HERE is your collusion with Russia, Donald!
Late last night, BuzzFeed broke this little nugget of news:
A direct line of communication between the Kremlin-connected Agalarov family and the Trump family was open during the transition after President Donald Trump’s presidential election, BuzzFeed News has learned.
The “first of a series” of text messages was sent between Emin Agalarov and Donald Trump Jr. two days after the 2016 election, a source familiar with the communications told BuzzFeed News.
The communications continued through at least mid-December 2016, according to information made public Friday.
It is not clear how many messages were sent, whether Trump Jr. sent any of them, or how many were sent by either party — although BuzzFeed News confirmed that multiple messages were sent.
Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee revealed one of the text messages, from Dec. 13, 2016, in their “minority views” report on Friday — one of several new pieces of information that suggest that the Trumps’ relationship with the Agalarovs was much closer than the president and his family have said.
I guess that means Fredo Trump Jr. and Jared didn’t need that Russian Embassy back channel after all!
The Agiolarovs have a history of giving generous bribes… ahem, “gifts” to the Trumps.
Aras Agalarov, the Russian oligarch that arranged the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting, gave President Donald Trump an expensive painting for his birthday following the confab — and the president later sent him a message thanking him.
This anecdote was, as CNN noted Friday, one of the new pieces of information contained in a report released by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee dissenting from the document released by the GOP majority at the end of their Russia investigation. The information came from an email sent by British producer Rod Goldstone, the man who organized the meeting itself. It was sent to Trump’s personal assistant, Rhona Graff.
Plus, there is this additional late-breaking detail from Friday night:
Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn met with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. in December 2015, months after Flynn first met then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, according to a Republican congressional report.
The previously unknown meeting, which was also attended by Flynn’s son, took place at Ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s Washington, D.C., residence on Dec. 2, 2015, according to a declassified report on Russian election meddling compiled by the GOP-controlled House Intelligence Committee.
Are you familiar with the term “smoking gun”? What was that about “no collusion,” Uncle Dotard?
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