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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMother Jones: These are not dots. These are icebergs.
The Trump-Russia Conspiracy Is Now Very Simple
You dont even have to connect dots.
DAVID CORN
JUL. 11, 2017 5:45 PM
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Trump Jr. then widens the cabal by informing Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort about this operation, and they are added to the meeting. An email forwarded to them about the get-together has the subject heading: Russia Clinton private and confidential. On June 9, the meeting occurs.
It only took three days for this plot to zip from the discussion between Chaika and Aras Agalarov to the inner circle of Trumps campaign. Trump Jr. says nothing came out of the conversation between the Trump advisers and the Russian lawyer, claiming she spoke only in vague and meaningless terms. But given that the presidents son has repeatedly dissembled about this episode, there is no telling if this description can be trusted. (The lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, has denied working on behalf of the Russian government or conveying negative information about Clinton.)
*****This is what ought to register: The scheme appears to have been put into play by a Putin regime official and a Putin-friendly oligarch who was Trumps business partner in Russiaand Trumps son, son-in-law, and campaign manager all joined in. (A pop singer, a Russian lawyer, and a talent manager all had supporting roles.) Trump Jr., Kushner, and Manafort were looking to collude with a foreign power to gain an advantage in the electionan allegation the Trump team has repeatedly and passionately denied.
This is not Alex Jones stuff. This was straightforward conniving. Moreover, this is reality within the part of the universe where Trumpland overlaps with Putins world. It was a conspiracy, pure and simple. The obvious question now is: Are there any others to uncover?******
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http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/07/the-trump-russia-conspiracy-is-now-very-simple/
Link to tweet
I saw a reference to an email with the subject line "Russia - Clinton - private and confidential" - I thought it was a joke, NO ONE COULD POSSIBLY BE THAT FUCKING STUPID.
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)They tease us, almost daily.....and unfortunately it means nothing unless the GOP caucus chooses to grow a spine, show some integrity and do something about this fool.
Either that or Donnie's and the GOP's brand is so damaged by these events that there are serious changes in the Congress in 2018.
Keep your fingers crossed but don't anyone hold your breath.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,150 posts)---snip---
Goldstone seems to have garbled things a bit; in the United Kingdom a Crown prosecutor is one that works for the Crown, i.e., a federal prosecutor. Theres no such position in Russia technically, but the analogue would be the top federal prosecutor of Russia, and that is Yury Chaika, the prosecutor-general of the Russian Federation. Goldstone was likely translating a foreign title into its local equivalent. Translated into American titles, Chaika could be referred to as Russias attorney general.
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That loyalty has been rewarded amply. Chaika is part of the bloc of silovikior people allied with security services, literally the people who settle disputes through forceinside the Kremlin, as is Putin himself. Chaika has been protected from being pushed out by more powerful members of the clan, and Putin has willfully turned a blind eye as Chaikas two adult sons have made a killing, accumulating hundreds of millions of dollars in business and choice government contracts. According to an investigation released by opposition politician Alexey Navalny in December 2015, the Chaika brothers used the protection afforded to them by their fathers office and the prosecutors he oversaw to rig state auctions of choice assets and extort whole businesses from people, including from one man who ended up strangled to death. (Though he is a politician, Navalnys investigations are well-documented and thorough, and he has often filled the void left by the death of independent journalism in Russia. One opposition activist once described him to me as the last investigative journalist in Russia.) According to Navalny, the Chaika brothers then squirreled away their money in houses in Switzerland, where they obtained a residency permit, and in a luxury hotel in Greece.
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This is the man who made an oblique appearance in emails to Trump Jr. Natalia Veselnitskaya, the lawyer who conducted the meeting with Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower last summer, is very close with the Chaika family, having gone to law school with the Chaikas oldest son, Artem, according to a source familiar with the parties involved. And when Navalnys expose of the Chaika familys dealings broke, it was none other than Aras Agalarova Russian businessman and one of Russias richest men who defended the Chaika family in a column in Russias biggest newspaper. Aras Agalarov is the person to whom Chaika, according to Trump Jr.s emails, offered potentially damaging information on Clinton. And its Agalarovs son, middling Russian pop star Emin Agalarov, who is also mentioned in the emails, and who was acquainted with the Trumps through his familys role in setting up the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/07/russian-crown-prosecutor/533295/