Trump: Russian Collusion
Despite 4 investigations, and multiple Democrats (Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Maxine Waters, NYT) claim evidence of collusion. Dianne Feinstein and Jim Himes both refuted that, saying they haven't seen any evidence of collusion at all.
We've seen evidence of:
- the DNC and the media colluding to get Hillary in the Whitehouse
- the FBI and the media colluding to undermine the President elect
- Paul Manafort was charged for working with Democrats, pre-election
- George Papadopoulos was caught claiming a meeting date wrong
- Michael Flynn was illegally unmasked by the Obama administration, and may be the first politician ever to be prosecuted under the 1799 Logan Act, for talking to Russians after Trump had won the election, but 3 weeks before he took his oath of office... about not over-reacting to Lame-Duck Obama's throwing out of diplomats.
- Donald Trump Jr. - after media histrionics, it turns out he took a meeting with a couple Russians to talk about their strong dislike of the Magnitsky Act. (Nothing to do with the election).
Adam Schiff (D) tried to tie Trump to Russia, but all he does is show that 2 years in, how shrill and irresponsible the Democrats and the media have been.
Paul Manafort
Charges have been brought against Paul Manafort, charged with crimes unrelated to his brief (2 month) time as Trump’s campaign chair -- back when Manefort was working with Tony Podesta (the brother of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta), and Tony was doing the same thing as Paul, but Tony has yet to be charged.
George Papadopoulos
George Papadopoulos was a foreign policy advisor for the Trump campaign. Papadopoulos met with a Russian “professor” (March 14, 2016), who later introduced him to Vladimir Putin’s “niece,” (April 26, 2016), and the professor told Papadopoulos the Russian government had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton in the form of some of her 30 thousands deleted emails (that alleged to show illegal trades with Russia).
Papadopoulos talked about setting up high-level meetings (between Trump and Putin), but absolutely nothing came from this. And if anything had, it probably wouldn't have been illegal. (The only reason they investigate this, is to see if Trump has lied about it, not because it was actually a crime).
Mueller charged Papadopoulos with lying to the FBI, for the high crime of claiming this meeting had occurred "before he was made a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign", when it had actually occurred after the Trump campaign had decided on Papadopoulos... but before he had been officially announced. (So he wasn't officially acting in this capacity, yet).
Michael Flynn
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn, was interviewed by #NeverTrumper Peter Strzok (who said we had to win against Trump, by any means necessary). They concluded Flynn had violated the Logan Act (something signed into law by John Adams in 1799 and has never been enforced, ever), by communicating with the Russian ambassador during the “transition” period (after Trump’s election but before the inauguration). Which is something we actually want administrations to do, to ensure smooth transfer of power.
And what was this earth shattering communication about? He asked Russia to delay a vote condemning Israel for settlements, and to not “escalate” after the Obama administration imposed last-minute sanctions on Russia. Both were efforts by the Obama administration to torch relationships with foreign powers, to make it harder for Trump to work with them. The Obama prosecutors claim that was “conspiring secretly” with the Russians. (Again, having nothing to do with Trump or the election).
And how did anyone even know about this conversation? Because Flynn’s identity was illegally unmasked, in an abuse of power. (We can tape foreign officials, but must redact American ones -- so they couldn't have known it was Flynn, without violating his rights and due process). So there's a real crime here, but it's by the Obama administration's unmasking.
Donald Trump Jr.
Donald Trump Jr. took a meeting with a Russian lawyer (Natalia Veselnitskaya and Rinat Akhmetshin) who implied they had information on one of Hillary Clinton's many crimes in Russia. Being curious if they really did have evidence of those crimes (that the media still has had no interest in looking into), Trump Jr. took the meeting. Not only was this not a crime, but no info was exchanged -- instead the Russians talked about their quest for a repeal of the Magnitsky Act (a law passed to punish Kremlin associates because of the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky).
Those Russian lawyers, were working with Fusion GPS... the same firm the DNC and Hillary Clinton’s campaign paid to come up with “evidence” of Trump and Russia collusion, and had invented now-disproven stories about a secret server communicating with Russia in Trump Tower, or that gave Democrats’ money to former British spook Chris Steele, who possibly gave the money to alleged or former Russian intelligence agents, to create the infamous and discredited Trump-Russia dossier (a document that claimed Trump was under Putin’s thumb due to blackmail that involved prostitutes performing abnormal sex acts / water-sports) in a Moscow hotel.
Conclusion
After a couple years, about 10 scoops by the media that all turned out to be nothing but repeating DNC talking points, and were later discredited, you think the public would be getting wise.
Who knows, maybe there's something there. But we sure haven't seen it. What we've seen is a few people railroaded for political reasons, or things unrelated to the Trump Russia investigation. We've seen lots of abuses of power: by the Democrats. And an incredible double-standard by the media in showing no interest in the Hillary side of things, and a fascination that Trump didn't do anything as bad as the Democrats did.
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