Russian Scandals Dog Trump
By D. S. Mitchell
Swamp Life
It’s Saturday afternoon, and I look out to wind and rain. I’ve had all morning and most of the afternoon to think about the current administration. There are multiple simmering scandals bubbling up. Just about everywhere you look there is a swamp creature bobbing its head through dark sludge. It has become impossible to avoid them, they are everywhere you look.
An Inside Joke
Donald Trump ran for office proclaiming he would “drain the swamp”. It was an inside joke to all who knew the man. Trump has been a swamp creature his entire life, conning and grifting at every turn. However, I doubt that even the most skeptic of his critics, ever imagined the morass he would surround himself with if elected president. Putrid and corrupt, the rot that is consuming the Trump presidency began before the election.
Follow The Money
I’m trying to bring sense to all the emerging scandals. Once we find the decaying corpse of corruption that links Trump to Putin we may discover the truth about the Russian involvement in the 2016 election. And what I expect is a continuing effect on Trump’s daily decisions.
1.) Russian Interference in 2016 election: Mike Flynn, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and possibly more Trump insiders, have been linked to meetings with Russian officials prior to the 2016 election, and after, raising suspicions. Trump’s unprecedented outreach to Putin was odd. He and his campaign surrogates seemed unusually friendly to Russia’s dictator. Trump himself spoke publicly requesting the Russians provide emails on his opponent. Such behavior has stimulated curiosity and cast a dark cloud over his administration. Both the press and the public suspect the president’s ties to Putin and the Kremlin are sinister.
The Usual Suspects
The Russians were immediate suspects when in June of 2016 the DNC computer system was hacked. Trump’s espousal of a pro-Russian approach to foreign policy throughout the campaign plus the Kremlin’s long history of interference in Western elections quickly aroused officials at the FBI and the CIA to open investigations.
Rally Chants
It appears that Trump knew of the impending DNC hack. He certainly seemed to be asking for Russian interference when he called on Russia to find “Hillary’s missing 30,000 emails”. Of course, the 30,ooo emails he was asking about had nothing to do with the ones that would eventually be retrieved from the DNC. In the public mind there was no difference. Trump began calling her “crooked Hillary”. He did an effective job of painting her as a corrupt criminal, someone who should be jailed. For what, was never clear, but his red hats loved it and chanted religiously on cue, “lock her up!”
WikiLeaks
A long time Trump supporter and Russian insider claimed he was in contact with WikiLeaks. On October 1st Roger Stone tweeted, a bizarre statement. “Wednesday@HillaryClinton is done.#WikiLeaks. Putin’s machine controlled WikiLeaks, and its founder Julian Assange. As Stone predicted Assange slowly and painfully began dripping unfavorable emails to the American public. It was a simple but masterful plot to damage Hillary Clinton, and help Trump. Sadly, the Trump crew had no problem asking for and receiving Russian assistance in the 2016 election, and in fact openly encouraged the hacking.
2.) Probable inappropriate phone calls and meetings between Mike Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak: It is now known that Mike Flynn NSA director “was an agent of a foreign government” while he served the Trump Administration, which he did not publicly disclose until mid-March 2017. Flynn, in belatedly filed paperwork, admitted he had taken over half a million dollars from Turkish authorities as a lobbyist. Turkey has had a recent rocky relationship with the US and has leaned closer to Russia in recent years.
General Mike Flynn
Flynn was fired by Trump on 2/13, when it became public that Flynn had lied to VP Pence about his contacts with the Russian government. Supposedly, it was these fabricated denials that caused both Sean Spicer and Mike Pence to defend Flynn against a gathering media investigation. Information has emerged that Flynn and the Russian Ambassador wanted to undermine the Obama Administration’s sanctions against Russia due to Putin’s 2016 election interference.
Sally Yates Comes Calling
Former Attorney General Sally Yates informed White House Counsel Don McGahn, in late January, that General Mike Flynn was most likely compromised by the Russians. Yates believed Flynn to be a blackmail risk. Apparently, McGahn shared the Yates information with Trump immediately. But it didn’t matter to Trump. It wasn’t until negative media reporting forced Trump to send Flynn packing, nearly a month after the Yates revelations. Obviously, the President of the United States saw Flynn’s activities differently than the Attorney General.
3.) Salacious and Bizarre Dossier: An unsubstantiated dossier was circulating around Washington DC for several months in the late fall of 2016. Christopher Steele, a former British spy was the guy behind the document. BuzzFeed took heavy criticism for releasing the unsubstantiated documents. Since its initial release many of the allegations seem to be based on at least partial truth, if not total truth. Trump’s Russian connections go back over 30 years and a lot of seamy activities have taken place. The dossier claims the Russians filmed Donald in all forms of compromising situations, including peeing on beds and prostitutes. The Kremlin has by some reports, held these disgusting behaviors over Trump’s head and blackmailed him.
Getting Ready To Run
We do know that the Kremlin has been assisting Trump through a series of surrogates for at least the last five years, preparing for a presidential run. Putin has used Trump, according to the dossier, with the intention to divide and split Western alliances, most importantly NATO. “Do you think Putin will be going to the Miss Universe Pageant-if so, will he become my new best friend? I think this is strange. Putin was already Trump’s “buddy” when Donald sent this inane tweet.
4.) Money Laundering: There is a very rich Russian fertilizer magnet who paid Trump about 95 million dollars for a property in Florida. Only 40 million more than Trump paid for the property two years earlier. Pretty steep inflation rate, don’t you think? Remember now, this buyer was not an Italian, or a Swede, or even a Brit. He was a Russian. Another Russian. This looks really bad.
Weird Associations
All of these events are distinct, with lives of their own; yet there seems to be a coalescing connection. Trump is the link in all these scandals. He hired people like Flynn and Manafort. He has surrounded himself with Russian insiders like, Roger Stone and Carter Page. Public praise for killer, tyrant, autocrat Vladimir Putin. Trump asked for the Russians to hack Hillary. Trump heaps praise on WikiLeaks, an arm of the Kremlin, while attacking the US intelligence services. The list of weird associations goes, on and on.
Conclusion
If everything is innocent, why does the Trump team keep lying about contacts with Russian officials. Remember, it’s the cover-up, rather than the crime that usually ensnares the guilty. Lies to federal officers, lies in sworn depositions to avoid public embarrassment. Each exposed lie, a red flag to the ever inquisitive media. I expect, that if there was collusion and conspiracy between Trump, his campaign and the Russians, it will eventually be uncovered by diligent reporters, hopefully in the next few years, not decades from now.
I just hope, that the process is as painful for him, as it is for us.
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