The Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell this week, for the first time saying that they have evidence of collusion of Trump and Russia through GOP operative Peter Smith. In this case he was the go-between to get some of Clinton’s stolen emails from Russian hackers. He tried to hire a UK based computer security expert Matt Tait to validate that the emails were genuine, but Tait eventually refused because of the obvious “treason” problems with dealing with Putin-backed hackers.
The New Yorker has a decent summary, but with one piece called out that I missed:
nymag.com/...
Smith tried to hire Tait for his project, and showed him a document creating an independent-looking organization to try to acquire the stolen emails. The document, Tait reports, “detailed a company Smith and his colleagues had set up as a vehicle to conduct the research: ‘KLS Research’, set up as a Delaware LLC ‘to avoid campaign reporting,’ and listing four groups who were involved in one way or another.” This certainly appears like an attempt to mask the Trump campaign’s involvement in the plot.
The document listed a series of high-level Trump campaign officials: Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Sam Clovis, Lt. Gen. Flynn, and Lisa Nelson. Bannon and Conway, contacted by the Journal, deny any involvement with Smith. But Smith’s comments to Tait indicate a fairly close understanding of Trump campaign internal dynamics. It is possible he was bluffing, but he seemed to be displaying authentic insider credentials.
Woah… I mean of course we’d see Flynn all over this. Implicating Banon and Conway was icing on the cake. But then somebody on Reddit pointed out that Lisa Nelson is the CEO of the American Legislative Executive Council (ALEC). You know, that huge force of evil that is trying to take over State legislatures nationwide, and cram their anti-Democracy into every corner of government?
Now, this isn’t a smoking gun… Smith could just be lying, but he knew too much about the internals of the Trump campaign to be operating completely independently. But if ALEC is brought down for this in addition to Trump’s inner circle???
Wow… talk about an early Christmas!!!
EDIT: Wow indeed, REC LIST! Woo! I guess I wasn’t the only one who missed the ALEC connection yesterday.
