https://www.vox.com/2017/7/11/15953204/donald-trump-jr-emails-russia
Finally, some real dirt? :think:
| The Donald Trump Jr. emails change everything ... The email thread makes clear that Donald Trump Jr. was aware of and willing to support a Russian government effort to help his father’s campaign. It suggests that Kushner and Manafort were also in the loop. And it raises serious questions of how Donald Trump himself could have kept professing to disbelieve claims that Russia was helping him. What actually happened when Trump Jr., Kushner, and Manafort met Russian government attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya on June 9, 2016, in Trump Tower remains unclear. Trump Jr. has claimed in a statement that he was given no useful information at the meeting and that the matter went no further. Yet previous accounts he’s given of the meeting keep leaving out relevant details that emerge later on. ... The email thread makes clear that the people closest to Trump understood that Russia was trying to help his campaign Throughout the past year, Trump and his team have denied and disparaged reports that the Russian government tried to help his candidacy, and that there was any collusion between his team and Russia. Trump himself for months publicly professed not even to believe that the Russian government was behind the hackings and leaks of prominent Democrats’ emails, something that is the consensus judgment of US intelligence agencies. In the opening months of this year, report after report of strange or suspicious behavior from Trump and his team members around Russia kept emerging. But we still lacked outright proof that there was any private understanding or behind-the-scenes collaboration between the two camps. It remained theoretically possible that what US intelligence agencies said was a multifaceted Russian effort to help Trump win was done without anyone from the Trump team knowing about it. That is no longer possible. We have indisputable proof that people very close to the president indeed — his son, his son-in-law/top adviser, and his then-campaign chair — were not only aware of but encouraging of a Russian government effort to help Trump win the White House. Think about it: Goldstone casually sent Trump Jr. an email saying his information would be “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump” — casually stating Russia’s support for Trump as if it were an unremarkable fact. Trump Jr.’s response is similarly blasé. Rather than being confused or questioning what Goldstone means when he’s referring to the Russian government’s support for Trump, the president’s son cheerily responds “If it’s what you say I love it” and proceeds to try to get the details. And he forwards the thread on to Kushner and Manafort. It’s hard to read these emails and not conclude that the top echelons of the Trump campaign were well aware of the Russian government’s support for Trump and willing to collaborate in the effort — which you’d have to think implies that Trump himself has been well aware of this knowledge all along. |
Finally, some real dirt? :think:
