It’s amazing what we know about Trump and Russia. The things that we don’t have to speculate about, where the connections are already documented, is already quite a list. We know that Donald Trump was bailed out of bankruptcy by oligarchs from Russia and other former Soviet states after Trump had screwed up so many deals that no bank would give him a loan. We know that campaign chair Paul Manafort worked directly for Moscow to topple the Ukrainian government, weaken Nato, and foment protests that provided an excuse for Russia to take Crimea. We also know that Manafort was blackmailed over these connections.
We know that J. D. Gordon altered the Republican Party platform to make it more Russia friendly and weaken support of Ukraine on direct orders from Donald Trump. We know that Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, and a pro-Russian Ukrainian official met to create a “peace plan” that rewards Crimea to Russia—a plan that landed on Michael Flynn’s desk. We know both Rex Tillerson and Carter Page have extensive connections to Russia’s state-owned oil and gas industry, connections whose value depends on the US removing or reducing sanctions.
We know that many members of Donald Trump’s campaign, including—but not limited to—Jefferson Sessions, Michael Flynn, Jared Kushner, J.D. Gordon and Carter Page had contact with Russian officials during or after the campaign. Oh yeah, and we also know that Russia hacked into DNC servers and the personal emails of Democratic operatives with the express purpose of embarrassing Hillary Clinton and boosting the chances of Donald Trump.
So what are we still trying to learn? The biggest question is whether or not there is a connection between that last item—Russian interference in the election—and all those other cords already tying Trump to Russia. As it turns out, we don’t have to answer every question. Just one will do. David Corn over at Mother Jones tackles a subset of the larger question:
It is becoming tough to track all the developments, as the story becomes more complicated and the prospects for a long and complex investigation increase. But there is a simple question that might be easy to answer and that could cut to the chase.
What happened during Flynn's conversations with Kislyak before the election?
We now know that Flynn exchanged multiple talks, texts and emails with the Russian ambassador after the election. Included in these were discussions of US sanctions against Russia—a conversation that apparently pleased Putin so much that he held off retaliating against sanctions imposed by President Obama. Hiding that conversation was the supposed reason for Flynn’s departure.
But Flynn didn’t limit his discussion with Russian officials to only after the election. Before officially joining the Trump campaign he made a trip to Moscow where he sat next to Vladimir Putin (and gave him a standing-O) before appearing on Russian state-owned media to make cutting remarks about United States policy. And when Flynn boarded the Trump train, he kept right on chatting with Moscow.
When the Washington Post broke the news that Flynn had spoken with Kislyak during the transition, the newspaper's reporters spoke to the Russian ambassador who revealed a fact that has not received sufficient public attention: Flynn and Kislyak were in communication prior to Election Day. This statement belied all the Trump camp claims that there had been no hobnobbing with the Russians during the campaign. But the implications run deeper.
Flynn was far from alone in talking with Kislyak or other Russian officials during the campaign. But Flynn was talking to the Russians at the same time as the information about Russian hacking was front and center. While President Obama was on television revealing that Russia was trying to hack the election for Trump, and Donald Trump was on television inviting Russia to steal more of Hillary Clinton’s email, Michael Flynn was in direct contact with Russian officials.
What was Flynn, this prominent and important Trump adviser, saying to Kislyak during this stretch? The ambassador refused to tell the Washington Post what he and Flynn discussed. Was Flynn firmly telling the Russians to cease meddling in US politics? Did they discuss the hacking at all? Or perhaps Flynn was signaling to Moscow that Putin would get a better deal if Trump were elected.
What did Michael Flynn say to Russian officials before the election. If you’re going to have an investigation, that’s a good place to start.