A question that bugs me about the Russia investigation.

[Hamlette]

There is evidence that Trump conspired with Russia possibly as far back as 2013. I think they talked about it at least as early as 2013 or 2014, before he announced.

I also believe he conspired about the DNC and Podesta emails.

It is also clear Russia has something on Trump. It might just be that Russians own a bunch of Trump real estate and if Trump crosses Russia, they will pull out.

What I don't get is why were the Russians trying to "get in" with the Trump team late in the election cycle. I'm specifically think about the meeting with Don Jr. in June 2016. If Trump is already conspiring with Russia, why are they contacting Don Jr so late in the game? There are other meetings in 2016 that imply Russia is still trying to "get in".

[bettyellen]

1. They originally did this to disrupt the election- help anybody but Hillary... and also

If HRC won- which most asssumed, they wanted to kneecap her and make her support be it at least look as weak as possible.

[dameatball]

2. Not being flippant, but if there were no murky issues maybe we wouldn't need Mueller...?

[Eliot Rosewater]

6. Murky? Wouldn't need Mueller? What?

[dameatball]

10. The OP was asking a question that I believe the Mueller investigation will make more clear....and y

Yes, we need Mueller

[Eliot Rosewater]

12. You used the word "murky", I dont understand that word in this context.

He is clearly committing treason and committing major crimes.

So at first I thought you were quoting the OP with that word, but I dont see it there unless they did an edit.

Murky sounds so, what's the word, benign? That is what got my attention.

[dameatball]

13. murky in that the OP was unclear about it....murky as in " I don't understand it all"...get it?

It was actually the reason for his/her post......asking a question. So, it was a murky situation....not sure how else to explain it to you

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. They were laying the groundwork for the back-channel that vile traitor from Blackwater

was setting up and creating a way to convey their orders to their owned asset, rump.

[rzemanfl]

4. In June 2016 the Drumpf campaign was on the road to failure.

They came in to "fix" it and with Cambridge Analytica, Bannon, et al they fixed it in a few key states.

[Eliot Rosewater]

7. Yes, that too.

[wishstar]

5. Russians were ensuring Trump team remained committed to removing sanctions if he got into WH

They were keeping Trump team roped into to the mutual deal so Trump would remain ensnared and beholden to Russians. Apparently this is their usual method of operation.

[Eliot Rosewater]

8. Absolutely.

[flibbitygiblets]

11. BINGO.

That's what the damn meeting was really about. "Russian adoptions" my patoot.

[fleur-de-lisa]

9. My two cents:

I don't think the Russians were trying to "get in" with the Trump Cabal during the June 2016 meeting. They were already in and had been "in" with the Trump family for years.

They were talking about lifting Sanctions against Russia during that meeting. Remember that Junior said the meeting was about the Russian Adoption program. It is commonly known that Russian "adoptions" are code for "sanctions".

They were probably also discussing the specifics of how they were planning to steal the election. Cambridge Analytica stole FaceBook data to figure out which US voters should be targeted with fake news, and it is now believed that Russia hacked into the voter rolls in certain states during the campaign.

But someone had to tell Russian agents which voting districts to specifically target. They are not familiar enough with US voting statistics to do that. They didn't want to win by too much because that would be a huge red flag since Hillary was so far ahead during the campaign. They "won" with just enough votes to win the electoral college but not win the popular vote. That was by design.

[RandomAccess]

14. Russians own a bunch of Trump debt, IMO - maybe real estate too

plus they have proof of all the ties between them and of some of the things he's done (collusion).

It's my understanding that the ties between them were less official, less formalized in earlier months (and years). REMEMBER: He wasn't officially the candidate until the RNC convention in June.

You had these oligarchs running around flirting with him, as it were, but once he actually became the candidate, it made getting serious -- and a bit more disciplined about communication and "the plan" -- imperative.