I'm going to try my best to stay impartial and just discuss how things are going thus far. I've been listening to a bunch of the "testimonies" as of late and figured I'd put this out there so that we could clear up some confusion that people have been having. I'll try to focus on the highlights, as some of the sites I've been checking thus far go back to the 80s and I'm not much interested in going that far in depth. This post is about the Trump Campaign members as whole and not just Trump.
6 January 2017
The intelligence community released "Background to “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions
in Recent US Elections”: The Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution" which was a declassified and shorter version of a document composed from the findings of the FBI, CIA, and NSA. In this report they report that it was found that the Russian government did perform a coordinated attack on our democratic process "Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency". This report also shows that information was compiled on the Trump and other republicans, but was never released.
Manafort:
1.) In 2006 Manafort suggests a strategy a strategy to Oleg Deripaska for influencing politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and former Soviet republics to benefit Putin’s government. The proposal was released by the Associated Press last year.
2.) Manafort's consulting firm receives two payments between 2007-2009 to back Putin-favored president Yanukovych totaling about 1.25 million dollars. Yanukovych is ousted in 2014 for severe human rights violations, but escapes due to Russian interference.
3.) Later financial records show that as of 2013 Manafort had debts totaling as much as $17 million to pro-Russia interests.
4.) Feb 2016 Manafort offers aid to Trump and is taken on as Campaign Convention Manager in March. In may he becomes Trump’s campaign chairman and chief strategist. In June, Rob Goldstone and three Russians meet with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort at Trump Tower.
5.) Summer of 2016 American spies begin intercepting discussions between Russian intelligence and political officials about using Paul Manafort and Mike Flynn to shape Trump’s opinions on Russia.
6.) August of 2016 Manafort denies receiving improper payments from Ukraine to influence American policy, but upon the revelation that he had received these funds he resigns from the Trump Campaign leaving his right-hand man Gates in charge who has also since been charged.
Both Manafort and Gates have been indicted on ~30 counts including income tax evasion, money laundering, conspiracy, and failure to disclose his lobbying in the U.S. on behalf of foreign governments.
Papadopoulus
1.) March 2016 Papadopoulus becomes foreign policy adviser for Trump campaign. Shortly thereafter he proposes a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump.
2.) After continued contact with Russian officials Papadopoulus learns in April that the Russians have valuable intel that can hurt the Clinton campaign. Specifically, the Russians had emails of Clinton”; “they have thousands of emails."
3.) In the Summer of 2016 Papadopoulos has multiple meetings with Millian who claims that he got russian investors to promote Trump real-estate, and that Trump has had a long standing relationship with Russian officials who had given him "damaging information about Hillary Clinton."
4.) George Papadopoulos sends an email to a Kremlin-linked official stating that the Trump campaign has approved a meeting between top members of the Trump campaign and representatives of Vladimir Putin. Whether or not this meeting ever took place we do not know.
5.) Millian proposes business deal backed by Russian billionaires interested in opening a Trump hotel in Moscow.
6.) January 2017 Papadopoulus caught lying to FBI regarding talks with Russian nationals.
7.) July 2017 Arrested and charged. Eventually pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his Kremlin-related contacts
Flynn
1.) Early 2015 Flynn is payed 45,000 to speak on Russian Today and sits next to Putin. He did not report this payment on taxes.
2.) November 2016 Flynn becomes Security adviser to Trump.3
3.) Trump warned against taking on Flynn Nov. 10 but disregarded.
4.) Flynn has multiple conversations with Russia and denies them. The white-house and Pence deny the content of these calls.
5.)On Jan. 26 Sally Yates meets with White House counsel Donald McGahn in his office informing him that Flynn had been lying so that the Trump administration could take action. 2 weeks later Flynn resigns.
6.) December 1 Flynn pleads guilty to lying to the FBI and agrees to cooperate further in the investigation.
Comey
1.) Comey worked with three presidents and was appointed FBI director under the Obama administration.
2.) March 20 Comey confirms FBI’s investigation into potential Trump-Russia ties.
3.) January 27, 2017 Comey and Trump had a dinner alone. Comey states that this was requested by Trump and he felt at-ease during it, he also says that Trump twice asked for Comey's loyalty. President Trump on the other hand says that Comey asked for the dinner to request keeping his job.
4.) On Februry 14th Trump asked all members to leave the office after Comey had given a briefing. At which time Comey says that Trump requested he let "Flynn go." Trump denies this, but he did ask the room to be cleared.
5.) Trump requests Sessions and Rosenstein to detail in writing a case against Comey on may 8th and then fires Comey May 9th. It is initially reported that he was dismissed due to poor management of the FBI and his poor handling of the Clinton email scandel, but Trump later admits that he had previously decided to fire Comey over the Russia investigation.
“Regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact, when I decided to do it, I said to myself, I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.” Trump
Anyway, this was long and I'm sure there's plenty of stuff I missed. If anything of great import please let me know! I'm aware of Kushner's "issues", but thought it best not to go into them until later. Thanks!
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