More Logs on the Russian Fire

[mellincf]

Despite denials from the campaign and the White House, it’s now clear that members of the Trump campaign corresponded or met with Russians at least 30 times throughout the campaign. Knowledge of these communications went to the highest levels of Donald Trump’s operation — both Corey Lewandowski and Paul Manafort, two of the campaign’s three managers, were aware of it.

It’s also worth remembering that this represents only what is known by the media — it is likely that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators know a lot more than we do.
-Greg Sargent

[mellincf]

Newly released documents confirm that racist weasel and senior Trump policy advisor Stephen Miller was regularly kept in the loop regarding the Trump campaign’s “outreach” to Russia, an effort which Trump has dismissed as “fake news” that “didn’t happen.”

[mellincf]

Papadopoulos, the campaign's emissary, made it clear that the Russians were virtually salivating at the idea of meeting with Trump, emailing Miller that “the Russian government has an open invitation by Putin for Mr. Trump to meet him when he is ready.”

[mellincf]

Miller was also one of the advisors pressing hard for President Trump to fire James Comey. Indeed, Mueller’s investigators just interviewed Miller, apparently mainly about the Comey firing. Miller was one of the small group of Trump lickspittles who accompanied the President on the lost weekend at Bedminster when he stewed over Comey and resolved to fire him on his return. He also wrote a first draft of Trump’s firing letter, which the grownups back in Washington, horrified, dramatically revised. In short, Miller’s hands are all over the Comey firing. Now that we know he was in the loop for the Russia contacts, we know that in seeking to fire Comey he was at least in part seeking to kill an investigation into himself.

[mellincf]

"The more documents I read, the more convinced I get that there was intentional coordination between Donald Trump's campaign and the Russians." -- Rep. Jackie Speier on Donald Trump Jr. correspondence with Wikileaks.

[Rockyrd]

"The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks

The transparency organization asked the president’s son for his cooperation—in sharing its work, in contesting the results of the election, and in arranging for Julian Assange to be Australia’s ambassador to the United States."

The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks - The Atlantic (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/the-secret-correspondence-between-donald-trump-jr-and-wikileaks/545738/)

[mellincf]

“Four people familiar with the investigation said Mueller is looking into whether Mike Flynn discussed in the late December meeting orchestrating the return to Turkey of a chief rival of Turkish President Recep Erdogan who is living in the U.S.

Flynn is being questioned about a potential quid-pro-quo in which Flynn would be paid to secretly carry out directives from Ankara while in the White House, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation.

Bombshell Report on Roy Moore Could Reshape Washington'''s Political Landscape - NBC News (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/bombshell-report-could-reshape-washington-s-political-landscape-n819641)

[mellincf]

Miller was brought into the fold by Jeff Sessions. Miller was Sessions' speechwriter, specializing in race-baiting screeds. Sessions is already on record as lying under oath to Congress about his contacts with Russia during the campaign.

At a minimum, Miller getting updated on Papadopoulos’ adventures makes it much less credible that Sessions knew nothing about the channels opening up between the campaign and Russia.

[Taltarzac725]

Miller was brought into the fold by Jeff Sessions. Miller was Sessions' speechwriter, specializing in race-baiting screeds. Sessions is already on record as lying under oath to Congress about his contacts with Russia during the campaign.

At a minimum, Miller getting updated on Papadopoulos’ adventures makes it much less credible that Sessions knew nothing about the channels opening up between the campaign and Russia.

Saturday Night Live seems to have Jeff Sessions pegged as a creepy Trump sychophant who once in a while has a criticism of Donald John Trump.