CNN has reported on opposition research memos on Donald Trump, prepared by a former MI6 agent, who now runs a private intelligence gathering firm. The opposition research was initially funded by Republicans opposed to Trump, and then after his nomination, by groups and donors supporting Hillary Clinton.
John McCain gave a full set of the memos to the FBI on December 9. But the FBI had already been given a set of the memos in August, by the former MI6 agent who had prepared them.
At Trump’s intelligence briefing last week, a synopsis of the information in the memos was included. This was done to make sure that Trump knew that allegations from the memos are circulating around, and to show him that Russia had compiled information harmful to both parties, but had only released information damaging to Hillary Clinton.
Buzzfeed has published the memos. Both CNN and Buzzfeed say that the memos have been circulating among journalists, lawmakers, and intelligence officials. That is, on the story of Russian influence in the U.S. presidential election, there has been a substantial gap between what many insiders know, and what information has been available to the public.
The documents have circulated for months and acquired a kind of legendary status among journalists, lawmakers, and intelligence officials who have seen them. Mother Jones writer David Corn referred to the documents in a late October column. Harry Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson tweeted Tuesday that the former Senate Democratic leader had seen the documents before writing a public letter to FBI Director James Comey about Trump’s ties to Russia. And CNN reported Tuesday that Arizona Republican John McCain gave a “full copy” of the memos to Comey on Dec. 9, but that the FBI already had copies of many of the memos.
These Reports Allege Trump Has Deep Ties To Russia, Buzzfeed
The first memo says that the Russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting Donald Trump for at least 5 years. The aim, endorsed by Vladimir Putin, was to encourage splits and divisions in the western alliance. It says that Russian intelligence has been feeding Trump information on his political opponents for several years. It says that a Russian intelligence officer thought that Trump was compromised enough that Russia could blackmail him.
In a later memo, a source close to Trump admits to a well-developed conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian leadership. Paul Manafort, Carter Page, and others are intermediaries. The leaking of DNC emails to Wikileaks was done with full knowledge of Trump and senior members of the campaign. In return, the Trump campaign had agreed to sideline Russian intervention in Ukraine as a campaign issue.
The source says that Trump and his team were relatively relaxed, at an earlier point in the campaign at least, about media publicity of Russian interference in the election, because it deflected attention away from Trump’s business dealings in China, which were substantial and involved payment of large bribes and kickbacks.
Following is the summary of a memo about Russian state reaction to the public revelations of Russian interference in the election. It comes from before the election. Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov is described as “scared shitless” that he would be blamed for the mess.
RUSSIA/USA: GROWING BACKLASH IN KREMLIN TO DNC HACKING AND TRUMP SUPPORT OPERATIONS
Summary
- Head of PA IVANOV laments Russian intervention in US presidential election and black PR against CLINTON and the DNC. Vows not to supply intelligence to Kremlin PR operatives again. Advocates now sitting tight and denying everything
- Presidential spokesman PESKOV the main protagonist in Kremlin campaign to aid TRUMP and damage CLINTON. He is now scared and fears being made scapegoat by leadership for backlash in US. Problem compounded by his botched intervention in recent Turkish crisis
- Premier MEDEVEDEV's office furious over DNC hacking and associated anti-Russian publicity. Want good relations with US and ability to travel there. Refusing to support or help cover up after PESKOV
- Talk now in Kremlin of TRUMP withdrawing from presidential race altogether, but this still largely wishful thinking by more liberal elements in Moscow
Wednesday, Jan 11, 2017 · 6:55:46 AM +00:00
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Garrett
Here’s the lead from Kurt Eichenwald’s piece, highlighting the backlash at the Kremlin theme:
At the Kremlin last August, officials began to worry that they had committed a massive blunder. Donald Trump, they feared, was psychologically unstable.
Moscow’s hacking and disinformation campaign, designed to interfere with the American election, had been underway for months. In a series of operations overseen by Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, Russia had engaged in similar interference in the Netherlands, Estonia, Germany, Britain and other nations with mixed success. But by late July, some Russian officials believed Peskov’s work had gone too far.