The Democratic memo authored primarily by Rep. Adam Schiff does more than just shoot down every claim of the failed Nunes memo: it contains a single line that drives a golden spike between two chains of evidence. When everything is pulled together, the confirmation of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government would seem to be complete.
What’s in the Democratic memo provides an answer to a question that was raised as soon as former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos was indicted. And it’s a critical question—one whose answer would seem to leave absolutely no doubt that Russia and Trump were joined in a conspiracy to defraud the United States through the distribution of stolen material. In fact, what’s in the memo seems so clear that if it’s accurate, charges should be a foregone conclusion.
In the public record, there are currently two chains of evidence. On one side is the information that was passed down to adviser George Papadopouls that the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. It’s clear that Papadopoulos sent this information on to the campaign. A month later, Rob Goldstone contacted Donald Trump Jr. about “information that incriminates HIllary” sourced from the Russian government. That conversation led to the infamous Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump’s senior campaign staff—campaign manager Paul Manafort, Trump Jr., and son-in-law Jared Kushner—and operatives from the Russian government for the express purpose of discussing this information.
The second string of evidence begins with Julian Assange announcing that he had information that he hoped “would harm” Hillary Clinton’s chance of election. This was followed in July with the release of the first WikiLeaks documents. After their release, the Trump campaign made heavy use of WikiLeaks information in rallies and in ads. They also had conversations with WikiLeaks that included, at least, Brad Parscale, Cambridge Analytica, and Donald Trump Jr. This included cooperation with WikiLeaks on the timing of releases and led to Trump declaring his love for WikiLeaks while reading aloud from their releases at multiple rallies.
To connect these two chains of events, it would be necessary to know if the Trump campaign understood that the WikiLeaks material was the same as the “dirt” offered to Papadopoulos. And more critically, did they understand that Russia planned to use WikiLeaks to release this material?
What the Democratic memo provides is answers: Yes, and yes. Which may be why Robert Mueller is following up heavily on this point.
Here’s the section from the Democratic memo that would seem to indicate these answers were already well-established.
DOJ appropriate provided the Court with a comprehensive explanation of Russia’s elections interference, including evidence that Russia courted another campaign advisor, Papadopoulos, and that Russian agents previewed their hack and dissemination of stolen emails.
This shows that, at the time the FBI applied for the Carter Page FISA, the Trump team not only knew the nature of what Russia had, but also knew how they had obtained that information, and knew how Russia was going to disseminate that information.
They knew it was emails. They knew they were stolen. They knew they would be released through WikiLeaks. And they went on to coordinate with WikiLeaks.
According to a source familiar with the congressional investigations into Russian interference with the 2016 campaign, who requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, on the same day that Trump Jr. received the first message from Wikileaks, he emailed other senior officials with the Trump campaign, including Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Brad Parscale, and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, telling them Wikileaks had made contact. Kushner then forwarded the email to campaign communications staffer Hope Hicks. At no point during the 10-month correspondence does Trump, Jr. rebuff Wikileaks, which had published stolen documents and was already observed to be releasing information that benefited Russian interests.
Why was Trump Jr. so excited that WikiLeaks had made contact? Because it was an announcement that the pipeline was open.
There are still questions that need to be resolved. Was the WikiLeaks plan discussed at the Trump Tower meeting? Was there back channel discussion among the two teams between that June meeting and the July release of documents? Was the communication to Trump Jr. an agreed upon means of signalling some upcoming release or change in strategy?
All those things are interesting … but not necessary to prove conspiracy. Which brings things back to Robert Mueller.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team is asking witnesses pointed questions about whether Donald Trump was aware that Democratic emails had been stolen before that was publicly known, and whether he was involved in their strategic release, according to multiple people familiar with the probe.
Mueller's investigators have asked witnesses whether Trump was aware of plans for WikiLeaks to publish the emails. They have also asked about the relationship between GOP operative Roger Stone and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and why Trump took policy positions favorable to Russia.
Those are critical questions—and it looks as if we already know the answers.
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An email timeline
04 / 26 — Joseph Mifsud informs Papadopolous that the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails.”
04 / 27 — Papadopoulos emailed Paul Manafort and others to tell them about his conversation with Mifsud.
06 / 03 — Rob Goldstone writes to Donald Trump Jr. offering “some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary” which he states are “part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump.”
06 / 09 — Trump’s senior campaign staff met with Russian representatives for the express purpose of talking about the “Hillary dirt” and reviewing sanctions against Russia.
06 / 12 — Julian Assange said he had material that he hoped would harm Hillary Clinton’s chances for election.
07 / 22 — WikiLeaks released the first batch of documents stolen by Russian operatives.
09 / 20 — WikiLeaks began a direct message conversation with Donald Trump Jr. via Twitter in which they exchanged tactical suggestions as part of a broad collaboration between WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign—one that included Brad Parscale and Cambridge Analytica
10 / 10 — Trump reads from WikiLeaks printouts at a rally and declared “I love WikiLeaks.”
10 / 12 — Trump tweeted that the media was not paying enough attention to the WikiLeaks material.
10 / 13 — At a second rally Trump says what’s coming from WikiLeaks is ‘amazing.’ He again reads from the stolen material.
11 / 04 — Just days before the election, Trump continues to press the WikiLeaks material, saying how much he loves reading WikiLeaks.
