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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsJosh Marshall: Rudy's Big Admission?
...As Ive mentioned a few times before, one of the oddities of Giulianis rolling defense of Trump in response to Cohens accusations is this: Giuliani says that the meeting where Trump allegedly learned about the Russia meeting never happened and he (Giuliani) has talked to the participants and they agree it never happened and Trump didnt attend the meeting or know about the Russian offer. Now, theres sort of a problem here. Cohen never said just what meeting he was referring to. And how can you be a witness to a meeting that never happened about what was said in that meeting?...
Now lets get to what Giuliani said this morning. In a back and forth with CNNs Alisyn Carmerota, he appears to say that two days before the meeting with the Russian lawyer there was a planning meeting to prepare for that meeting. This prep meeting would have been on June 7th, 2016. Giuliani says that meeting included Don Jr., Jared Kushner, Manafort, Rick Gates and others.
Now, Ive had some off the grid moments in the last ten days. But I dont think Id ever heard of this planning meeting. If nothing else, it suggests that the Trump team took the planned encounter with the Russian government emissary much more seriously than theyve suggested to date. And then theres Rick Gates, Manaforts deputy. As we know, Gates is now a cooperating witness. Big problem for the Trump Team, if he was at such a planning meeting....
What Giuliani appears to be saying is that earlier that day the top people in Trumps campaign had a planning meeting to prep for the dirt meeting with the Russians two days later. This is hardly surprising. But it lines up perfectly with what many have long suspected: that Trump was so excited about the dirt his campaign was going to receive from Russia two days later that he couldnt help but brag about it in public that night.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/rudys-big-admission
tblue37
(65,488 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,361 posts)and that evening, Trump blurts out "big dirt coming soon". Not that many dots to join.