As has been proven in this country many times if you want leverage on someone you set them up and video tape the results.
To test that you now have control, maybe you send a few hundred more mechanized troops to a border dispute and see what the response is. Or you could fly aircraft dangerously close to enemy aircraft. Or you could sail an Intelligence gathering ship within miles of a critical military installation. Wait for the government response. No response? Ratchet up the leverage and make the blackmailed person prove he will not act defensively.
Let's ok allowing billions of dollars flow into the development of Russian oil and gas reserves. Then we won't have to be embarrassed by the "dossier" content being revealed.

"And that raises the question of what motivates Trump’s Russia policy in the first place. The famed dossier compiled by former British MI6 agent Christopher Steele, alleging that Russian President Vladimir Putin cultivated Trump over several years as part of a plan to subvert the West, contained some errors, but U.S. officials have told CNN that they have corroborated some of its information. Trump and Putin have dismissed the dossier’s allegations, but Trump was vehement during the campaign about the need to transform relations with Putin’s regime and perhaps lift all sanctions against Russia.

The most important question the dossier raises is whether Trump colluded with Russia in its interference in the U.S. presidential election. That is crucial not just because it might constitute treason, but because if it did occur, that alone would amount to kompromat. Forget the prostitutes. If Trump and the Kremlin worked together, that fact alone gives Putin something with which to pressure Trump to act in Russia’s interest.

Even if there was no direct collusion between Trump and Russia, his aides may have made arrangements without his knowledge. The dossier claims that a representative from Trump’s presidential campaign, Carter Page, met last July with Igor Sechin, head of the Russian oil monopoly Rosneft and a senior Kremlin official. Sechin reportedly offered brokerage on a 19 percent stake in Rosneft in exchange for lifting sanctions, and Page was “non-committal in response.”

"As long as doubts about the possible collusion of Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin continue, and as long as Trump refuses to release his taxes and relieve doubts about financial connections, it will be difficult for him to act on any of his promises to transform policy toward Russia.

The Trump administration no doubt hopes that by firing Flynn, it can signal he was acting alone, that he “went rogue.” But without a credible, thorough investigation into what transpired before the election, it is impossible to know if Flynn was following the administration’s playbook and whether Trump or his administration is guilty of something much more serious."


Donald Trump’s Russia Scandal Is Just Getting Started | Foreign Policy

Originally Posted by Guest

As has been proven in this country many times if you want leverage on someone you set them up and video tape the results.
To test that you now have control, maybe you send a few hundred more mechanized troops to a border dispute and see what the response is. Or you could fly aircraft dangerously close to enemy aircraft. Or you could sail an Intelligence gathering ship within miles of a critical military installation. Wait for the government response. No response? Ratchet up the leverage and make the blackmailed person prove he will not act defensively.
Let's ok allowing billions of dollars flow into the development of Russian oil and gas reserves. Then we won't have to be embarrassed by the "dossier" content being revealed.

We have agreements with other countries regarding incidents at sea and the violation of air craft flying too close to ships. It happens all the time, actually. It's been going on for decades, even though it is a violation. They do it and we do it. It is sort of a game of chicken that the pilots like to play. Years ago, one of our pilots was blinded by a laser striking his eyes when he got too close to a Russian ship.
We also have agreements regarding ships bumping each other.

You folks need to get over your fake news cr@p about a relationship of Trump with Russia. You are grasping at very weak straws.