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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTaking Stock of the Times Blockbuster - Josh Marshall
By JOSH MARSHALL Published JULY 9, 2017 6:56 PM
I want to share a few initial thoughts on this afternoons Times blockbuster. If you have not seen it yet, yesterday the Times reported that Donald Trump Jr., along with Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort, met last year with a Russian lawyer with close ties to the Kremlin, Natalia Veselnitskaya, about something called the Magnitsky Act. Magnitsky is a sort of mini-sanctions law passed in 2012 which Russia has wanted overturned ever since. (The details of Magnitsky are important but well discuss them later.) That in itself was a major story. This afternoon they followed up with additional details that made it a genuine blockbuster: according to the Times, Trump took the meeting because he was promised that he would receive damaging information about Hillary Clinton.
This is a very big story in that it gets quite close to the first evidence of collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign during the 2016 campaign. At a minimum, Trump Jr was open to receiving damaging information about Clinton from Russian nationals who a simple Google search would identify as being closely allied with the Kremlin.
Let me share a few thoughts.
1. What I suspect is the most important detail in this story is the sources. The Times reports that they got the information from three advisers to the White House briefed on the meeting and two others with knowledge of it. They apparently talked after the release of the first story. This is highly, highly significant. Needless to say, advisors to the White House are not in the business of taking highly damaging stories and volunteering new information which makes them catastrophically damaging. The only reason a Presidents allies ever do something like that is either to get ahead of something much more damaging or get a first crack at shaping the public understanding of something much more damaging. Theres really no other explanation. We dont know yet what drove them to volunteer such highly damaging information. Five of them did it. It wasnt a matter of one person going rogue.
2. The Times story doesnt say whether any damaging information was provided to Trump Jr. It will be interesting to find out whether Veselnitskaya did share any such information.
more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/taking-stock-of-the-times-blockbuster
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)cretinous Cabal of Colluding republican Cronies are driving the USA deep into a freaking cesspool of treason, perjury, economic indebtedness, war risk, and just general overall russian-republican KristoFascist Hell? They mighta, coulda, maybe had an attack of conscience.
Could be. Things happen, you know.
flamingdem
(39,304 posts)I think it's more likely they're trying to frame the story
brush
(53,475 posts)to include previously omitted recollections of meetings with Russians.
Once that was done it came out that trump jr. not only attended the meeting also but helped arranged it.
Their lies are catching up with them.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)...a whole shitload more to come...