David Corn: The Real Scandal Now Is How Team Trump Helped Putin Conceal His Attack on America

[babylonsister]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/07/the-real-scandal-now-is-how-team-trump-helped-putin-conceal-his-attack-on-america/

The Real Scandal Now Is How Team Trump Helped Putin Conceal His Attack on America
Keeping Russia’s secret.

David Corn
Jul. 13, 2017
2:41 PM


A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece noting that whether or not Donald Trump colluded with Vladimir Putin’s covert operation to subvert the 2016 campaign, the public record was already clear that Trump, knowingly or not, had aided and abetted Russia’s war on US democracy. He did so by repeatedly ignoring evidence and denying Moscow’s role in the criminal hacking of Democratic targets and the subsequent release of stolen emails. Those denials muddied the storyline and prevented a vigorous bipartisan response to Putin’s attack.

The disclosure this week of Donald Trump Jr.’s emails revealing that he, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort joined what they believed was a secret Russian government project to disseminate dirt on Hillary Clinton shows that the Trump campaign went far beyond creating a political climate favorable to Putin’s clandestine assault. The Trump camp actually protected Russian intelligence while it was waging information warfare against the United States—and Trump’s most intimate advisers knew they were doing so.

The new emails prove that in the first week of June 2016, Trump Jr.; Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and key adviser; and Manafort, who the previous month had been named Trump’s campaign chairman and chief strategist, all became aware there was a Russian government plot to help Trump become president. Each received an email from Rob Goldstone, a talent manager who had helped broker the deal for Trump’s Miss Universe contest to be held in Moscow in 2013, and this message was not subtle: It stated that Trump’s business partner in Russia, billionaire developer Aras Agalarov, had been told by Russia’s national prosecutor, a Putin crony, that the Putin regime wanted to convey to the Trump campaign negative material on Clinton. Goldstone noted, “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”


snip//

The Trump Jr. emails demonstrate that through this entire affair, Trump’s top advisers possessed direct inside information indicating Putin’s crew was willing to act clandestinely to boost Trump’s chances. Whenever they discounted the idea that Russia was plotting against Clinton to help Trump—or stood by when Trump did so—they were lying. More important, they were knowingly creating a smokescreen behind which the Putin operation could proceed.

Within criminal law—and it’s unclear if there are criminal implications to the Trump camp’s interactions with Russia—a person who helps a criminal conceal a crime, or who aids an escape or who even fails to report a crime, is known as an accessory after the fact. Trump Jr., Kushner, and Manafort helped keep Russia’s operation a secret. They did not report what they knew about its efforts to intervene in the 2016 campaign. They did not tell the public that they had evidence that the Russian government was trying to undermine the election. They blew no whistle. They were silent partners in Putin’s enterprise. They were co-conspirators.

With these emails, there is no longer any dispute: The Trump campaign shielded a foreign adversary that sought to destabilize American democracy. By doing so, Trump’s most senior advisers increased the odds Putin’s mission would be accomplished.

Ashley Dejean contributed reporting for this article.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Traitors, and half of this country supports the treason.

[iluvtennis]

10. Americans putting party before country and supporting treason is SICKENING

[Moostache]

2. The times they have a 'changed...

The founders would have simply called a spade a spade, charged them with treason and hung them already...the only thing left of them would be a series of cold and stiff corpses ready to plant.

Providing material comfort to an enemy of the United States is the very definition of treason. They are ALL guilty of it in spades...2 scoops, 1/2 scoop, no scoops, Bannon, the flunky, the deranged elf, ALL of them!!!

Line them up and hang them high.

[Hekate]

3. Kick

[oasis]

4. Yes, Trump would stoop this low. nt

[Lyricalinklines]

5. Using each other as tools to exercise their hate, racism and white agenda. Eom

[madamesilverspurs]

6. And

McConnell and Ryan knew and actively suppressed efforts to make the information public.

Are they complicit?

.

[dalton99a]

7. Kick.

[SHRED]

8. Kick

[bucolic_frolic]

9. The evidence is assembling rapidly

and leaving little doubt. It's almost like this drip drip is preparing the public for the fallout

With Nixon you didn't know until very late that there were crimes committed

Here the doubt is diminishing every week

[gademocrat7]

11. Kick.