The New York Times is reporting that on the way out the door the Obama administration did America a solid. Various officials made sure the details of intelligence information involving the incoming Trump administration and their contacts and coordination with Russia and the Kremlin couldn’t be lost or buried.
WASHINGTON — In the Obama administration’s last days, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election — and about possible contacts between associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russians — across the government. Former American officials say they had two aims: to ensure that such meddling isn’t duplicated in future American or European elections, and to leave a clear trail of intelligence for government investigators.
American allies, including the British and the Dutch, had provided information describing meetings in European cities between Russian officials — and others close to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin — and associates of President-elect Trump, according to three former American officials who requested anonymity in discussing classified intelligence
Separately, American intelligence agencies had intercepted communications of Russian officials, some of them within the Kremlin, discussing contacts with Trump associates.
This would be further confirmation of the previous NYT report that FBI Deputy Director McCabe decided he needed to potentially violate DOJ rules on pending investigations and tell Reince Preibus as “Bullshit.” Apparently, it’s not bullshit. Which makes one wonder just who is full of shit here?
Not so surprisingly the Trump admin continues to deny and deflect.
Sean Spicer, the Trump White House spokesman, said, “The only new piece of information that has come to light is that political appointees in the Obama administration have sought to create a false narrative to make an excuse for their own defeat in the election.” He added, “There continues to be no there, there.”
We don’t know that these were political appointees, they could easily be baseline civil servants who came up through the ranks rather than being appointed. In fact, it make much more sense if this isn’t being doing by the political people. There isn’t any “narrative” being presented here, only that there were meetings and talks between Russians and Trumpsters. Independent of the NYT we now know that Jeff Sessions met the Russian ambassador Kisliyak twice, the first time being during the RNC where he claims they didn’t discuss the campaign — which is like meeting at the Superbowl and not talking about football.
Carter Page was at that meeting and didn’t disclose it, and both Michael Flynn and Jared Kushner met with Kisliyak at Trump Tower in December.
WASHINGTON — Michael T. Flynn, then Donald J. Trump’s incoming national security adviser, had a previously undisclosed meeting with the Russian ambassador in December to “establish a line of communication” between the new administration and the Russian government, the White House said on Thursday.
Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and now a senior adviser, also participated in the meeting at Trump Tower with Mr. Flynn and Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador. But among Mr. Trump’s inner circle, it is Mr. Flynn who appears to have been the main interlocutor with the Russian envoy — the two were in contact during the campaign and the transition, Mr. Kislyak and current and former American officials have said.
Now one could argue these are all just normal contacts and there’s nothing wrong with it, but then if that’s the case — they should have been able to admit all his long ago rather than staging these attacks on the Times and CNN as “fake news” behind their back in a Secret Gaggle they aren’t invited to where they can defend their reporting.
And then you have weird things like this happen, where both Trump and the Russian Foreign Minister sound like their reading off the same script.
Both Trump and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, issued statements after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from overseeing the investigation of alleged ties between the Republican presidential campaign and Russia.
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“He could have stated his response more accurately, but it was clearly not intentional,” Trump said in his statement.
“This whole narrative is a way of saving face for Democrats losing an election that everyone thought they were supposed to win,” the president continued. “The Democrats are overplaying their hand. They lost the election and now, they have lost their grip on reality. The real story is all of the illegal leaks of classified and other information. It is a total witch hunt!”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov signaled his agreement with Trump early Friday and also denounced the scandal as a “witch hunt.”
“I can cite the media that say all this is very much reminiscent of a witch hunt and the McCarthyism era which we all thought was long gone,” Lavrov said.
I don’t know what that’s about, but it’s weird especially when you’re being accused of secret communications and coordination with Russia.
Also it appears the heat on all this is going to be turned up to Eleven soon as former MI6 officer Christopher Steele who’s memos and dossier about Russia cultivating Trump as an asset was the first match lit in this wildfire.
President Donald Trump has been under the scanner over his alleged links with Russia, which further escalated after a 35-page document released by CNN in January claimed the 70-year-old was involved in obscene sexual acts. Britain's former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, who is believed to have authored the dossier, has now been called in by the Senate to testify over the scandal, the Independent reported Thursday.
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Trump had attacked Steele declaring the report on the Kremlin connection as a fabricated work put together by a “failed spy.” He got into a fight with several media publications such as BuzzFeed News that dumped the entire dossier after admitting its findings had not been verified, and also busted CNN accusing the cable network of being "fake news."
The allegations have been dismissed by both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Sputnik International.
Steele, the co-founder of London-based Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd, has been hiding since the details of the dossier have emerged. He has not reportedly responded to requests to meet with Senate officials, however, his friends said that Steele could talk about his investigation to senators if he is kept under certain security arrangements, according to the Independent.
That could prove to be quite a hearing.
