by Michael Isikoff, Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News — June 1, 2017
In the early weeks of the Trump administration, former Obama administration officials and State Department staffers fought an intense, behind-the-scenes battle to head off efforts by incoming officials to normalize relations with Russia, according to multiple sources familiar with the events.
Unknown to the public at the time, top Trump administration officials, almost as soon as they took office, tasked State Department staffers with developing proposals for the lifting of economic sanctions, the return of diplomatic compounds and other steps to relieve tensions with Moscow.
[...]
“There was serious consideration by the White House to unilaterally rescind the sanctions,” said Dan Fried, a veteran State Department official who served as chief U.S. coordinator for sanctions policy until he retired in late February. He said in the first few weeks of the administration, he received several “panicky” calls from U.S. government officials who told him they had been directed to develop a sanctions-lifting package and imploring him, “Please, my God, can’t you stop this?”
[...]
Thanks to the efforts of Senator Ben Cardin sponsor of the Magnitsky Act, and other patriots like John McCain, that serious Trump effort to normalize Russian relations (as promised), ultimately failed:
Congress Reaches Deal on Russia Sanctions, Setting Up Tough Choice for Trump
by Matt Flegenheimer and David E. Sanger, New York Times — July 22, 2017
“A nearly united Congress is poised to send President Putin a clear message on behalf of the American people and our allies,” said Senator Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “and we need President Trump to help us deliver that message.”
The bill aims to punish Russia not only for interference in the election but also for its annexation of Crimea, continuing military activity in eastern Ukraine and human rights abuses. Proponents of the measure seek to impose sanctions on people involved in human rights abuses, suppliers of weapons to the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and those undermining cybersecurity, among others.
Who is Magnitsky again, and why should we care … (in short, he is the symbol of everything that is wrong with the Putin regime) ...
There's a very specific reason why the Russian lawyer who met with Trump Jr. wanted to talk about adopting babies
by Natasha Bertrand, businessinsider.com -- Jul 10, 2017
[...]
The Magnitsky Act was passed to punish those suspected of being involved in the death of Russian tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered a $230 million tax fraud scheme in 2008 that implicated high-level Kremlin officials and allies of President Vladimir Putin. The scheme quickly snowballed into one of the biggest corruption scandals of Putin's tenure.
[...]
Magnitsky died in custody after being held for 358 days, and an independent human-rights commission found he had been illegally arrested and beaten. The Kremlin maintains that Magnitsky died of a heart attack.
[...]
Then in 2012, Congress passed the Magnitsky Act, which authorizes the president to deny visas to, and freeze the assets of, Russians believed to have been complicit in Magnitsky's death. The list, also known as the Cardin List because it was sponsored by Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin, has been expanded several times since then to include more Russians suspected of human-rights abuses and corruption.
"Putin’s top officials were apoplectic," [...]
Imagine, how “apoplectic” Putin must be now, having made a Deal with an Idiot.
Is there “no honor” among Conspirators any more?