Contradicting Trump on Russia: Russian Officials

[TomCADem]

Source: MSN/NY Times

WASHINGTON — For months, President Trump and his aides have insisted that they had no contact with Russian officials during the presidential campaign, a denial Mr. Trump repeated last week.

“I have nothing to do with Russia,” he told reporters on Thursday. “To the best of my knowledge, no person that I deal with does.”
The denial stands at odds with statements by Russian officials, who have at least twice acknowledged contacts with aides to Mr. Trump before the election.

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The dispute began two days after the Nov. 8 election, when Sergei A. Ryabkov, the Russian deputy foreign minister, said his government had maintained contacts with members of Mr. Trump’s “immediate entourage” during the campaign.

“I cannot say that all, but a number of them maintained contacts with Russian representatives,” Mr. Ryabkov said during an interview with the Interfax news agency.

Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/contradicting-trump-on-russia-russian-officials/ar-AAn9j5W?li=AA4Zpp&ocid=spartandhp

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Trump cannot keep his lies straight. There may be some contacts between Russia and representatives of Trump that were innocuous. However, there are so many that are questionable (Manafort/Flynn) that Trump's campaign has taken to issuing a blanket denial of any contacts, which is easily rebutted.

[Eyeball_Kid]

1. I'm thinking that this information is part of what Comey was talking about during

the last meeting he had with members of Congress. My guess is that the FBI has the data that not only fills in the blanks, but also has detail to add to the story. The final picture that they'll be painting is that the Trumpy Campaign, and Trumpy personally, were in regular contact with Russian agents, during the campaign and after the election. In that sense, the Flynn phone calls were not seen as unusual, because phone calls to Russian agents were a regular part of business.

We should be suspecting by now that the GOP is silent and enabling Trumpy, AND silent on the Russia connection is because the GOP leadership was in on it. They knew all about it and did nothing. If we add human nature to one side of the equation, that's what comes out. The GOP is silent for more than one reason. And the silence is deafening.

[poli3]

2. That's the real reason why Bannon/Kushner/Trump wanted Flynn gone

Flynn, Manafort and Page were the russia connections, with them out of the way, it's just water under the bridge, Conway et. al will paint them as fired rogue operators.

[JI7]

7. no, they did not want FLynn gone

it was pence who needed him gone to cover up for his putting up with the lies.

[poli3]

10. rumors had it that they didn't necessarily like him before

pence wasn't even informed regarding flynn, which shows he isn't even in the loop, Kushner/Bannon are the loop.

[Zoider]

3. Ya, but to the best of Trump's knowledge, he won in an historic landslide

and 1.5 million people watched the celebration.

[alfredo]

4. Some people say, Vitaly Churkin had the goods on trump.

[Marcuse]

5. Tire tracks all across their backs

Add Flynn to the list of those thrown under the bus by 45 (Lewandowski, Mantafort, etc). One or more will eventually sing about the Russian contacts.

[Hekate]

6. Kick

[BumRushDaShow]

8. "Trump cannot keep his lies straight. "

Because he doesn't have to. He will continue to get a pass no matter what bullshit he or his minions say.

[jayfish]

9. Played like a Kazoo

Wanna destabilize a world power? Help get an incompetent buffoon elected to lead it then give him up him to the domestic wolves. It's all going according to plan and I'm sure this is just the beginning.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. Updated link; OP link non-functional (months later)

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/contradicting-trump-on-russia-russian-officials/ar-AAn9j5W?li=AA4Zpp&ocid=spartandhp