Surprisingly, the Louisville Courier Journal reported this item today about Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul:
Sen. Rand Paul reportedly plans to file an amendment on Wednesday to change several executive orders that would lift U.S. sanctions on Russian lawmakers and allow them to travel to America.
Paul had met with the Russian during the summer:
In August, Paul traveled to Russia and met with lawmakers to discuss diplomatic efforts between the two countries. The libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute, financed the trip.
During his visit, he with several Russian officials, including Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Russian equivalent of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who agreed to send members from the Russian Federation to Washington. They also discussed non-proliferation of certain missiles and sanctions, according to Russian state media.
And who is Konstantin Kosachev?
One of those is a senior member of Russia’s parliament, Konstantin Kosachev, whom a former British spy identified while researching Trump’s Russian connections during the campaign. Ex-spy Christopher Steele reported in his now-famous Trump dossier that Kosachev was the Kremlin’s representative at a supposed clandestine, late-summer 2016 meeting with Trump's lawyer to discuss how to conceal Russia’s efforts to help the real estate magnate defeat frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Both Kosachev and the lawyer, Michael Cohen, have strongly denied that the meeting happened.
And the Russians want Rand Paul to help out this little lady:
Russian state media reported that Slutsky asked Paul to help resolve the arrest of Russian national Maria Butina, a suspected covert agent who met with Donald Trump Jr. and attended an event where Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin was present during the 2016 National Rifle Association convention in Louisville.
I’m not sure what the Russians have on Rand Paul. Did they hack his emails? Is it because the NRA and/or the Russians gave him money under the table? The Russians contributed to the NRA, and the NRA spent $30 million dollars helping Trump in 2016. How much of that money was Russian? The NRA gave Paul $9,900 dollars in 2016, but that doesn’t seem an amount to become a Russian Stooge over, as even Stephen F. Hayes of the Weekly Standard has accused Paul of being.
Whatever the reason, Paul is doing Trump’s dirty work with regards to Russia, at least in the U.S. Senate.