Trump and Russia: An Introduction to What We Know (and What We Don't)

5 months ago
14

In which John discusses the Russian government's interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, allegations of collusion against members of Donald Trump's campaign, what is known about various Trump campaign officials' relationship to Vladimir Putin's regime, and also what we don't know. SOURCES BELOW:

CORRECTION: Nixon resigned before he was impeached.

Vladimir Putin personally oversaw efforts by the Russian government to affect the U.S. Presidential election outcome in favor of Donald Trump, according to both the Department of Homeland Security and the Officer of the Director of National Intelligence:
https://www.dhs.gov/news/2016/10/07/j...

Trump campaign removed language from the Republican Party platform supporting Ukraine in their ongoing conflict with Russia:

http://www.npr.org/2016/08/06/4888765...

The Putin regime engaged in a disinformation campaign, attempted to access several states' election data, and oversaw the hacking of the DNC and sent the DNC and John Podesta emails to wikileaks:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/us...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...

http://time.com/4625301/cia-russia-wi... and https://www.cnet.com/news/how-experts...

Congressional Republicans agree with the conclusion that Putin's regime was behind the DNC hack and other meddling: http://www.weeklystandard.com/congres... and https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

The U.S. election law saying that no American can accept or receive a contribution or "thing of value" from any foreign national in connection with a political campaign: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/...

One-time Trump campaign manager Paul Manfort was paid $10,000,000 a year for 3 years by Oleg Deripaska: http://www.businessinsider.com/paul-m...

Michael Caputo worked on a campaign to improve Putin's image among Americans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Links_b...

Michael Flynn accepted money from the Russian government without disclosing it: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2... and discussed sanctions on a call with Kislyak in December 2016, which he initially denied: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/...

Trump asked FBI Director James Comey for 'loyalty" and to drop the Flynn investigation: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/us...

Special counsel Robert Mueller has convened (at least) two grand juries as part of his investigation: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/...

Trump acknowledged firing Comey in large part because of the collusion investigation: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/poli...

Info about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer, which was also attended by Manafort and Jared Kushner: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2... and https://www.newyorker.com/news/ryan-l...

As President, Donald Trump had a private meeting with Vladimir Putin at which no U.S. translator was present, which is extremely unusual: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/wo...

If you have any other source questions, feel free to ask in comments.

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