The Select Committee on Intelligence of the United States Senate, just issued a report on the Russian Interference in the 2016 election. It is a smoking gun showing the ties between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia. The Trump Campaign’s interaction with Russia during the 2016 presidential election posed a “grave” counterintelligence threat the the Republican-led committee concluded.
The report details how Russia launched an aggressive effort to interfere in the election on Trump’s behalf. It says the Trump campaign chairman. Paul Manafort, had regular contact with a Russian intelligence officer and that other Trump associates were eager to exploit the Kremlin’s aid. The 1000 page report echos the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation while adding new evidence and details. Mueller’s report was a criminal probe, while the Senate investigation was a counterintelligence effort with the aim of ensuring that such interference wouldn’t happen again.
One of the most damning sections of the report was about the close ties between former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russsian oligarch, whom the committee describes as a Russian intelligence officer. Manafort shared internal Trump campaign polling data with Kilimnik and says there is “some evidence” Kilimnik may have been connected to Russia’s effort to hack and leak Democratic emails. Much of the report is redacted.
The Committee reviewed a meeting Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., took in June 2016 with a Russian lawyer he believed to have connections with the Russian government with the goal of receiving information harmful to his father’s opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump and senior campaign officials sought to obtain advance information on WikiLeaks‘ email dumps through Roger Stone, and Trump spoke to Stone about WikiLeaks, despite telling the special counsel in written answers he had “no recollections” that they had spoken about it. Roger Stone was fond guilty of lying to Congress, but Trump pardoned him. WikiLeaks were released to the public right after Trumps pussy grab comments. Trump had said in written answers to Mueller he didn’t recall conversations with Stone about WikiLeaks releases. He clearly lied.
US intelligence officials are warning that Russia continues to target the 2020 election, specifically Trump’s 2020 opponent Joe Biden. “Campaigns should recognize that campaign staff are attractive targets for foreign intelligence services. The threat is ongoing.” the committee said. redacted information in the report that has not yet been released to the public is “directly relevant to Russia’s interference in the 2020 election.
When ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos asked Trump if his his campaign would accept such information from foreigners like Russia or hand it over the FBI, Trump said, “I think maybe you do both,” he continued, “I think you might want to listen, there isn’t anything wrong with listening,” Trump continued. “If somebody called from a country, Norway, [and said] ‘we have information on your opponent’ — oh, I think I’d want to hear it.”
President Donald Trump has told aides he’d like to hold an in-person meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin before the November election, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Past meeting have had no one else in the room. they have met five times and what was said is a mystery.