**Breaking News on Rachel Maddow**

[SummerSnow]

NYT: Trump campaign aides had repeated contact with Russsian intelligence at the time when Russia was disrupting the election

[jmg257]

1. Article...

WASHINGTON — Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, according to four current and former American officials.

American law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time that they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee, three of the officials said. The intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to influence the election.

The officials interviewed in recent weeks said that, so far, they had seen no evidence of such cooperation

But the intercepts alarmed American intelligence and law enforcement agencies, in part because of the amount of contact that was occurring while Mr. Trump was speaking glowingly about the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. At one point last summer, Mr. Trump said at a campaign event that he hoped Russian intelligence services had stolen Hillary Clinton’s emails and would make them public...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/russia-intelligence-communications-trump.html

Manafort, Carter Page, Roger Stone, and Flynn.

[gtar100]

2. Calls into question the results of the election, don't it.

Hmm. I wonder what the republicans will do, those shining exemplars of "American Values".

Integrity was never really something they cared much for. Just a show of it when it serves their purposes.

[wordpix]

9. voter fraud! terrorists from ME countries! Look here instead!

The repukes will do anything to keep US from looking at Russian election hacking.

[Initech]

10. Yes. Something doesn't pass the smell test.

Can we fire Trump and hire Hillary instead?

[wordpix]

11. that's my plan

Seriously, I'm not standing for gawd's own dummy Pence or Paulie Blue Eyes who would get rid of ACA with a finger snap. They never ran for pres and they did not get 3 million more votes than Drump. I'm with HeR.

[Plucketeer]

46. I'm with you

Pence and Ryan aren't folks I'd want any more than Trump. Hillary won the popular vote - bring her on back! Then what about all the rep seats we lost? What a different country we would see!

[TexasBushwhacker]

13. And I fear that this focus on Flynn just distracts

from the real issue. It's not enough for Flynn to be out. Frankly, it's not enough for Trump to resign or be removed. We need to find out what the Russians did to influence the election; how far does it go. And perhaps we need another election.

[alfredo]

33. It's going to be a slow release, with each release, the noose tightens.

[Freethinker65]

3. Didn't we all know this before the election?

[jmg257]

5. Well then it wouldn't be "breaking" would it? (though SO FAR there is no evidence of collusion).

[Freethinker65]

7. So far this is not really breaking news then? I read all of this stuff back in August, if not before

Manafort was forced out because if it. What we did not have were the transcripts of the communications. After the election, collusion was inferred, but no evidence given. I am hoping/ assuming there is something new in the reporting. I do not have cable TV and am just reading as things get discussed.

[jmg257]

8. Yep and similiar article last month too

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/19/us/politics/trump-russia-associates-investigation.html

Intercepted Russian Communications Part of Inquiry Into Trump Associates
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT, MATTHEW ROSENBERG, ADAM GOLDMAN and MATT APUZZO JAN. 19, 2017
WASHINGTON — American law enforcement and intelligence agencies are examining intercepted communications and financial transactions as part of a broad investigation into possible links between Russian officials and associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump, including his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, current and former senior American officials said.

Basically they have been investigating the connections for month(s), and are still looking for evidence.

Maybe w/re: Flynn will turn something up?

[wordpix]

17. King Chaos is finding out he doesn't have control w/ just the stroke of a pen

Trump has p'o'd professional agency people and they'll leak it if they get more info.

I said after the election this is not the end of it. I have a pretty good sense of where things are headed ---to impeachment and criminal charges against many of Trump's cabal and Trump himself---but of course, anything can happen and no one can predict the future. And maybe I'm overly optimistic (but I don't think so---I think the King is going down)

[jmg257]

18. It ain't getting any better, that's for sure!

[alfredo]

34. He'll resign and Pence will pardon him.

[wordpix]

12. Speaking of Manafort, appearance of a Russian cabal with him, Tillerson, Flynn, Trump

am I missing anyone? Bannon perhaps?

There is something new. More people in more agencies are leaking the info. Won't be long before there will be some leak about Drumpf himself.

[Freethinker65]

16. Roger Stone, Carter Page...

[wordpix]

19. don't know these, I'll have to read up

[alfredo]

36. They are chewing their way up the chain of command.

[jmg257]

21. Here's one from November - sourced BY the Russian listed in the newer articles.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/world/europe/trump-campaign-russia.html?_r=0

MOSCOW — The Russian government maintained contacts with members of Donald J. Trump’s “immediate entourage” during the American presidential campaign, one of Russia’s top diplomats said Thursday.

“There were contacts,” Sergei A. Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. “We continue to do this and have been doing this work during the election campaign,” he said.

Mr. Ryabkov said officials in the Russian Foreign Ministry were familiar with many of the people he described as Mr. Trump’s entourage. “I cannot say that all, but a number of them maintained contacts with Russian representatives,” Mr. Ryabkov said.

Later, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said Mr. Ryabkov had been referring to American politicians and supporters of Mr. Trump, not members of his campaign staff. The contacts were carried out through the Russian ambassador in Washington, who reached out to the senators and other political allies to get a better sense of Mr. Trump’s positions on various issues involving Russia.

[StarryNite]

15. Yes, we knew it.

We were telling our rethuglican family members and friends that tRump and Putin had a thing goin' on. But practically all the media kept talking about was Hillary's emails. People who hate Hillary for whatever reason, chose to believe that Hillary's emails made her unfit and that there was nothing to the tRump and Putin connection. Then having Russia's interference and Comey throwing more bullshit on the fire while ignoring what tRump was up to didn't help. Had the media been doing their job it may have been stopped before tRump's regime took hold.

[eleny]

20. According to Joy Reid - the new news is that they met with Russian *Intelligence* officials

[Freethinker65]

22. Thanks much for the update!!

[eleny]

23. You're welcome! I saw your post earlier

I was inclined to agree with the spirit of your point. Except that there's a difference between knowing factually and believing something.

And then I heard Joy make this point and understood why it's so intense. Not only do we have proof of contacts, who they met with is over the top grievous.

[meadowlander]

39. This story confirms that the intelligence community has many of the conversations on tape.

And in that sense I think give more weight to what was more speculative before.

[triron]

44. Rachel pointed out the difference

This article specifically links communication with Russian Intelligence.

[grantcart]

4. drip drip drip OMG the water broke

[sarcasmo]

6. I predict this will be bigger than Watergate.

[crazylikafox]

14. There's no question this is bigger than watergate

[workinclasszero]

31. No doubt

The sitting president conspired with a foreign government to subvert, hack and "win" the election!?

Political story of the century!

What did Trump have to promise Putin in exchange for his help in "winning" the election??

Trump will go down in history as the worst traitor ever!

[Stonepounder]

24. And MSNBC just said they had a FISA Warrant so they have both sides of the conversations

on tape!

OMG, this could be the beginning of the end.

[bucolic_frolic]

30. FISA!!!

OMG .... this is really moving rapidly

[elmac]

25. If there is any proof that there was collusion

between tRump and Putin to throw the election, other then him asking for russian hacking of Clintons email on national TV which should be proof enough, then prison time and a nulled election should follow.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

26. Macolm Nance said they had better start getting lawyers.

[still_one]

27. That came out the in The NY Times. My question is why wasn't this released before the election

[alfredo]

38. To do as much damage to trump as they can.

I hope there's the proverbial "finding him in bed with a dead hooker or a live boy."

[still_one]

40. The problem is the American people have been robbed

[alfredo]

48. Yes we have, but we are seeing yet another example of,

Republicans not being willing or able to effectively govern. They lack the moral core to be trusted with power.

[keithbvadu2]

28. Trump's Russian pals defend Flynn

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/russian-lawmakers-rush-to-the-defense-of-trumps-ex-national-security-advisor/2017/02/14/547fc410-f28b-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html?utm_term=.ac55bd23753d&wpisrc=nl_p1most-partner-1&wpmm=1

[bucolic_frolic]

29. There it is

Where there's smoke ....

[Akacia]

32. Its about time!

I hope all this brings them down finally, before anymore damage is done.

[butdiduvote]

35. Can't we just prevent something like this from happening again by setting the precedent of...

...installing the robbed candidate, in this case Hillary?

Maybe campaigns will think twice about colluding with foreign entities to sway elections in the future if they know discovery of their transgressions would result in the immediate installation of their campaign opponent?

[triron]

45. So who is going to do the "install"?

[workinclasszero]

37. Drip...Drip...Drip...

The flood is about to break over 45's head!!!

[meadowlander]

41. Just hoping there's enough behind the dam to take out the top tiers of the Republican party too.

We need to get pretty deep in the line of succession before we get to a non-wingnut.

[workinclasszero]

42. Boy I agree with that!!!

[defacto7]

43. And here we are again at the "bringing down" moment

...yet there's no one to do the bringing down.

The entire administration needs to go, all the executive orders need to be rescinded, all appointees need to be stopped in their tracks and unconfirmed ones put on an indefinite hold. But who's going to do that? There is no constitutional way to override congress and the executive. The SCOTUS has no power to call it out of thin air.

The only reasonable answer is a new election... but who's going to call for it? who's in charge of running such an election and who's going to make it fair?

We are in a tough corner, people. All ways out lead to GOP/fascist control or a military take over. The ropes are deviously and firmly tied. I'd love to hear some realistic ideas; I surly can't think of any.

[alfredo]

49. The Intel community is slow walking releases, letting trump twist in the wind

Trump fucked with the wrong people.

I think they won't lower the boom until they are sure of their evidence.

[C Moon]

47. Who is going to do anything about it?

The congress, the senate? Time and time again, they make it clear there will be no investigations.