How Trump Jr. implicated himself in collusion – and set up a bigger story
Russian lawyer who got inside Donald Trump’s inner circle had been denied US visa (circa.com)John Schindler: "As Winston Churchill famously said, this is the end of the beginning" (observer.com)
What the heck possessed Donald Trump Jr. to make public a set of e-mails laying out details of a meeting between the Trump presidential campaign and an agent of the Russian government? Did he pass the decision by his lawyer?
In order to understand what has happened, let’s review a few developments since this lovely morning.
Joe Scarborough had a good point about the meeting this morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe:
“Don Jr. went into that meeting, let’s strip it down. He went into that meeting expecting help from the Russian government. Stop. Full stop.”
“That’s why the lawyer’s statement, the attorney’s statement is so misleading,” Katy Kay said.
Laurence Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard University, had this to say about the e-mails:
We now have the proverbial smoking gun: TJr was part of criminal conspiracy to violate fed crim laws banning foreign aid to any US campaign. https://t.co/rEvNRm0IN9
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) July 11, 2017
Offering to help Putin weaken Magnitsky Act’s anti-Kremlin sanctions in return for Putin’s help vs Hillary has stench of bribery & treason,” Tribe said.
Trump was in New York City on June 9, 2016, meeting with Manafort, then-RNC chair Reince Priebus, Gov. Chris Christie, then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and others at Trump Tower — where his son met that same day with the Russian attorney.
Tribe agreed that no prosecutor or defense attorney would believe Trump was unaware that his son, son-in-law and campaign chairman were meeting in the same building with a foreign agent to discuss his campaign.
“If he DIDN’T know, that makes Sec 4 of the 25th Amendment seem even more salient!” Tribe said.
Early this morning, Trump Jr. tweeted what he claims is the full “chain” of e-mails pertaining to a meeting between himself, Jared Kushner, then-Trump campiagn manager Paul Manafort, and shadowy Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya – emails which show Veselnitskaya was offering “dirt” on then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton
Senator Lindsey Graham spoke out:
“Anytime you’re in a campaign and you get an offer from a foreign government to help your campaign, the answer is no,” Graham told reporters.
“So I don’t know what Mr. Trump Jr.’s version of the facts are. Definitely — he has to testify. That email is disturbing.”
Jake Tapper said:
‘Proof of a willingness to collude’: Jake… by sarahburris
“Proof of a willingness to collude” – that’s going to leave a mark! And so is Brad Reed’s analysis of the e-mail contents at Raw Story, which contains the collusion “smoking gun”:
In the first email sent from Goldstone to Trump, the music publicist explicitly told the elder Trump son that he was offering information to the Trump campaign that was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
“The Crown prosecutor of Russia… offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,” Goldstone wrote. “This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”
Trump Jr. did not question the appropriateness of getting information about Clinton from the Russian government, and replied, “Thanks Rob, I appreciate it.” He then offered to “do a call first thing next week” when he got back to New York after being on the campaign trail.
In a later email, Goldstone explicitly told Trump Jr. that a “Russian government attorney” was flying over from Moscow to meet him in Trump Tower on Thursday, June 9.
Trump Jr. then confirmed that he, brother-in-law Jared Kushner, and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort would all meet with the attorney at Trump Tower.
Things have gotten so bad that yet more White House aides are scrambling to lawyer up.
It looks like the beginning of the end for the Trump Regime. Because there are two biggers stories poised to break in the next few weeks. Claude Taylor, a Twitter microblogger who has been unerringly prescient on all things Russiagate, says WaPo is sitting on a story, but won’t forever:
Yes-WaPo story is (according to sources) irrefutable evidence of Trump’s personal involvement in the conspiracy. https://t.co/xpQk0D5cQp
— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) July 11, 2017
Our Twitter pal Dena Garyson adds:
My sources confirm Claude’s WaPo story. Plus *another* major MSM outlet (not CNN) has Trump on TAPE👉”damning”‼️https://t.co/DrhbHttZT1
— Dr. Dena Grayson (@DrDenaGrayson) July 11, 2017
Dena has conveyed several rumors that turned out to be premature facts.
As for me, I’m investing in popcorn futures. Get ready for a wild ride.
