The Senate Intelligence Committee has come out with a scathing bipartisan report that described the 2016 Trump campaign accepting help from Russia.
The candidate, who is now President Donald Trump, was closely involved in the process, even though the campaign knew the emails leaked from the Democratic National Committee had been stolen by Russian intelligence.
Basically, the Republican campaign sought Russian help, loved it, used it, then lied about it and tried to obstruct the investigation into it.
The campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was in contact with Russian intelligence officer Konstantin Kilimnik during his time with campaign. Kilimnik was running influence operations, and the report implies the possibility of the campaign being involved in the Russian operations.
The report shows the Trump campaign was glad to help this attack on the election and tout the stolen emails. It illuminated the Wikileaks coordination with Trump’s campaign.
In addition, it shows that Trump almost surely spoke with Roger Stone about the emails and Wikileaks. Trump testified in writing for the Mueller investigation that he could not recall talking to Stone about such matters.
Naturally, Team Trump says, “No collusion.” Well, collusion is not a legal term. The report documents a much more direct line from Kremlin trickery to Trump’s inner circle, not to mention the Russian disinformation offensive.
In late 2016, President Barack Obama slapped aggressive sanctions on Russia for its attack on our election. In 2020, Trump is still willing to accept Russian help while doing everything he can to discourage citizens from voting.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
Report makes collusion clear
Thu, Aug 27, 2020 (2 a.m.)