and surprise, Prexy Dennison lied about Russian involvement, and the depth of that knowledge is what keeps Mueller on the trail, and today, Devin Nunes defecting in yet another #TrumpRussia recusal.
The new Michael Isikoff and David Corn book shows that not unlike so many things that seemed inconceivable before, the Russians had truly done work as enemies that not unlike 9/11, were more extensive and dangerous for the US.
And unlike the Michael Wolff Fire and Fury tell-all and the Johsua Green Devil’s Bargain, the elements are not filtered by gossip or the RW agendas, but show how often the Democrats were either paranoid, or in fact not paranoid enough about Russian meddling. Also in the sights are the FBI and CIA for doing the kinds of IC compartmentalizing that may jeopardize American democracy.
And finally, there may be no “golden showers” tape, but what the Russians may have may be much, much worse.
Trump has famously denied there was any relationship between his campaign and Moscow. But Russian Roulette reveals that Papadopoulos has told investigators that at a March 31, 2016, meeting Trump held with his foreign policy team, when Papadopoulos informed Trump he had contacts in the United Kingdom who could set up a meeting between Trump and Putin, Trump said this was an “interesting” idea. Trump, according to Papadopoulos’ account, looked at then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), a top Trump adviser at the time, as if he expected him to follow up. Afterward, Papadopoulos, working with Russian cutouts, kept pursuing such a meeting.
[...]
And in the book, Clapper confirms that in mid-August 2016 when Trump, as the Republican nominee, received his first intelligence briefing, he was told that the US intelligence community had concluded that Moscow was orchestrating the cyberattacks that targeted the Democratic Party.
Nevertheless, Trump continued to deny vociferously that Russia was meddling in the election.
Though the book does provide ammunition to critics of how Obama handled the Russian attack, it shows that Trump essentially provided cover to Moscow and made it harder for Obama to forge a bipartisan response to Putin’s assault.
www.motherjones.com/...