In the weeks after he became the Republican nominee on July 19, 2016, Donald Trump was warned that foreign adversaries, including Russia, would probably try to spy on and infiltrate his campaign, according to multiple government officials familiar with the matter.
The warning came in the form of a high-level counterintelligence briefing by senior FBI officials, the officials said. A similar briefing was given to Hillary Clinton, they added. They said the briefings, which are commonly provided to presidential nominees, were designed to educate the candidates and their top aides about potential threats from foreign spies.
The candidates were urged to alert the FBI about any suspicious overtures to their campaigns, the officials said.
Seems pretty cut and dried don't you think?
If you see something, say something.
So did the Trump campaign do that ?
What do you think?
Trump would have been told, "If you see these kinds of contacts please let us know about them so we can keep you updated on the threat picture," said Frank Montoya, a former FBI counterintelligence agent and supervisor who retired in 2016.
The situation was complicated by the fact that the FBI had already become aware of contacts between members of the Trump campaign and Russia, and was beginning to investigate further. Former CIA Director John Brennan has said he told the FBI about a pattern of contacts the CIA observed between members of the Trump team and Russians, and former FBI Director James Comey said the bureau then began investigating in July 2016.
Montoya and other former FBI officials told NBC News the FBI would not have wanted to compromise that investigation by saying too much in the counterintelligence briefing of Trump.
By the time of the warning in late July or August, at least seven Trump campaign officials had been in contact with Russians or people linked to Russia, according to public reports. There is no public evidence that the campaign reported any of that to the FBI.
This kind of puts all of the numerous meetings between the members of the Trump campaign and the Russians into an entirely new light.
They KNEW they were being targeted by the Russians, and instead of being cautious about any contacts with Russians connected to the Kremlin, they seemed to have been eager to meet with them multiple times.
And now it appears that Trump is pushing to close the investigations down as soon as possible so that he can go back to being Putin's number one asset.
Courtesy of WaPo:
White House lawyers are expected to meet with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s office late this week seeking good news: that his sprawling investigation’s focus on President Trump will soon end and their client will be cleared.
But people familiar with the probe say that such assurances are unlikely and that the meeting could trigger a new, more contentious phase between the special counsel and a frustrated president, according to administration officials and advisers close to Trump.
People with knowledge of the investigation said it could last at least another year — pointing to ongoing cooperation from witnesses such as former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, as well as a possible trial of two former Trump campaign officials. The special counsel’s office has continued to request new documents related to the campaign, and members of Mueller’s team have told others they expect to be working through much of 2018, at a minimum.
Yeah that meeting's definitely not going to go over well.
And I think Trump suspects as much which is why he has now shifted his focus away from Mueller and toward Mueller's boss.
Courtesy of The Hill:
President Trump has referred to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Robert Mueller as the special counsel for the Russia probe, as “a threat to his presidency,” according to a report in The Washington Post.
The report, published Sunday, said Trump has referred to Rosenstein as “weak” and made fun of the deputy attorney general’s testimony last week in front of the House Judiciary Committee.
The president has also complained about Rosenstein being “a Democrat," although the Justice Department official is actually a Republican, the Post said.
So since Trump cannot fire Mueller directly, he will fire that guy who appointed him Special Counsel, and make that guy fire Mueller instead.
So I'm guessing that Trump has NOT watched "All the President's Men?"
Clearly Trump and his Kremlin handler want this thing to go away quickly so that they can continue dismantling America so that Russia can take its place as the new lone superpower in the world.
I mean let's face it, THAT is what is really happening here.
Source http://ift.tt/2oM88tN
