Bugsy McGurk
President
Some highlights from David Frum’s excellent article:"Ginned up"?
Was the DNC and a number of election systems hacked by the Russians? Yes.
Were quite a few emails released by Wiki intended to help Trump and hurt Clinton? Yes.
Did Popadopolous tell Alexander Downer the Russians had dirt on Clinton, before the wiki release? Yes.
Did Downer tell the FBI about hearing about the Russian dirt after the Wiki email release? Yes.
Were there an unusual number of contacts between the Russian government and the Trump campaign? Yes. Somewhere around 100. No other presidential campaign, ever, was in constant contact with the Russians.
Was there a self professed "advisor" to the Kremlin on the Trump campaign? Yes. Carter Page.
You say the investigation was ginned up and a witch hunt. I say the Russian activities were intended to help Trump win and deserved investigation.
In June 2016, the Trump campaign received a request for a meeting from a Russian lawyer offering harmful information on Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump Jr. and other senior Trump advisers accepted the meeting. The Trump team did not obtain the dirt they’d hoped for. But the very fact of the meeting confirmed to the Russian side the Trump campaign’s eagerness to accept Russian assistance.
Shortly after, Trump delivered his “Russia, if you’re listening” invitation at his last press conference of the campaign.WikiLeaks released two big caches of hacked Democratic emails in July and October 2016. In the words of the Senate Intelligence Committee: “WikiLeaks actively sought, and played, a key role in the Russian intelligence campaign and very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort.
”Through its ally Roger Stone, the Trump campaign team assiduously tried to communicate with WikiLeaks. Before the second WikiLeaks release, “Trump and the Campaign believed that Stone had inside information and expressed satisfaction that Stone’s information suggested more releases would be forthcoming,” according to the Senate Intelligence Committee. In late summer and early fall 2016, Stone repeatedly predicted that WikiLeaks would publish an “October surprise” that would harm the Clinton campaign.
In March 2016, the Trump campaign accepted the unpaid services of Paul Manafort, deeply beholden to deeply shady Russian business and political figures. “On numerous occasions, Manafort sought to secretly share internal Campaign information” with a man the Intelligence Committee identified as a Russian intelligence officer. “Taken as a whole, Manafort’s high-level access and willingness to share information with individuals closely affiliated with the Russian intelligence services … represented a grave counterintelligence threat,” the committee found. Through 2016, the Russian state launched a massive Facebook disinformation program that aligned with the Trump campaign strategy.
And that’s just a taste.
It Wasn’t a Hoax
People with scant illusions about Trump are volunteering to help him execute one of his Big Lies.
amp.theatlantic.com
Wingers: No collusion!
;-)