Trump's Russia Connections

[Chuck Naill]

This is a long and thoughtful account which leaves the reader with no doubt of the Russia-Trump connection. If it's already been posted, my bad.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/m...smid=share-url

[dneal]

This is a long and thoughtful account which leaves the reader with no doubt of the Russia-Trump connection. If it's already been posted, my bad.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/m...smid=share-url

?

It’s the same article in the OP.

[Chuck Naill]

This is a long and thoughtful account which leaves the reader with no doubt of the Russia-Trump connection. If it's already been posted, my bad.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/m...smid=share-url

?

It’s the same article in the OP.

Did you read?

[dneal]

This is a long and thoughtful account which leaves the reader with no doubt of the Russia-Trump connection. If it's already been posted, my bad.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/m...smid=share-url

?

It’s the same article in the OP.

Did you read?

Yes. That’s how I knew it was the same.

Did you? I think we know the answer…

[Chuck Naill]

This is a long and thoughtful account which leaves the reader with no doubt of the Russia-Trump connection. If it's already been posted, my bad.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/02/m...smid=share-url

?

It’s the same article in the OP.

Did you read?

Yes. That’s how I knew it was the same.

Did you? I think we know the answer…

If so, this should show you that Trump has a Russian connection.

[dneal]

Did Trump collude with Russia to win the 2016 election?

Did Hillary conspire to create a Trump/Russia collision hoax?

Did the NYT get a Pulitzer for claims that were proven false, by the Mueller report and Durham investigation (which is ongoing, but the evidence in the Sussman and Danchenko trials remains).

[TSherbs]

A reminder of what the writer in the OP article actually said:

The Russia investigation and its offshoots never did prove coordination between the Trump campaign and Moscow, though they did document numerous connections. But to view the record left behind through the blood-filtered lens of Putin’s war, now in its ninth month, is to discover a trail of underappreciated signals telegraphing the depth of his Ukrainian obsession — and the life-or-death stakes that America’s domestic travails would have for some 45 million people nearly 5,000 miles away.

Seems reasonably put to me, and worth considering.

[Chuck Naill]

Did Trump collude with Russia to win the 2016 election?

Did Hillary conspire to create a Trump/Russia collision hoax?

Did the NYT get a Pulitzer for claims that were proven false, by the Mueller report and Durham investigation (which is ongoing, but the evidence in the Sussman and Danchenko trials remains).

Trump and his family did work together with Russia. His family had meetings. Yes, Russians admit and continue to say they are involved. There should be no mistake that it occurred.

[dneal]

I’m not sure you answered any of those questions. Curious.

Trump is an international business man. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to work with all sorts of people of all sorts nationalities. That’s hardly a conspiracy.

The question was if he conspired with Russia (meaning the Russian government) to steal the 2016 election. The NYT did win a Pulitzer for its reporting on that. Hillary said he did it.

Do you agree with them, or Robert Mueller and the results of his investigation which found:

the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities

They can’t both be right.

[Chuck Naill]

I’m not sure you answered any of those questions. Curious.

Trump is an international business man. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to work with all sorts of people of all sorts nationalities. That’s hardly a conspiracy.

The question was if he conspired with Russia (meaning the Russian government) to steal the 2016 election. The NYT did win a Pulitzer for its reporting on that. Hillary said he did it.

Do you agree with them, or Robert Mueller and the results of his investigation which found:

the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities

They can’t both be right.

Manafort is the key for you @dneal. He did. His family did. His words did. If you're confused, its intentional.

[dneal]

I’m not confused, Chuck. I didn’t repost the article the thread was based on. I don’t confuse Trump with Manafort.

I answered your question earlier, and even agreed. You seem unable to even acknowledge mine, curiously, but I think we both know why.

Enjoy your conspiracy theory, and let me know when you get some evidence. There’s supposedly a mountain of it, although I can’t understand how Mr. Mueller couldn’t find what you think is so obvious.

[TSherbs]

The question was if he conspired with Russia (meaning the Russian government) to steal the 2016 election.

The evidence does not indicate that he did (judging from the conclusion of the report, and acknowledged in the article at the start of this thread).

Can we move beyond this? The point of the article was to say that Putin has long had designs on Ukraine and that Trump's "interests" (no one denies these) in Ukraine (via Manafort) may have played into those plans and perhaps played a role in encouraging those designs (leading to the invasion). This is my summary of the piece.... The suggestion that the US bears some culpability here is interesting, at least.

[Chip]

Ex-Rand Paul aide pardoned by Trump convicted of illegally funneling Russian cash to Trump campaign

Jesse Benton, who is married to Paul's niece, was pardoned by Trump in a different campaign finance scheme

By Areeba Shah
November 18, 2022

A former senior aide to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. and Sen. Rand Paul R-Ky., was convicted Thursday of illegally helping a Russian businessman contribute to former President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. Jesse Benton "was convicted of conspiring to solicit and cause an illegal campaign contribution by a foreign national, effecting a conduit contribution, and causing false records to be filed with the FEC", per the Justice Department. He faces up to 20 years in prison.*

Elections "reflect the values and the priorities and the beliefs of American citizens," Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Parikh said in her closing argument this week, The Washington Post reported. "Jesse Benton by his actions did damage to those principles." Benton, the husband of Paul's niece, was pardoned by Trump in 2020 for a different campaign finance crime, which involved attempting to buy an endorsement for former Rep. Ron Paul's, R-Texas, 2012 presidential bid.

This time, Benton bought a $25,000 ticket to a 2016 Republican National Committee event on behalf of a Russian naval officer Roman Vasilenko to help him get a picture with Trump, according to prosecutors. Vasilenko wired $100,000 to Benton's political consulting firm to make an illegal foreign contribution, which Benton used to donate $25,000 to the RNC by credit card to cover the ticket. He pocketed the remaining $75,000, according to the DOJ.*

He said that he followed the advice of his previous counsel, David Warrington, who testified that Benton contacted him to ask if he could give a political fundraiser ticket to a Russian citizen. Warrington said he told Benton "there is no prohibition on a Russian citizen receiving a ticket to an event" and that "you can give your ticket that you purchased to a fundraiser to anybody," The Post reported.*

But Benton left out the detail that he was getting reimbursed by the Russian citizen for the donation, prosecutors said. Benton asked for the advice only "to cover his tracks," Parikh said. Benton claimed he earned the $100,000 for serving as Vasilenko's tour guide in Washington and that the naval officer turned multilevel marketer's interest was self-promotion and not politics, according to The Post.*

Vasilenko posted the photograph with Trump on Instagram with a banner that said "Two Presidents" and advertised his own company.*

"He wants to be an influencer," defense attorney Brian Stolarz said. "This is just shameless self-promotion from a guy who can afford to take this picture."

But prosecutors said that once the opportunity came, Vasilenko, who was running for parliament in Russia at the time, saw the value of being introduced to Trump. After Trump's election, he was invited on Russian television, according to the Justice Department.

Benton was previously convicted in 2016, when a former Iowa state senator admitted to taking $73,000 in payments from Ron Paul's presidential campaign in exchange for switching his endorsement to Paul. He was sentenced to two years of probation and a $10,000 fine. When the scandal broke in 2014, Benton was serving as campaign manager for McConnell's 2014 re-election bid. He resigned after the illegal 2012 payments were reported and went on to serve as chief strategist for the pro-Trump Great America super PAC. He resigned once again in 2016 after he was charged.*

Trump issued a presidential pardon to Benton in December 2020 before leaving office at the urging of Rand Paul.

http://https://www.salon.com/2022/11...h-to-campaign/

[TSherbs]

gross

This guy is having trouble staying clear of influence-peddling and campaign-finance laws....

[dneal]

The question was if he conspired with Russia (meaning the Russian government) to steal the 2016 election.

The evidence does not indicate that he did (judging from the conclusion of the report, and acknowledged in the article at the start of this thread).

Can we move beyond this? The point of the article was to say that Putin has long had designs on Ukraine and that Trump's "interests" (no one denies these) in Ukraine (via Manafort) may have played into those plans and perhaps played a role in encouraging those designs (leading to the invasion). This is my summary of the piece.... The suggestion that the US bears some culpability here is interesting, at least.

I don’t know. Can Chip and Chuck admit it? Chip said flatly that it was false. Chuck is unable to acknowledge it.

DC is full of weasels, all in various orbits. Manafort is one of many. John Podesta comes to mind as one on the other side. The guilt by association game is easy to play, and proves nothing - except to conspiracy theorists.

Chip has gone even more left wing with his sources. The Salon? Now I’m going to have to cite The Blaze as a counter balance.

If you only see one trashy echo-chamber, you’re probably in the other.

To paraphrase Twain - The easy confidence with which I know another man’s news source is “trashy”, should teach me to suspect my own.

[TSherbs]

The question was if he conspired with Russia (meaning the Russian government) to steal the 2016 election.

The evidence does not indicate that he did (judging from the conclusion of the report, and acknowledged in the article at the start of this thread).

Can we move beyond this? The point of the article was to say that Putin has long had designs on Ukraine and that Trump's "interests" (no one denies these) in Ukraine (via Manafort) may have played into those plans and perhaps played a role in encouraging those designs (leading to the invasion). This is my summary of the piece.... The suggestion that the US bears some culpability here is interesting, at least.

I don’t know. Can Chip and Chuck admit it?

Why would you need that to move on?

Do you not think that the US has some culpability in Putin's desire to advance? Do you not think that Putin would have a kind of master plan involving several prongs of manipulation and influence, including over the US social media landscape and a preference for whom he would rather work with as president of the US? Sure, China is doing this too. But the topic here is Putin: that is what the article is about. (Nor is it about N. Korea or Saudi Arabia, etc...)

[dneal]

Move on to what?

-edit-

A review of posts 9 and 13 might explain more clearly for you.

[TSherbs]

from spinning in circles with people about their bias

to the questions I asked in the very next sentences

[dneal]

from spinning in circles with people about their bias

to the questions I asked in the very next sentences

Post 13 answers that.

[Chuck Naill]

I don’t think your confused. Your BS is intentional.