So here’s the link to a concisely-written July 31, 2016, NYT piece on Manafort-Ukraine-Putin-Trump:
mobile.nytimes.com/…
I excerpt the lede and intro paragraphs here:
"WASHINGTON - Few political consultants have had a have had a client fail quite as spectacularly as Paul Manafort’s did in Ukraine in the winter of 2014...
"President Viktor F. Yanukovych, who owed his election to, as an American diplomat put it, an 'extreme makeover’ Mr. Manafort oversaw, bolted the country in the face of violent street protests. He found sanctuary in Russia and never returned, as his patron, President Vladimir V. Putin, proceeded to dismember Ukraine, annexing Crimea and fomenting a war in two other provinces that continues [in late July 2016].
“[N]ow Mr. Manafort has taken on a much larger campaign, seeking to turn Donald J. Trump into a winning presidential candidate.
"With Mr. Putin’s Russia, and its interference in Ukraine, becoming a focus of the United States presidential campaign, Mr. Manafort’s work in Ukraine has come under scrutiny — along with his business dealings with prominent Ukrainian and Russian tycoons…."
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Now consider Flynn’s ties to Putin, to Russia Today, Manafort’s ties to Putin (at least through Yanukovych, if not directly) Putin’s ambitions in Ukraine, the open secret of Manafort’s changing the GOP Platform to be Russia-friendly, Manafort’s installing Pence on the Republican ticket, Pence’s playing dumb act re: Flynn, and, finally, Trump’s inane Tweets (which appear increasingly saturated in nervous flop sweat.
Please understand: While direct evidence (e.g., a “smoking gun” memo or recording, or getting Flynn to flip and spill the beans) is always preferred, circumstantial evidence (e.g., seeing the footprints in the snow rather than watching someone make the footprints) also constitutes legitimate, admissible evidence at trial.
A question is begged: At what point does Trump’s and Pence’s “plausible deniability” (which already looks utterly implausible to millions of Americans) re: their complicity with Russian influence in and interfering with the 2016 Election (to favor and push Trump) finally, totally, break down?
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