same table as Putin during the Moscow celebration of 10 years of the RT network propagandizing the West. There was Flynn, buddying up to Putin. Wait-not just buddying up, but giving a nice enthusiastic intro speech for his pal Vladimir, who was about to speak triumphantly at his network's 10th anniversary. Note the pic:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2017/02/14/17/3D3454E000000578-4223772-LOCATION_LOCATION_Russian_President_Vladimir_Putin_center_right_-m-1_1487092417335.jpg

So there is the second person in Trump's campaign/ Administration who is tied in super tight with Moscow. And remember, Trump is the one talking about how NATO is "obsolete" and we ought to consider letting it go and letting European countries defend themselves against Russia-a complete departure from the NATO policy which has bottled Russia up since 1949. And which is the fondest foreign policy wish of Vladimir Putin. Quite a few of Trump's advisors seem to be either sympathetic to Putin philosophically, or were on Putin's payroll for years.

More names to come.

1 Reply

@Blickers,

Manafort was let go before Trump was even President. You won't find him tied to the Administration. So, no sense in talking about him. He is like Obama's preacher problem.

Flynn, as the perspective NSA was correct in talking to Russia and cooling **** down. Obama was pissing in the pool before Trump assumed office cause he's a spiteful Democrat and that's what they do. His error was doing it without telling anyone. Oh, and he is also out of the Administration.

So how about actually naming someone in the Trump administration with ties to Russia and who was found out without the illegal wiretaps... I'll not hold my breath.

3 Replies

@McGentrix,

Quote:

He is like Obama's preacher problem.

You guys always have big problems with preachers who tell the truth but you never are bothered by war mongering preachers, sexual predator preachers, you know, McG, your kind of preachers.

0 Replies

Nice try, cheese-eaters:

Quote:

Susan Rice Probe: "This Is Now a Full-Blown Investigation"

The House and Senate Intelligence Committees are expanding their investigations into former National Security Adviser Susan Rice's alleged "unmasking" of U.S. persons who were incidentally collected in surveillance of foreign officials.

"We will be performing an accounting of all unmasking for political purposes focused on the previous White House administration. This is now a full-blown investigation," the committee member said.

Rice had previously denied having any knowledge of the intelligence community's incidental collection of information connected to the Trump campaign.

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/congress-rice-full-blown-investigation/

For some damn reason, the shrill cries and denials of the cheese-eaters has not made this whole scandal just magically disappear, eh?

They shoulda thought a little further ahead when they were demanding investigations into russian connections, eh? Too late now, chumps.

1 Reply

@layman,

'bout damn time.

0 Replies

@McGentrix,

Quote McGentrix:

Quote:

Manafort was let go before Trump was even President. You won't find him tied to the Administration.

Are you serious? He was Trump's campaign manager! He was replaced when word got out about SOME of the things he had done by Bannon, who now is Trump's advisor and chief of staff, (who in most Administrations is the main advisor).

Flynn was undoing the president's sanctions by telling the Russian ambassador that he will advise Trump to be nice to Russia and get rid of them. He was undermining policy-and he was just off Putin's payroll to boot. It doesn't bother you that the guy the president appoints as his national security advisor is tied in with Putin's government? Or that Manafort, his campaign manager, might still l have a contract with Putin's best buddy to promote Russia WHILE he was functioning as campaign manager? How blind can you get-Putin's operative is running one of the major candidates' campaign. And he won.

0 Replies

@McGentrix,

Now for another one of Putin's buddies which Trump has had on his campaign or Administration. Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State.

As head of Exxon, he makes a big deal with Russia in 2012. $500 Billion. But the deal stalls when Russia invades Ukraine and annexes the Crimea. Sanctions were applied by the US and EU. Russia invites American companies to Moscow for a session, the US government asks them not to undermine US policy on Ukraine by appearing-but Tillerson went. While there, he and the head of Russia's oil company share a laugh at how much Tillerson is dumping on the US policy to stick up for Ukraine by going to Russia's party. Clearly, the head of Russia's oil company, who is Putin's best buddy, is just delighted that his new friend Rex Tillerson was so willing to disparage US policy and nods his approval to Tillerson.

Tillerson, that Kremlin suckup, is now Secretary of State. That's disgusting.

Here's a video explaining it all. The part where Tillerson craps all over US policy to limit Russian expansionism, commences at the 4 minute 16 second mark.

1 Reply

@Blickers,

I like that you are trying, but Rachael Maddow couldn't explain her way out a wet paper bag.

Exxon is a really, really REALLY big company. Not sure if you were aware of that. They deal in virtually every country in the world I'd bet. You are chasing shadows with Tillerson.

1 Reply

@McGentrix,

Exxon is a really really big company, and Tillerson was the head of that company. Maddow explained it very well, the US was putting sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine and annexing the Crimea in 2014, which belonged to the Ukraine. Tillerson is clearly in tight with the Russians, having Putin's buddy nod in delight at having Tillerson go to Moscow and run down the Administration's efforts to make Russia pay for it's expansionist adventures in Eastern Europe is disgusting.

Tillerson is clearly a Russian lap dog.

2 Replies

@Blickers,

Blickers wrote:

Exxon is a really really big company, and Tillerson was the head of that company. Maddow explained it very well, the US was putting sanctions on Russia for invading Ukraine and annexing the Crimea in 2014, which belonged to the Ukraine. Tillerson is clearly in tight with the Russians, having Putin's buddy nod in delight at having Tillerson go to Moscow and run down the Administration's efforts to make Russia pay for it's expansionist adventures in Eastern Europe is disgusting.

Tillerson is clearly a Russian lap dog.

Yet there is no evidence of any of that beyond the fevered imagination of far left people like you.

Being the CEO of a global organization does not make one "tight" with world leaders.

2 Replies

@McGentrix,

Response moderated: Personal attack. See more info.

0 Replies

So, how's the Susan Rice investigation coming along?

1 Reply

@InfraBlue,

That's a good question, Let's see what we can find out.

2 Replies

@McGentrix,

Violations of FISA by the intelligence community has been going on a long time, eh?

Quote:

Secret spy court scolded NSA, FBI for not deleting data

Analysts within the National Security Agency “potentially” violated the law by improperly failing to delete information collected about people on the Internet, the federal court overseeing U.S. intelligence agencies declared in an opinion declassified on Tuesday.

A judge on a secretive federal court was “extremely concerned” that the NSA’s continued to hold on to data that it was supposed to delete, he wrote in the November 2015 opinion.

The violations were contained in an 80-page order declassified by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Tuesday.

The shadowy FISC always meets behind closed doors and is tasked with overseeing operations at U.S. intelligence agencies.

The court had previously demanded that the NSA get rid of data in a similar situation in 2010 and 2012, and “it would be difficult to conclude” that the ruling did not also apply in the July, 2015, case, Hogan claimed.

“Perhaps more disturbing and disappointing than the NSA’s failure to purge this information for more than four years, was the government’s failure to convey to the court explicitly during that time that the NSA was continuing to retain this information,” he wrote.

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/276904-secret-spy-court-scolded-nsa-fbi-for-not-deleting-data

0 Replies

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