Did President Trump collude with Russia?

[bannination]

1. Trump was receptive to a Campaign national security adviser’s (George Papadopoulos) pursuit of a back channel to Putin.
2. Kremlin operatives provided the Campaign a preview of the Russian plan to distribute stolen emails.
3. The Trump Campaign chairman and deputy chairman (Paul Manafort and Rick Gates) knowingly shared internal polling data and information on battleground states with a Russian spy; and the Campaign chairman worked with the Russian spy on a pro-Russia “peace” plan for Ukraine.
4. The Trump Campaign chairman periodically shared internal polling data with the Russian spy with the expectation it would be shared with Putin-linked oligarch, Oleg Deripaska.
5. Trump Campaign chairman Manafort expected Trump’s winning the presidency would mean Deripaska would want to use Manafort to advance Deripaska’s interests in the United States and elsewhere.
6. Trump Tower meeting: (1) On receiving an email offering derogatory information on Clinton coming from a Russian government official, Donald Trump Jr. “appears to have accepted that offer;” (2) members of the Campaign discussed the Trump Tower meeting beforehand; (3) Donald Trump Jr. told the Russians during the meeting that Trump could revisit the issue of the Magnitsky Act if elected.
7. A Trump Campaign official told the Special Counsel he “felt obliged to object” to a GOP Platform change on Ukraine because it contradicted Trump’s wishes; however, the investigation did not establish that Gordon was directed by Trump.
8. Russian military hackers may have followed Trump’s July 27, 2016 public statement “Russia if you’re listening …” within hours by targeting Clinton’s personal office for the first time.
9. Trump requested campaign affiliates to get Clinton’s emails, which resulted in an individual apparently acting in coordination with the Campaign claiming to have successfully contacted Russian hackers.
10. The Trump Campaign—and Trump personally—appeared to have advanced knowledge of future WikiLeaks releases.
11. The Trump Campaign coordinated campaign-related public communications based on future WikiLeaks releases.
12. Michael Cohen, on behalf of the Trump Organization, brokered a secret deal for a Trump Tower Moscow project directly involving Putin’s inner circle, at least until June 2016.
13. During the presidential transition, Jared Kushner and Eric Prince engaged in secret back channel communications with Russian agents. (1) Kushner suggested to the Russian Ambassador that they use a secure communication line from within the Russian Embassy to speak with Russian Generals; and (2) Prince and Kushner’s friend Rick Gerson conducted secret back channel meetings with a Putin agent to develop a plan for U.S.-Russian relations.
14. During the presidential transition, in coordination with other members of the Transition Team, Michael Flynn spoke with the Russian Ambassador to prevent a tit for tat Russian response to the Obama administration’s imposition of sanctions for election interference; the Russians agreed not to retaliate saying they wanted a good relationship with the incoming administration.

During the course of 2016, Trump Campaign associates failed to report any of the Russian/WikiLeaks overtures to federal law enforcement, publicly denied any contacts with Russians/WikiLeaks, and actively encouraged the public to doubt that Russia was behind the hacking and distribution of stolen emails.

Source: https://www.justsecurity.org/63838/guid ... collusion/

[Vrede too]

This is what “no collusion” looks like:

Mueller Report Shows Depth of Connections Between Trump Campaign and Russians

“Donald J. Trump and 18 of his associates had at least 140 contacts with Russian nationals and WikiLeaks, or their intermediaries, during the 2016 campaign and presidential transition, according to a New York Times analysis.

“The report of Robert S. Mueller III, released to the public on Thursday, revealed at least 30 more contacts beyond those previously known. However, the special counsel said, ‘the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges.’

“Very few, if any, of these interactions were publicly known before Mr. Trump took office.”

At least 36 contacts by Sr, Jr and Jared alone.

Whether or not there was collusion (there was) and whether or not Trump participated in the collusion (he did), there is no longer any doubt that Trump supporters were and remain useful idiots for Putin. Barr, Rosenstein, Mueller, and even the Senate GOP and Pence have all in effect said so.

[Vrede too]

Mueller Report Executive Summaries
You can use this page to download a digital copy of the Mueller Report Executive Summaries, or request additional printed copies to be mailed to you.

[Vrede too]

All of Robert Mueller’s indictments and plea deals in the Russia investigation
The investigation is now complete.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... grand-jury

Indictments of top aides:
Nixon: 12 in 5.5 years
Bill Clinton: 3 in 8 years
Obama: 1 in 8 years (Republican/Independent Gen. David Petraeus’ misdemeanor)
President Trump: 8 in 2.5 years
President Trump's pace is worse than the worst POTUS, Nixon, and worse than any Dem.

Before longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone's arrest:
"The Special Counsel has now secured guilty pleas from President Trump’s personal attorney, his campaign manager, his deputy campaign manager, a foreign policy advisor to his campaign, and his National Security Advisor. He has filed 191 charges against more than thirty individuals—almost all of whom are in President Trump’s orbit, Vladimir Putin’s orbit, or both. The President can pretend that this investigation has nothing to do with him and nothing to do with Russia, but these indictments speak for themselves."
— Congressman Jerrold Nadler
https://nadler.house.gov/press-release/ ... uilty-plea

Found elsewhere, not completely verified by me but looks comprehensive and accurate:

Trump-Russia Investigation
15 months
32 Indictments/Charges (Individuals) (and counting)

3 Indictments/Charges (Companies)
5 GUILTY pleas (and counting)
4 CONVICTIONS (and counting)

Indicted: Paul Manafort
Indicted: Rick Gates
Indicted: George Papadopoulos
Indicted: Michael Flynn
Indicted: Richard Pinedo
Indicted: Alex van der Zwaan
Indicted: Konstantin Kilimnik
Indicted: 12 Russian GRU officers
Indicted: Yevgeny Prigozhin
Indicted: Mikhail Burchik
Indicted: Aleksandra Krylova
Indicted: Anna Bogacheva
Indicted: Sergey Polozov
Indicted: Maria Bovda
Indicted: Dzheykhun Aslanov
Indicted: Vadim Podkopaev
Indicted: Irina Kaverzina
Indicted: Gleb Vasilchenko
Indicted: Internet Research Agency
Indicted: Concord Management
Indicted: Roger Stone

Guilty Plea: Michael Flynn
Guilty Plea: George Papadopolous
Guilty Plea: Richard Pinedo
Guilty Plea: Alex van der Zwaan
Guilty Plea: Rick Gates

Found Guilty: Manafort
Found Guilty: Flynn
Found Guilty: Cohen
Found guilty: Stone

Over 200 Criminal Charges (and counting):

Conspiracy against the USA (2 counts)
Conspiracy to launder money (2 counts)
Bank fraud (8 counts)
Bank fraud conspiracy (10 counts)
Subscribing to false tax returns (10 counts)
Making false statements (6 counts)
Failure to file reports of foreign bank accounts (14 counts)
Unregistered agent of a foreign principal (2 counts)
False FARA statements (2 counts)
Subscribing to false tax returns (10 counts)
Assisting in preparation of false tax documents (5 counts)
Conspiracy to defraud the United States (13 counts)
Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud (2 counts)
Aggravated identity theft (24 counts)

GOP Admins Had 38 Times More Criminal Convictions Than Democrats, 1961-2016
We compared 56 years of corruption in Republican and Democratic presidencies: both sides are not equally corrupt.
https://rantt.com/gop-admins-had-38-tim ... -1961-2016

[GoCubsGo]

That's rather incredible.

[Vrede too]

Did President Trump collude with Russia?

Interesting read to me. Glenn Greenwald does not really address the Russian meddling, itself, but he does scathe the notion of proven Trump team collusion. He thoroughly trashes the FBI, the national security state, the Dems and the media.

I don't necessarily buy what he's saying, but it's not like he is or ever has been a shill for Trump or the rightwing.

The Inspector General’s Report on 2016 FBI Spying Reveals a Scandal of Historic Magnitude: Not Only for the FBI but Also the U.S. Media

Just as was true when the Mueller investigation closed without a single American being charged with criminally conspiring with Russia over the 2016 election, Wednesday’s issuance of the long-waited report from the Department of Justice’s Inspector General reveals that years of major claims and narratives from the U.S. media were utter frauds.

Before evaluating the media component of this scandal, the FBI’s gross abuse of its power – its serial deceit – is so grave and manifest that it requires little effort to demonstrate it. In sum, the IG Report documents multiple instances in which the FBI – in order to convince a FISA court to allow it spy on former Trump campaign operative Carter Page during the 2016 election – manipulated documents, concealed crucial exonerating evidence, and touted what it knew were unreliable if not outright false claims.

If you don’t consider FBI lying, concealment of evidence, and manipulation of documents in order to spy on a U.S. citizen in the middle of a presidential campaign to be a major scandal, what is? But none of this is aberrational: the FBI still has its headquarters in a building named after J. Edgar Hoover – who constantly blackmailed elected officials with dossiers and tried to blackmail Martin Luther King into killing himself – because that’s what these security state agencies are. They are out-of-control, virtually unlimited police state factions that lie, abuse their spying and law enforcement powers, and subvert democracy and civic and political freedoms as a matter of course.

In this case, no rational person should allow standard partisan bickering to distort or hide this severe FBI corruption. The IG Report leaves no doubt about it. It’s brimming with proof of FBI subterfuge and deceit, all in service of persuading a FISA court of something that was not true: that U.S. citizen and former Trump campaign official Carter Page was an agent of the Russian government and therefore needed to have his communications surveilled....

NYT: We Just Got a Rare Look at National Security Surveillance. It Was Ugly.
A high-profile inspector general report has served as fodder for arguments about President Trump. But its findings about surveillance are important beyond partisan politics.

[Vrede too]

Forum post. Not verified by me, but is accurate as far as I can recall.

“We do a lot of business with the Russians.” "I met him [Putin] once.” “We don't rely on American banks.”
-- Donald Trump - David Letterman Show, Oct. 17, 2013

“I do have a relationship with him [Putin] and I can tell you that he’s very interested in what we’re doing here today.”
-- Donald Trump - MSNBC, Nov. 2013

“When I went to Russia with the Miss Universe pageant, he [Putin] contacted me and was so nice."
-- Donald Trump - Fox and Friends, Feb. 10, 2014

“I will tell you that I think in terms of leadership, he [Putin] is getting an 'A'."
-- Donald Trump - Bill O' Reilly Sep. 29, 2015

“Yes,” Trump says. “Yes, a long time ago. We got along great, by the way.”
-- Michael Savage asks Trump if he’s met Vladimir Putin. Oct. 6 2015

“I have no relationship with him [Putin].”
-- Donald Trump - Feb. 17, 2016

“Putin has been very nice to me.”
-- Donald Trump - Campaign rally in Alabama, Feb. 28, 2016

Asked if he’s ever spoken to Vladimir Putin, Trump gives a “no comment” to Fox News’ Bret Baier. May 5, 2016.

“But I have nothing to do with Russia, nothing to do, I never met Putin, I have nothing to do with Russia whatsoever.”
-- Donald Trump - Miami CBS affiliate, July 27, 2016

“I never met Putin,” Trump said. “I don’t know who Putin is. He said one nice thing about me. He said I'm a genius. I said thank you very much… and that was the end of it. I never met Putin.”
-- Donald Trump - News conference, July 27, 2016

"With great respect. I have no relationship with Putin. I don't think I've ever met him. I never met him. I don't think I've ever met him."
-- Donald Trump - July 2016 interview on ABC's "This Week".
"Yes, I think so. So I've — I don't think I've ever met him. I mean if he's in the same room or something. But I don't think so."
-- Donald Trump - ABC's George Stephanopoulos tried to make sense of Trump's contradictory statements, in a July 2016 interview on ABC's "This Week".

“I don’t know Putin."
-- Donald Trump - Presidential debate, Oct. 9, 2016

[Vrede too]

Senate Report Criticizes Response to Russian Meddling and Partly Blames McConnell

[Vrede too]

All the Trump associates convicted or sentenced in the Mueller investigation

[Vrede too]

viewtopic.php?p=124273#p124273

You can judge a man by the company he keeps.

The Lincoln Project
@ProjectLincoln

Trump’s campaign manager is a felon.
His deputy campaign manager is a felon.
His national security advisor is a felon.
His foreign policy advisor is a felon.
His personal lawyer is a felon.
His long time advisor is a felon.

It’s not a campaign, it’s a criminal enterprise.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p00fxoDpaIo

[Vrede too]

Ex-FBI agent regularly targeted by Trump bringing out book about president's links to Russia

Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump

[Vrede too]

This Extensive Mashup Confirms Trump’s Love for Putin

CNN’s Brianna Keilar did a deep dive into President Trump’s affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin, beginning with how Trump has labeled as a “hoax” the U.S. intelligence reports that Putin placed bounties on American soldiers.

“The president is refusing to condemn or even acknowledge reports that Russia put bounties on American troops. Yet he claims to be tough on the Russian government. That’s just not true,” Keilar said.

The host then went on to illustrate the work of CNN’s Marshall Cohen, who put together an extensive report citing 37 times where Trump has shown loyalty to Russia and Putin, superseding the interests of America, the country Trump has spent the past four years running into the ground.

“The president is seemingly smitten with the Russian president. He cannot stop praising him,” Keilar said as a video clip of Trump bragging about likely made-up occasions where Putin said “nice things” about him and allegedly referred to Trump as a “genius.”

“[Putin] has done a really great job of outsmarting our country. He could not have been nicer. He was so nice. He is really very much of a leader. He said nice things about me,” Trump said in 2014, adding, “I like him because he called me a genius. Putin did call me a genius.”

The compilation video then showed what should have been damning statements by the then-presidential candidate....

https://twitter.com/MarshallCohen/statu ... 1424652288

... “So has the president been soft on Russia? Oh, the answer is yes. At least 37 times, yes,” Keilar concluded.

Traitor.

[Vrede too]

Trump 2016 campaign head colluded with Russian spy: Senate report

The chairman of President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign secretly shared campaign information with a Russian intelligence officer, posing a "grave" espionage threat to the United States, a US Senate report said Tuesday.

Before and during his nearly six months on the Trump campaign, Paul Manafort, a veteran Republican political consultant, directly and indirectly communicated with Konstantin Kilimnik, identified as a Russian intelligence officer, and Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, the Senate Intelligence Committee said....

The Senate Intelligence Committee is majority GOP.
The official Chair is NC's Richard Burr. He's voluntarily stepped down due to an insider trading scandal, but remains on the committee.
The Acting Chair is FL's Marco Rubio.

[Vrede too]

Wiki: Senate Intelligence Committee report on Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election

RUSSIAN ACTIVE MEASURES CAMPAIGNS AND INTERFERENCE IN THE 2016 U.S. ELECTION
VOLUME 5: COUNTERINTELLIGENCE THREATS AND VULNERABILITIES

[Vrede too]

Forum post, not verified by me but it looks accurate:

October 2007: Trump said Putin’s doing a great job
“Look at Putin – what he’s doing with Russia – I mean, you know, what’s going on over there. I mean this guy has done – whether you like him or don’t like him – he’s doing a great job in rebuilding the image of Russia and also rebuilding Russia period,” Trump told Larry King on CNN.

December 2011: Trump praised Putin’s “intelligence” and “no-nonsense way” in his book “Time to Get Tough.”
“Putin has big plans for Russia. He wants to edge out its neighbors so that Russia can dominate oil supplies to all of Europe,” Trump said. “I respect Putin and Russians but cannot believe our leader (Obama) allows them to get away with so much…Hats off to the Russians.”

June 2013: Trump wonders if Putin will be his “new best friend”
“Will he become my new best friend?” Trump asked of Putin in a tweet wondering whether Putin would attend the 2013 Miss Universe pageant Trump brought to Moscow.

October 2013: Trump says Putin is outsmarting the US
“I think he’s done really a great job of outsmarting our country,” Trump told Larry King after Putin successfully dissuaded the US from striking Syria by arranging with the US for the removal of Syria’s chemical weapons.

July 31, 2015: Trump says they’d get along
“I think I’d get along very well with Vladimir Putin. I just think so,” Trump said in one of his first comments about the Russian leader since launching his presidential bid last June.

Oct. 11, 2015: Trump says they had good ratings together

I think there's more and the poster doesn't know that they got cut off for length. We'll see.

[Vrede too]

Paul Manafort Admits Sharing Trump Campaign Data With Suspected Russian Asset For Money: ‘I Don’t Apologize for Things I’ve Done’

Oh look, Manafort finally admits PINO campaign collusion with the Russians. Now, Trumpettes need to let us know whether their idol was complicit or just too dumb to know what was going on under his nose.

[GoCubsGo]

Paul Manafort Admits Sharing Trump Campaign Data With Suspected Russian Asset For Money: ‘I Don’t Apologize for Things I’ve Done’

Oh look, Manafort finally admits PINO campaign collusion with the Russians. Now, Trumpettes need to let us know whether their idol was complicit or just too dumb to know what was going on under his nose.

Are they finally transitioning from fake news to yeah, so what?

[Vrede too]

Are they finally transitioning from fake news to yeah, so what?

Manafort claims that it was all about his personal greed, and he does say 'yeah, so what?' about that. Now, he's selling a book. It would be nice if it did a miserable flop like Kellyanne's, but maybe it will do well with bombshells like admitting the Russian collusion.

[Vrede too]

Not necessarily collusion, but . . .

Russia's Prigozhin admits interfering in U.S. elections

Prigozhin merely confirms what Mueller already proved and all patriotic Americans know - TRE45QN's very narrow 2016 EC win was illegitimate, a manipulation by an enemy.