“But it does matter, and no amount of Republican dissembling or whataboutism can change that. President Trump is almost certainly guilty.”
“As for Trump, no collusion no longer even passes the laugh test. “
“In sum, the draft Mueller document adds materially to the existing record of Trump campaign support for and coordination with the Russian-WikiLeaks scheme to influence the outcome of 2016 presidential election through a program of political sabotage. There is no reason to doubt that more from the Mueller probe is yet to come. What is known already leaves little standing of Donald Trump’s repeated denial of “collusion.” There was collusion, and it occurred in violation of federal law.
I-clearly, if you’ve read any page in this book-think it’s a more important factor than Cooper suggests. I mean part of the reason for her ‘unpopularity’ was the Russian collusion campaign-that and the anti Clinton campaign at the FBI. Elsewhere in the book I documented the fact that her popularity had risen to the mid to high 40s in October and then came the Comey letter and it sunk like a stone-in perfect correlation. I don’t see how you can argue that if a basketball team loses on a bad call at the buzzer and you then learn that the ref who made the bad call was paid off, that all the refs were paid off that this is a less important factor than the invariable mistakes that the team made down the stretch-they didn’t rest their star, they missed some free throws, made some bad substitutions, or maybe they didn’t go to Wisconsin.
Are those mistakes really the most important factor or is it that: the refs were paid off? When you look at how close Clinton’s ‘loss’ actually was-77,000 votes in three swing states-it’s obvious that if not for Comeygate-and Russian collusion-she wins going away-no matter how ‘unpopular’ you want to believe she was-and she was never as unpopular as Trump until the last 11 days post Comeygate-even then not quite as unpopular but within striking distance.
But I do agree with Cooper that the real import of Russiagate is less the Russians than the GOP. As I’ve explained, the thesis of this book is that Trump-Russia is just the logical conclusion of the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the modern-post New Deal-Republican party. As recovering GOPer David Frum puts it, ‘it was inevitable that given a choice between conservatism and democracy, the GOP will choose conservatism.’
That more than even the Russians is the central story of the constitutional crisis we now find ourselves in- I say crisis as Trump’s ‘Presidency’ is illegitimate.
But what about Russia-why them? As we saw during the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, the GOP didn’t need the Russians to learn how to hack and weaponize stolen Democratic emails, and indeed, they didn’t need Trump to learn how to cheat, and indeed, even collude with a hostile foreign power-2016 was actually the third time the GOP had colluded with a hostile foreign power in under 50 years-there was Nixon-Vietnam in 1968 and Reagan-Iran in 1980.
So why did the Putin’s Russia come to team up with Trump and the Republican party? The important thing to appreciate is that, while it’s true that Trump has long ties to Russia-going back to the 1980s when he was one of only three NYC landlords who allowed anonymous buyers to purchase his apartments therefore making his properties a great hotbed for Russian money launderers-Russia-and Wikileaks-weren’t just Trump supporters in 2016 but supporters of the entire Republican party.
Regarding Wikileaks, we saw in (Chapter A) how after they were doxxed-the doxers finally got doxxed-there were all these communications via Twitter going back to 2014 showing their support not for Trump-who few took seriously just then-but the Republican party; indeed, in 2013 the New Republic did a piece that seems uncanny in retrospect that documented Assange stating that he wanted to see the ‘libertarian, Rand Paul wing of the Republican party’ come to power in 2016.
UPDATE: HA Goodman himself who came up in this same Rand Paul wing of the GOP to be the leader of Bernie or Bust Nation in 2016 is now openly calling on Bernie voters to vote Trump in 2020. Wish I was kidding.
It’s important to realize that Russia too supported not just Trump but the GOP-this has gotten lost. Indeed, the weaponized hacks and emails would have been used against Clinton regardless of who her Republican opponent had been. Note that Democratic Congressional candidates were also hacked and doxxed. It wasn’t just an attack on Hillary Clinton but on the entireDemocratic party.
And on the face of it, this seems pretty paradoxical. Why would Putin’s Russia prefer the Republican party? During the Cold War they normally preferred the Democrats-as the relatively less hawkish party, though the Dems were still pretty hawkish. So what happened? The short answer: 9/11 happened and Putin saw an opportunity to make common cause with the Far Right conservatives of the West against their common enemy-Islam and Western secularism and multiculturalism.
See esp; Chapter 10 in Malcom Nance’s The Plot to Destroy Democracy.
Putin’s modus operandi post 9/11 was to make common cause with White nationalists the world over.
It is in this context you can begin to make sense of the coordination between Russia and the US alt Right in 2016 during which Russia donated to the NRA.
Meanwhile on the Christian Right, Putin has become a hero.
It’s in this backdrop that the words of Maria Butima in 2016 begin to make sense:
“It may take the election of a Republican to the White House in 2016 to improve relations between the Russian Federation and the United States,” she wrote. “As improbable as it may sound, the Russian bear shares more interests with the Republican elephant than the Democratic donkey.” Citing the GOP’s coalition of social conservatives, businessmen and anti-terrorism hawks, Butina wrote, “These are values espoused by United Russia, the current ruling political party in Moscow.” The magazine identified Butina as the founder of “a Russian version of the NRA.” Not included in her bio: Butina was still on the government payroll, as special assistant to Torshin, who by now was deputy governor of the Russian central bank.”
So in June 2015 Ms. Butina of the so-called ‘Russian NRA’ already clearly had a political preference in our American Presidential election. The Russian bear shares more in common with the Republican elephant than the Democratic Donkey.
Then you have the words of the NRA in 2013:
“In November 2013, the president of the National Rifle Association, David Keene, was introduced as an honored guest at the conference of the Right to Bear Arms, a gun lobby in Moscow. “There are no peoples that are more alike than Americans and Russians,” Keene said. “We’re hunters. We’re shooters. We value the same kinds of things.” Keene underscored his friendship with Alexander Torshin, a top politician in the ruling party of Vladimir Putin; for the past three years, Keene said, “I’ve hosted your senator Alexander Torshin at the National Rifle Association’s annual meetings.” In words that now carry a darker connotation, Keene insisted, “We need to work together.”
“Torshin, now 64, is a roly-poly politician, perhaps five feet six, with thick glasses and a passion for borscht – “like medicine!” he once tweeted. A member of Putin’s right-wing United Russia party, he served in the Russian senate for more than a decade, forging close ties to Russia’s internal security service, the FSB, which awarded him a medal in 2016. His embrace of Keene, says Steven Hall, who served as chief of Russian operations for the CIA until 2015, was about more than forging “an international brotherhood of the NRA.”
As part of Putin’s “active measures,” Hall says, Russia has attempted to influence right-wing and populist factions abroad, preaching unity around social conservatism: “‘We’re both religious-based countries – we have the Orthodox Church that’s a big deal for us.’ ” The Russians, Hall believes, “made a natural transition in the United States to the NRA”; over time Putin became determined to exploit the American gun lobby “and decided Mr. Torshin is going to be the guy to do it for him.”
And this was part of Russia’s attempt to co-opt the alt Right. Butima and her buddy Aleksandr Porfiryevich Torshin a Russian politician convinced the True Patriots of the NRA that they were ‘the Russian NRA’-which doesn’t even pass the laugh test as Putin doesn’t allow anyone to own guns-accept himself.
In July, 2018, Butima was indicted.
“Maria Butina, explained: the accused Russian spy who tried to sway US politics through the NRA.”
“She met with Donald Trump Jr. and lived with a Republican consultant. Where will this investigation lead?”
Where will it lead? More on that below. She not only met with Donald Jr but in 2015 Donald Trump Sr. answered her question at the FreedomFest.
It was the first question he took.
Back to Vox:
“Amid the sprawling scandal over Russian interference with the 2016 election, there’s long been an odd subplot over Russian ties to, of all groups, the National Rifle Association — ties that, according to McClatchy, have been investigated by the FBI.
“Now the arrest of 29-year-old Russian national Maria Butina on charges of conspiracy and acting as an agent of a foreign government has put those questions about the famous gun rights group on center stage.”
“But despite the new indictment (which is not part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe), the full extent of what happened here remains mysterious.”
“It’s long been known that Butina and Russian central bank official Alexander Torshin have spent years cozying up to the NRA. For instance, they’ve hosted NRA bigwigs in Moscow, and Butina was a conspicuous fixture on the conservative conference circuit.”
“Now, the government alleges that Butina was carrying out a plan to influence American politics on behalf of a Russian government official (Torshin). The plan, they say, was to try to influence the Republican Party to be friendlier to Russia, by way of the NRA. But Butina didn’t inform the US government she was acting as a foreign agent on American soil, which would be illegal.”
“Much of Butina’s alleged conduct seems to have involved socializing and attending US political events, which may not seem all that dastardly. But we’ve gotten hints that there’s much more to come. On Wednesday, the government alleged for the first time that Butina used sex — she dated and lived with a much older Republican political consultant, and purportedly offered another person “sex in exchange for a position with a special interest organization.”
“There are also Butina’s publicly known activities during the 2016 campaign, which aren’t mentioned in charging documents. She asked Donald Trump a question about Russian sanctions at a public event, met Donald Trump Jr. with Torshin at an NRA dinner, and reportedly bragged that she helped the Trump campaign communicate with Russia.”
“Meanwhile, her boss, Torshin, has reportedly been linked to money laundering by Spanish authorities. And separately from that, McClatchy has reported that the FBI is investigating whether Torshin “illegally funneled money” into the NRA that was then spent to help Trump win — something that would be a major scandal implicating the group if it did happen (the NRA denies it).
“So … there are a lot of questions here.”
So this was just one more possible gateway during the 2016 campaign for Trump to meet Putin. Papadopoulos had been working on setting up such a meeting in the Spring of 2016, Michael Cohen has now just pled to lying to Congress about the fact that he tried to facilitate a Trump-Putin meeting surrounding the Trump Tower Moscow project; Trump himself clearly wanted to meet Putin for years going back to the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow, 2013.
As for where the questions about Butima might lead, well, now it’s being reported she may be reaching a cooperation deal with federal prosecutors-not directly Mueller.
“Accused Russian spy and gun rights activist Maria Butina is getting closer to cutting a deal with the US government. That’s what both her lawyers and the Justice Department explained in a court filing on Wednesday, where they wrote that they “remain optimistic” about resolving this case without a trial. The filing comes two weeks after federal prosecutors first revealed that they are negotiating a plea deal with Butina.”
Butina was regularly in contact with top Russian and American officials. These include Alexander Torshin, a sanctioned Russian banker and politician with close ties to President Putin; Trump campaign adviser J.D. Gordon; now White House National Security adviser John Bolton; one-time NRA president David Keene; and GOP consultant Paul Erickson, among others. Though the Butina case is separate from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, her cooperation could no doubt shed light on issues of interest to his probe or congressional inquiries. Several of her connections, including Torshin, Erickson, and Gordon, have also become ensnared in the Trump-Russia saga, being asked to submit documents or sit for interviews with the special counsel team or Senate investigators.”
Note that while technically she is part of another investigation it’s a spinoff of Mueller.
Mother Jones then looks at some of the questions she can help answer if she does get a deal to cooperate with DOJ like: did Russia give the NRA any money intended to help Trump’s campaign? The NRA donated $30 million to Trump’s campaign and both the FBI and FEC is investigating if any of that came from Russian sources. By definition, foreign entities can’t contribute to federal elections.
“McClatchy has reported that in connection with such questions the FBI is looking at Alexander Torshin, a former Russian politician from President Vladimir Putin’s political party who now helps lead Russia’s central bank. Torshin was also Butina’s collaborator as the pair cultivated ties to the NRA beginning in 2013. Two years prior, Butina created the Right to Bear Arms, a Russian gun rights group modeled after the NRA. Torshin became an avid supporter of the group, introducing gun rights legislation in Russian parliament. In 2013, they invited then NRA-president David Keene to Moscow for a 200-person meeting of their organization. Former UN ambassador John Bolton, a onetime member of NRA international affairs subcommittee, also came to Moscow, where he recorded a video with Butina promoting Russian gun rights. Now that Bolton is Trump’s national security adviser, Democrats have raised questions about whether he properly disclosed his work with Butina when applying for his latest security clearance.”
“Paul Erickson, an NRA member and Republican operative, joined Keene and Bolton on the Russia trip. Erickson returned in 2014 and then in 2015, again with Keene. Torshin, who attended every NRA convention from 2012 through 2016, was joined by Butina at the 2014 and 2015 conventions, where they met top Republican operatives.”
“Prosecutors now allege that Torshin was, in fact, directing Butina’s gun rights networking in the US, as part of a Russian influence effort. If the government wants to get to the bottom of whether the NRA was getting Russian money to boost Trump, Butina may possess valuable information about Torshin’s role in the alleged scheme.”
Another question is:
Why did Butina’s lover try to make a Kremlin introduction to the Trump campaign? Following his visit to Russia in 2013, Butina and Erickson struck up a romance; the pair say they’ve been a couple ever since. Over the course of their relationship, Erickson, touting his NRA connections, made several moves aimed at connecting the Trump campaign to the Kremlin by way of Torshin.
In May 2016, the longtime GOP operative from South Dakota sent a note to Trump campaign adviser Rick Dearborn with the subject line “Kremlin Connection.”
Kremlin connection… There are so many Kremlin connections regarding the Trump campaign 2016.
“In it, he asked Dearborn and Sen. Jeff Sessions, then advising the campaign on foreign policy, for help in connecting candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who Erickson said wanted to invite Trump for a pre-election Kremlin visit.”
Jeff Sessions… While he was recently fired by ‘President Trump’-and paradoxically enough, many civil rights groups protested his firing; It’s paradoxical, that doesn’t mean they are wrong; while there are 100 great reasons to have fired Sessions, Trump fired him for the one decent thing he did-recusing himself from Russia.
“But Sessions’ Russian exposure is deep-there’s been no talk of him being interviewed by Mueller. Part of this is the complicated fact that while Sessions has his own exposure, those who wanted to protect the probe needed Sessions not to be replaced by-Matt Whittaker who has not recused himself-though perhaps is not really presiding over the probe based on recent developments- the Cohen indictment.”
We have the multiple times Sessions has been forced to change his story-perjuring himself multiple times before his own Senate. Then there is Papadopoulos’ drunken revelation at a Chicago bar in March, 2018 that he told Sessions what Mifsud told him about the Russians having incriminating Russian emails on Clinton, which if true is earth shattering and means Sessions perjured himself yet again.
Now we have another question for the unreconstructed segregationist from Alabama: did Erickson ask him to setup a Trump-Putin meeting and what did he do, if anything, to facilitate that?
Back to Erickson’s conversation with Sessions and Rick Dearborn:
” Erickson also suggested that Trump could meet a Putin emissary, which appears to be Torshin, during the upcoming NRA annual meeting.”
It’s clear that the Trump campaign took Erickson’s proposal seriously, sending the request to ‘the highest reaches of the Trump campaign’-ie: Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner.
“…noting that Torshin wanted “to discuss an offer he claims to be carrying from President Putin to meet with DJT.” (It is unclear if this meeting took place; an adviser close to the Trump campaign told the New York Times that Trump did not attend the reception in question.)”
Remember that Butina was both Torshin’s collaborator and Erickson’s sexual partner so she had a front row view to this show in May, 2016. And it’s even worse than that:
In fact, during this same month, Butina herself was part of a group that unsuccessfully sought a meeting with the Trump campaign. So it’s likely she could shed light on Erickson’s and the NRA’s efforts to connect Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin.”
Yet another proposal for a Trump-Putin meeting.
A third question Butina can help with is:
What motivated Butina’s persistent lobbying of Republican officials, including Trump, for further cooperation with Russia, and who else was involved? Were her entreaties to GOP leaders just the well-intentioned efforts of an aspiring diplomat? Or was she, as prosecutors allege, acting as part of an official Russian effort to influence the GOP establishment?
“Butina’s record of lobbying on behalf of Russia is well-documented and extensive. Following the 2015 NRA convention in Nashville, Butina posted a photo with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker on Vkontakte (Russia’s version of Facebook), noting that he was a likely presidential nominee and that their meeting could be a “beginning of a new dialogue between Russia and the US.” A few months later, Butina penned an article for the conservative National Interest, urging friendship between “the bear and the elephant” and adding: “It may take the election of a Republican to the White House in 2016 to improve relations between the Russian Federation and the United States.”
Note that this underscores my point above that 2016 Russian interference wasn’t simply on behalf of Trump but the Republican party.
Again-party of treason.
While Louise Mensch has taking a lot of flak the one thing she asserted that makes a lot of sense is the GOP as a party being under a RICO investigation:
“The Republican Party as a body is under investigation for RICO for accepting Russian money. The GOP itself is being considered to be a corrupt organization under the RICO statutes. Sources were firm that the GOP, as it is presently known, may no longer exist after this investigation and a new party of the right may have to form. Sources did not say if charges or indictments had been returned against the party however.”
While I don’t know firsthand if it’s true, if it’s not, it should be.
As argued in (Chapter A) the GOP needs to spend many years in the penalty box after this.
UPDATE: There’s another Chapter that shows a clear link between her and Putin.