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Donald may think he’s calling the shots, when in reality he just doing Putin’s bidding … or in the vernacular of Moscow: “Trump is their useful idiot.”
For years now, Russia has sought to frame Ukraine for its own actions interfering with the 2016 presidential election, the New York Times reported, citing three American officials. And, despite being briefed on Russia’s efforts, some in Congress are pushing these conspiracy theories, as seen in Republicans’ questions and speeches during the impeachment hearings.
The White House’s former top Russia advisor, Fiona Hill, backed up the intelligence community’s assertion in her impeachment testimony on Thursday, saying, “Some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country and that perhaps Ukraine did. This is a fictional narrative perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.”
[...]
www.rollingstone.com — Nov 22, 2019
The entire apparatus of the U.S. Intelligence Agencies, have arrived at the same conclusion — that Russia interfered with US Elections, not Ukraine.
A US Senate committee just fact-checked the Intel findings — a found them to be accurate:
PBS, Politics — May 16, 2018
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate intelligence committee said Wednesday that it agrees with the U.S. intelligence agencies’ assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election to hurt the candidacy of Democrat Hillary Clinton and help President Donald Trump.
The conclusion is at odds with Republican members of the House intelligence committee, who said that while they agreed that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to hamper Clinton’s campaign, that didn’t mean he wanted to help Trump. The House committee said the intelligence agencies failed to use “proper analytic tradecraft” when they assessed Putin’s intentions.
“We have to do a better job in the future if we want to protect our elections from foreign interference.”
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate panel, said his staff spent 14 months “reviewing the sources, tradecraft and analytic work” conducted by the intelligence agencies. He said the committee uncovered no reason to dispute the conclusions of the intelligence assessment released in 2017.
Burr issued his statement after members of the committee met in a closed session with former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former director of the National Security Agency, Mike Rogers. All three were deeply involved in issuing the intelligence assessment of Russian meddling in the election.
[...]
But don’t take the lying GOP’s word for it. Putin already told us he wanted Trump to win.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday he wanted President Donald Trump to win the 2016 election because he believed Trump's policies would be more friendly to the Kremlin.
"Yes, I did. Yes, I did. Because he talked about bringing the U.S.-Russia relationship back to normal,” Putin said, standing alongside Trump at a joint news conference.
Putin was asked whether he directed any of his officials to help Trump’s presidential campaign, but Putin appeared to sidestep that part of the question.
[...]
www.politico.com — 7/16/2018
This is the DNI report (Director of National Intelligence) that the Senate Intelligence Committee has affirmed, on a bi-partisan basis, earlier this year:
Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections
Intelligence Community Assessment
www.dni.gov — Jan 6, 2017
[...]
Russia’s Influence Campaign Targeting the 2016 US Presidential Election
pg 1
Putin Ordered Campaign To Influence US Election
We assess with high confidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election, the consistent goals of which were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency. We further assess Putin and the Russian Government developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump. When it appeared to Moscow that Secretary Clinton was likely to win the election, the Russian influence campaign then focused on undermining her expected presidency.
• We also assess Putin and the Russian Government aspired to help President-elect Trump’s election chances when possible by discrediting Secretary Clinton and publicly contrasting her unfavorably to him. All three agencies agree with this judgment. CIA and FBI have high confidence in this judgment; NSA has moderate confidence.
• In trying to influence the US election, we assess the Kremlin sought to advance its longstanding desire to undermine the US-led liberal democratic order, the promotion of which Putin and other senior Russian leaders view as a threat to Russia and Putin’s regime.
[...]
Despite all of that, the conspiracy-based Trump BS-shovelers are still “blaming Ukraine”:
AP FACT CHECK: Trump, GOP claims on Ukraine corruption — Nov 21, 2019
CALIFORNIA REP. DEVIN NUNES, the top Republican on the committee: “President Trump had good reason to be wary of Ukrainian election meddling against his campaign.”
THE FACTS: That’s not credible. The theory that Ukrainians interfered in the U.S. election and that Democrats cooperated in that effort is unsubstantiated.
Trump himself was told by his officials that the theory was “completely debunked” long before the president pressed Ukraine to investigate it anyway, according to Tom Bossert, Trump’s first homeland security adviser.
Despite all that fact-checking, the Chief BS-ers himself, is still shoveling the Bull … as in Today:
by Deb Riechmann, Associated Press — Nov 22, 2019
[...]
Uncowed by witnesses who warned against playing into the Russians’ hands, Trump repeated a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukrainians might have hacked the Democratic National Committee’s network in 2016 and framed Russia for the crime.
“They gave the server to CrowdStrike, which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian,” Trump said. “I still want to see that server. The FBI has never gotten that server.”
Trump’s claim on Ukraine being behind the 2016 election interference has been discredited by intelligence agencies and his own advisers.
CrowdStrike, an internet security firm based in California, investigated the DNC hack in June 2016 and traced it to two groups of hackers connected to a Russian intelligence service — not Ukraine. The company’s co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch is a Russian-born U.S. citizen who immigrated as a child and graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
[...]
Given that …
4) Putin’s Goal: Build global resentment and distrust towards the US and stoke anti-American sentiment.
7) Putin’s Goal: Revive Russia’s status as a great power and gain international recognition for its illegal seizure of Crimea.
8) Putin’s Goal: Continue to sow discord in Western democracies and avoid repercussions for interfering in American and European elections.
9) Putin’s Goal: Soften America’s adversarial stance toward Russia.
10) Putin’s Goal: Destabilize the US from within.
11) Putin’s goal: Advance the Kremlin’s narrative to shape global perceptions.
12) Putin’s goal: Undermine international norms and democratic values abroad.
themoscowproject.org
Given all THAT — conspiracy theorist Donald Trump, and his cowardly-lyin sycophantic back-up singers, are ALL STILL helping Vladimir Putin to achieve most of these goals.
All without a invasion into the USA — unless of course you take into account all his GRU-directed cyber-intrusions. Russia’s intrusions, not Ukraine’s — despite what the GOP scarecrows keeps crowing, by way of distraction.
Because it will be the bright light of day, that will finally be their well-deserved undoing.