Trump Confirms the Russian Conspiracy
The Trump administration is not doing themselves any favors by dissembling about and disparaging Susan Rice, who was merely doing her job as National Security Advisor to the Obama administration.
First, according to news reports, at least two Americans were caught up incidentally by US counter intelligence agents, either when those Americans were talking to questionable Russian persons or when they were the subject of conversations between two or more questionable Russian persons.
Agencies involved in foreign intelligence gathering are forbidden by law to “wire tap” Americans. However, a person can be caught up in either willful or unwitting contacts with Russian intelligence agents, in those cases, American names are “masked,” or redacted. Only the analysts who uncovered the initial information or those writing the first drafts of the reports would know those names. It would be a serious violation to leak those names or to discuss them irresponsibly.
Many Americans have routine business or personal ties with Russia. For example, Secretary of State Tillerson developed close ties with the Russian leadership, including President Putin, while CEO of Exxon Mobile. At one time, Exxon was planning to develop large swaths of Russian oil leases which would have been vastly profitable to both Exxon and Russia.
That business transaction was put on hold when President Obama imposed more sanctions on Russia for invading and seizing Crimea and western Ukraine.
According to news reports, former National Security Advisor General Michael Flynn allegedly discussed lifting present sanctions and delaying others with the Russian Ambassador to the US, Serge Kislyack. He then lied about the details to VP Mike Pence.
It seems that General Flynn was caught up in the routine telephone surveillance of the Russian Ambassador. As an intelligence official himself, he should have been aware that conversations with Russian officials would be monitored and a transcript prepared.
At some point, he definitely was identified as a person of interest. Eventually, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates briefed the leadership of the Trump administration about Flynn’s activities and untruthfulness. Flynn’s activities and behavior would have left him vulnerable to Russian black mail attempts.
After a long, inexplicable and awkward pause, Flynn was eventually fired.
The intelligence agencies did their job. They caught, albeit inadvertently, Trump associates who were allegedly conspiring with the Russians to tilt the election in Trumps favor. These individuals were supposedly prepared at some point to reward the Russians by lifting sanctions which were hampering the growth of the already dysfunctional Russian economy.
Susan Rice did her job. She asked that the names be unmasked, not leaked, unmasked, and after an analysis of the information, turned the information over to the Justice Department for further investigation.
Trump’s attack on Susan Rice was predictable. It was the classic bullying reaction of a person whose mind is suffering from Narcissistic Personality Disorder. It means nothing to him that his claims about Susan Rice or his accusation that the Obama administration “wire tapped” Trump Tower were baseless and invented at a moment’s notice. Trump lives in his own reality, where Trump is always a winner and other people’s feelings and American interests do not matter.
But still, if he didn’t want his associates to be caught up in a conspiracy with the Russians, he could have spared himself the embarrassment by not hiring a bunch of Russian sympathizers and colluders to staff his campaign.
Susan Rice didn’t target Trump associates since the Americans who were allegedly conspiring with the Russians were masked, their names were redacted. She didn’t know and couldn’t know who they were, which is why she had to ask for the names to be revealed to her and her alone.
Susan Rice was doing her job as director of the National Security Council. If Trump folks didn’t want to be “wire tapped,” then they shouldn’t have been talking to Russians.
By publicly claiming that his staffers were unlawfully or illegally “unmasked” by Susan Rice, Trump has confirmed that some sort of conspiracy actually existed and that will at some point come back and bite the Trump administration in the rear end.
In conclusion, these events do not distract from the Trump campaign’s Russian problem, they validate it.
To reiterate, by drawing attention to the inner workings of the National Security Council and Susan Rice, Trump actually proved campaign staffers were secretly talking to the Russians and betraying the interests of the American people.
Keep up the good work, Donald.
Jim McMeans
Danielsville, GA