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| Remember, all Russia meetings have to go through me. |
Three days after Donald Trump named his campaign foreign policy team in March 2016, the youngest of the new advisers sent an email to seven campaign officials with the subject line: “Meeting with Russian Leadership - Including Putin.”
The adviser, George Papadopoulos, offered to set up “a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump,” telling them his Russian contacts welcomed the opportunity, according to internal campaign emails read to The Washington Post.
The proposal sent a ripple of concern through campaign headquarters in Trump Tower. Campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis wrote that he thought NATO allies should be consulted before any plans were made. Another Trump adviser, retired Navy Rear Adm. Charles Kubic, cited legal concerns, including a possible violation of U.S. sanctions against Russia and of the Logan Act, which prohibits U.S. citizens from unauthorized negotiation with foreign governments.
But Papadopoulos, a campaign volunteer with scant foreign policy experience, persisted. Between March and September, the self-described energy consultant sent at least a half-dozen requests for Trump, as he turned from primary candidate to party nominee, or for members of his team to meet with Russian officials. Among those to express concern about the effort was then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who rejected in May 2016 a proposal from Papadopoulos for Trump to do so.
Not at all surprising that Manafort was the one who put the kibosh on this meeting since clearly this Papadopoulos fellow was acting as if everybody knew that Trump was Putin's little bitch and was not keeping all of this Russia meeting stuff on the DL.
According to the Post these exchanges were found among 20,000 emails that were turned over to the congressional committees investigating Trump's connections with Russia.
So clearly it appears that Jeff Sessions has not stopped any of the leaks, and it also appears that neither a White Supremacist riot nor a potential war with North Korea is going to distract the media from what will likely be the biggest story of the decade.
That's certainly good to know.
Source http://ift.tt/2uLGyve
