Trump-Russia

Since July, 2016, the FBI has been investigating the Russian government’s attempt to influence the 2016 presidential election, including whether President Donald Trump’s campaign associates were involved in those efforts. But the story began long before then.

The Trump-Russia story began in the ‘90s when a string of bankruptcies made loaning money to Trump too risky. New York banks wouldn’t loan him money, but he continued to get money from somewhere. But from where?

Some of the money came from Deutsche Bank in loans that Trump ultimately defaulted on, leading Germany’s biggest lender to sue him. Trump countersued for $3 billion, claiming he was the victim.

And some of the money came from other sources. According to Trump’s sons, those other sources were in Russia.

Donald Trump Jr:

"Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of ... our assets."

Eric Trump:

"We don't rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia."

Meanwhile, ex-KGB agent Vladimir Putin was seeking to install a puppet in the office of president of the country he still hated. Trump was running for office and so, according to ex-spy Christopher Steele (formerly of M.I.6), Putin reached into his old bag of KGB tricks to compromise Trump, not just with the bank loans but allegedly with Russian prostitutes.

In 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine, causing the US, the EU, and Canada to impose crippling economic sanctions on Russia. The sanctions scuttled a multi-million dollar oil deal between Russia and Exxon-Mobile. Who headed Exxon-Mobile at the time and received Russia's Medal of Friendship? That would be Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Putin didn't like his oil deal going south so he did what he always does to influence Washington: he used money. He paid millions of dollars to Paul Manafort, currently under investigation by multiple agencies in the US.

One day, out of nowhere, Manafort became campaign manager for Trump. He even offered to do the job for free, though the buzz was that Putin was paying him. By "coincidence", Manafort used to be partners in a lobbying firm with Roger Stone who happens to be Twitter pals with "Guccifer 2.0", a.k.a. Russian Intelligence, which had been hacking the DNC email server and sending the emails to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.  (“Guccifer 2.0” denied links to Russia, but digital fingerprints lead the US intelligence community, and several cybersecurity firms, to conclude that the cyberattacks were largely, if not entirely, carried out by two Russian intelligence groups.)

On October 7, 2016, the famous Access Hollywood tape was released, which should have ended Trump's bid for the presidency. But less than an hour later, Wikileaks announced a trove of DNC emails and released the first 2000. Every intelligence agency in the US government said the Russians were behind it. But Trump, a supposed defender of our country, disagreed and said it could have been anyone. "It could have been," he said, "somebody sitting on their bed who weighs 400 pounds."

Don Jr set up a meeting with several Kremlin-connected Russians during the middle of the campaign and claimed the meeting was about "adoptions".  Later, an email turned up addressed to Don Jr saying the meeting was to be about "very high level and sensitive information [that is] part of Russia and its government's support of Mr. Trump."

Instead of going to the FBI with this Russian attempt to influence the election, Don Jr’s response was, "I love it!"

Also at the meeting with the Russians was Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner. Kushner needed Russian money to cover some bad investments so he met secretly with Russian ambassador, and alleged spymaster, Sergey Kislyak, a meeting that also included Michael Flynn, who had accepted loads of cash to "advise" Russia, and then served as National Security Advisor to Trump, a position Flynn had to resign after being caught lying to Mike Pence.

Everybody lied about knowing Kislyak except for Trump, who invited him into the Oval Office the day after he fired James Comey, who had been investigating the whole mess. Trump said in a TV interview, "When I decided to do it, I said to myself, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story..."

Who else met with Russians?

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the head of the US Department of Justice, recused himself from the Russia investigation on the advice of the department's ethics office after he had failed to disclose several meetings he had with top Russians during his confirmation hearings. The recusal angered Trump, who had counted on Sessions to quash the Russia investigation.

Former Trump campaign director of national security J.D. Gordon met with the Russian ambassador.

Former Trump advisor Carter Page met with Russian officials including the Russian ambassador and Igor Sechin, a close ally of Vladimir Putin. Page also had business ties to Russia.

Trump lawyer Michael Cohen met with Ukrainian lawmaker Andrii Artemenko.

And for the capper, there is the Ukrainian-born millionaire businessman with ties to Trump who died in unexplained circumstances.

The “Russia thing”, as Trump calls it, is more complicated than this short blog post can convey. Possibly, it’s nothing more than bad judgment on the part of some administration officials and no crime has been committed. But one wonders, with all the connections between the Trump administration and Russian officials, just how much influence Russia now commands in the White House. That is something the American public should know.