Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence

[fskimospy]

What exactly is the crime here?

At a minimum it appears the national security adviser lied to the Vice President about the content of his conversations with a foreign power. In addition to this it's very possible he lied to the FBI as well, which would be a felony. Regardless of the violation of a criminal statute, his deceptions to the VP and maybe the president meant that the Russian government had compromising information about him that they could use to potentially blackmail him. This is an extremely, extremely serious issue.

The FBI notified the president that his top national security official was compromised and he did nothing. The duty of the IC is to the country, not the president, and so it's unconscionable that they would allow a situation where a knowingly compromised individual continued to have access to all of the nation's most sensitive national security material.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

At a minimum it appears the national security adviser lied to the Vice President about the content of his conversations with a foreign power. In addition to this it's very possible he lied to the FBI as well, which would be a felony. Regardless of the violation of a criminal statute, his deceptions to the VP and maybe the president meant that the Russian government had compromising information about him that they could use to potentially blackmail him. This is an extremely, extremely serious issue.

The FBI notified the president that his top national security official was compromised and he did nothing. The duty of the IC is to the country, not the president, and so it's unconscionable that they would allow a situation where a knowingly compromised individual continued to have access to all of the nation's most sensitive national security material.

Well yeah. But other than that what else ya got?

 

[momeNt]

The difference between McCarthyism and this being that Mr. Flynn has been confirmed to have been coordinating with a hostile foreign government to the point that he's resigned because of it, and more staff of the President have very likely been doing the same?

Yes, do we have any idea where it will end? Who is running the show, the evidence?

 

[emperus]

Just how was our national security and foreign policy compromised? Facts please.

All the Intelligence agencies believe Russians interfered/hacked our elections to help Trump.
On Dec. 29th Obama issued sanctions.
On Dec. 29th The same day Flynn speaks to the Russian Ambassador about said Sanctions and lied about the conversation.
On Dec. 30th The next day Putin doesn't react (made the US wonder why they didn't and any reasonable person should wonder what was discussed in that call between Flynn and the ambassador)
On Dec. 30th Trump tweets out that Putin is a smart man for not reacting to the Sanctions.
We know Trump has harsh words to say about allies and enemies alike, but has never had a bad thing to say about Putin.
We now know there were constant communication between Trump's team and Russian operatives during the elections while they were hacking and leaking information to influence our elections.

The question for any rational person should be given all those facts, how our national security and foreign policy could not be compromised. Well that is if you believe having our President being influenced by Russia is compromised.

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

At a minimum it appears the national security adviser lied to the Vice President about the content of his conversations with a foreign power. In addition to this it's very possible he lied to the FBI as well, which would be a felony. Regardless of the violation of a criminal statute, his deceptions to the VP and maybe the president meant that the Russian government had compromising information about him that they could use to potentially blackmail him. This is an extremely, extremely serious issue.

The FBI notified the president that his top national security official was compromised and he did nothing. The duty of the IC is to the country, not the president, and so it's unconscionable that they would allow a situation where a knowingly compromised individual continued to have access to all of the nation's most sensitive national security material.

So all you have is "appearances" of possible issues but zero facts. Got it.

 

[fskimospy]

And why did trump keep Pence out of the loop? Trump doesn't trust Pence enough to let him know he's saying wrong info about Flynn on national tv. There's definitely something fishy here.

To me by far the most likely answer is that Flynn was talking to the Russian ambassador about sanctions at Trump's request. This is the answer that's probably the least damaging to national security, but it's maybe the most damaging to Trump outside of him actually being compromised by Russian intelligence himself, which is still a pretty big stretch.

This absolutely has to be investigated further to establish what actually happened. Depending on what that uncovers it could get very bad for Trump very quickly. If Flynn lied to the FBI then he's committed a felony. If he lied to the FBI at the request of Trump, Trump has committed a felony. (although that would be hard to prove) If the other investigations into contacts between Trump's campaign and Russian intelligence turn up then who only knows how this all ends. (nowhere good)

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

All the Intelligence agencies believe Russians interfered/hacked our elections to help Trump.
On Dec. 29th Obama issued sanctions.
On Dec. 29th The same day Flynn speaks to the Russian Ambassador about said Sanctions and lied about the conversation.
On Dec. 30th The next day Putin doesn't react (made the US wonder why they didn't and any reasonable person should wonder what was discussed in that call between Flynn and the ambassador)
On Dec. 30th Trump tweets out that Putin is a smart man for not reacting to the Sanctions.
We know Trump has harsh words to say about allies and enemies alike, but has never had a bad thing to say about Putin.
We now know there were constant communication between Trump's team and Russian operatives during the elections while they were hacking and leaking information to influence our elections.

The question for any rational person should be given all those facts, how our national security and foreign policy could not be compromised.

The real question here is how any rational person can assume wrongdoing without having having definitive proof beyond mere appearance and speculation by partisans such as yourself.

 

[fskimospy]

So all you have is "appearances" of possible issues but zero facts. Got it.

The FBI went to the president and warned him that his national security adviser could be blackmailed by a hostile foreign power and the president allowed him to continue to serve while lying to the country about whether he had been given this information. These are facts. Your response to this? Parroting the Republican line that the real problem here is the FBI.

I can't wait for the next time you try and call someone a hack after what you've said in this thread. You've seriously lost it.

 

[Pens1566]

The real question here is how any rational person can assume wrongdoing without having having definitive proof beyond mere appearance and speculation by partisans such as yourself.

It was apparently enough info for the DNI, FBI, DoJ, and CIA to go to the admin and inform them that Flynn was a risk. But, what would they know over your stellar background, eh comrade?

 

[MongGrel]

The real question here is how any rational person can assume wrongdoing without having having definitive proof beyond mere appearance and speculation by partisans such as yourself.

So, you are saying the Director of the NSA resigned for no reason ? Trump's ties to Russia have been more than pointed out on the forums here many times long ago.

Even when it's obvious something screwed up is going on you continue living in denial.

 

[Commodus]

Just how was our national security and foreign policy compromised? Facts please.

Let's put the pieces together:

- Trump campaign members and associates talk to senior Russian intelligence officials well before the actual vote.

- WikiLeaks releases DNC info obtained by state-sponsored Russian hackers, and Trump associate Roger Stone (who's known to have talked to Russia) even hinted that he knew what WikiLeaks was releasing in October.

- That "kompromat" revelation suggesting that Russia has embarrassing info on Trump. The most explosive stuff has yet to be confirmed, but some of the essential details have been corroborated.

- Flynn talks to the Russian ambassador about Obama's sanctions, likely promising to lift them once Trump took office.

- Trump has a near-pathological aversion to saying anything bad about Russia, and desires policies that clearly undermine a coordinated stand against Russia (hopes for weakening both NATO and the UN, lifting sanctions imposed after Russian hacking, and so on).

Connect the dots and it's potentially quite simple: Russia knowingly worked with the Trump campaign to get promises of Russia-friendly policies before it was even clear he'd be president, and may even have blackmailed Trump, Flynn and others. At a minimum, that's Flynn's Logan Act violation on a grander scale -- unauthorized citizens interfering with US foreign policy. And if the Trump campaign was blackmailed, or had any interactions with Russia where WikiLeaks was involved (even if it was just being tipped off to the WikiLeaks data)... well, that's basically treason.

 

[fskimospy]

This is an epic pants-shitting, even by DSF standards.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I hate to be that asshole who posts a link and runs but I have a work appointment to keep. I just breezed this seems interesting but its from CNN you know the fake news guys.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/14/politics/donald-trump-aides-russians-campaign/index.html

High-level advisers close to then-presidential nominee Donald Trump were in constant communication during the campaign with Russians known to US intelligence, multiple current and former intelligence, law enforcement and administration officials tell CNN.

President-elect Trump and then-President Barack Obama were both briefed on details of the extensive communications between suspected Russian operatives and people associated with the Trump campaign and the Trump business, according to US officials familiar with the matter.

 

[yllus]

Yes, do we have any idea where it will end? Who is running the show, the evidence?

Good question; are you going to write or call your members of Congress to ask them to do that?

 

[nakedfrog]

"This Russian connection non-sense is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing campaign."
How does this even make sense?

 

[Doc Savage Fan]

I hate to be that asshole who posts a link and runs but I have a work appointment to keep. I just breezed this seems interesting but its from CNN you know the fake news guys.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/14/politics/donald-trump-aides-russians-campaign/index.html

From your link....

"Officials emphasized that communications between campaign staff and representatives of foreign governments are not unusual. However, these communications stood out to investigators due to the frequency and the level of the Trump advisers involved. Investigators have not reached a judgment on the intent of those conversations."​

 

[Pens1566]

From your link....

"Officials emphasized that communications between campaign staff and representatives of foreign governments are not unusual. However, these communications stood out to investigators due to the frequency and the level of the Trump advisers involved. Investigators have not reached a judgment on the intent of those conversations."​

Yeah, the judgement is usually what comes after the investigation. Investigation based on what looks like a probable violation/crime. Which is exactly what it looks like. At least according to the heads of all of FBI, DoJ (since fired btw), CIA, DNI.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

From your link....

"Officials emphasized that communications between campaign staff and representatives of foreign governments are not unusual. However, these communications stood out to investigators due to the frequency and the level of the Trump advisers involved. Investigators have not reached a judgment on the intent of those conversations."​

It's not unusual to have low level staffers reach out to their counterparts once or twice to set up meetings. This was top level people, these were frequent communications and this was done before he won the election. It was the summer. That's the big red flag here.

An investigation will determine the rest. Seems no one on the right wants that to happen though.

 

[VRAMdemon]

So, it turns out that upsetting people who can find your deepest darkest secrets, and people who can broadcast your deepest darkest secrets to the world, isn't necessarily a smart idea. Who knew?!

Yes, we all knew Trump et al are showing arrogance - but they were so arrogant, and so out of their depth, that they thought they could fight the intelligence community and win. The NSA, CIA, FBI, whoever probably has incendiary, possibly criminal stuff on Trump going back decades, but are just waiting for the right moment to use it. Trump was in the private sector and so was never scrutinized or vetted like a normal politician would be, under a constant spotlight most of their career. They, of course, don't give a shit if he broke the law for some arcane real estate transaction 5 years ago, but they do want him compromised, to pin him against the wall at any time. There's almost no way Trumps phone isn't compromised and broadcasting everything, all the time, to God knows where. Right now it's probably only State actors - Russian, American, Chinese? - and they're going to sit on that, too, and let it build. Why show your cards if you don't have to?

It's plausible that more than one person has Trumpy by the shorthairs, and he really honestly doesn't know what to do. He's highly concerned about his personal reputation, he has no idea how the federal government works, he has no clue about international relations. Therefore, he's leaning on some wacky-fucking ducks to get him up to speed and lead him out of this, and he's leaning on them because they're the ones who are most-effectively stroking his terrified little mind and ego with the possibilities of being an historic "change maker."

But there are so many crossed signals and conflicting bits of information coming out of this White House that it's only a matter of time before this shit show explodes. He has the whole world looking at him, and he has no idea what to do. He might not have been behind this whole Russian thing, but he damn well knew about it. Bannon, Miller, Manafort, Flynn...this is one spectacular shit show.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

From your link....

"Officials emphasized that communications between campaign staff and representatives of foreign governments are not unusual. However, these communications stood out to investigators due to the frequency and the level of the Trump advisers involved. Investigators have not reached a judgment on the intent of those conversations."​

I'm not passing judgement, I'm supporting the idea of investigating it.

I really have to leave now

 

[MongGrel]

From your link....

"Officials emphasized that communications between campaign staff and representatives of foreign governments are not unusual. However, these communications stood out to investigators due to the frequency and the level of the Trump advisers involved. Investigators have not reached a judgment on the intent of those conversations."​

I see you're just busy spam posting again.

 

[Thump553]

The real question here is how any rational person can assume wrongdoing without having having definitive proof beyond mere appearance and speculation by partisans such as yourself.

You know damn well if Hillary was President and this sort of thing happened there would be at least two active Congressional investigations pending right now, with active hearings going on now, all kinds of GOP calls for an independent prosecutor, etc. Heck they would probably already have the bills of impeachment drafted and ready to go.

Instead we have GOP committee heads dragging their heels, basically saying maybe we will start an investigation once the FBI is done (they never waited before) and not even scheduling a show hearing to get Flynn's testimony.

Doesn't the double standard and total hypocrisy bother you, or are you so concerned about partisanship that loyalty to the USA and its democratic institutions mean nothing?

 

[fskimospy]

You know damn well if Hillary was President and this sort of thing happened there would be at least two active Congressional investigations pending right now, with active hearings going on now, all kinds of GOP calls for an independent prosecutor, etc. Heck they would probably already have the bills of impeachment drafted and ready to go.

Instead we have GOP committee heads dragging their heels, basically saying maybe we will start an investigation once the FBI is done (they never waited before) and not even scheduling a show hearing to get Flynn's testimony.

Doesn't the double standard and total hypocrisy bother you, or are you so concerned about partisanship that loyalty to the USA and its democratic institutions mean nothing?

I do love how his response to people calling for an investigation based on numerous possible crimes/coverups is 'you don't have any proof!' No shit, Sherlock, that's the point of an investigation.

 

[Commodus]

One thing pointed out to me, which seems obvious: when the target of leaks blames those leaks for his problems, that means they're true and serious. You don't call for an investigation into who's behind the leaks if they're either false or don't do much to affect your political power.

Trump is desperately wishing he could ban intelligence agencies from investigating him right about now, because this isn't going to end well for him.

 

[zinfamous]

The pathetic attempts by the Rebubs/Cons to say basically "no big deal" is sad. They are saying we don't give a shit about our countries security, get over it, we won.

But Hillary's emails!!!!

wasn't that about national security?