Russiagate update: A racist, a dim son, and Julian Assange walk into a scandal together…
Wednesday was kind of slow on the Russiagate front, save a couple of telling stories that flesh out Donald Trump Jr’s adventures with Wikileaks:
- Mother Jones reports that “WikiLeaks Set Off an Attack on Our Trump-Russia Project—Right After Messaging Donald Trump Jr. About It”. Among the big questions they ask: was there a conspiracy between Julian Assange and the Trump campaign? Because the details in the MoJo “inside story” sure point to a big yes.
- Business Insider‘s Natasha Bertrand has not only been at the forefront of the popular site’s Russiagate coverage but had some of the juiciest scoops surrounding the crisis. Her latest exposes one of the most vindictive and sociopathic figures in the so-called “white nationalist” movement: Chuck Johnson, who “may have provoked WikiLeaks’ outreach to Donald Trump Jr.”
Johnson, who calls himself an independent journalist and runs a site called GotNews, published an article around 9:30 p.m. ET on September 20, 2016, claiming he had “obtained a memo from a George Soros-tied PR firm that is launching a website to spread conspiracy theories about Donald Trump’s connections to Russia.” Soros is the investor and business magnate who has become a favorite bogeyman of the far right.
“The site, PutinTrump.org, is set to be launched tomorrow morning on Wednesday, September 21, by public relations firm Ripple Strategies,” Johnson wrote.
Johnson updated his article again to include the password for PutinTrump.org, which was still locked at that point. He said he had obtained it from a “GotNews researcher.”
Eric Garland, one of the savviest intel players on Twitter, noted that Bertrand used a specific word:
Provoked = acted as Russian intelligence service agent https://t.co/e66V6NpGnR
— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) November 16, 2017
- Here is a new name to add to your Russiagate scorecard: Russian Lt. Gen. Leonid Reshetnikov. His interview with the Daily Beast goes well beyond a denial that Russia interfered with the 2016 election and is well worth your complete attention.
Meanwhile, the Russiagate observers we trust the most tell us there is likely to be what Benjamin Wittes calls a big “boom” (or two, or more) coming before the turkey hits the table next Thursday. Stay tuned…
