(THREAD) BREAKING: The NYT has published a bombshell report on George Papadopoulos—the biggest Trump-Russia news since Flynn's plea. This thread dissects the new revelations—as well as some major implications for the Trump-Russia collusion narrative. I hope you'll read and share. http://pic.twitter.com/vHDvlxkqsF— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) December 30, 2017
1/ First, here's the article. The NYT foregrounds the story's significance as a rebuttal of Trump's claims the Russia investigation began with the Steele Dossier. But in fact, anyone who knows criminal investigations knew long ago Trump's claim was untrue. https://t.co/ZFdHyHkNFg— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) December 31, 2017
2/ As has been discussed by @AshaRangappa_, the Steele Dossier alone would never have been enough to earn the FBI the July 2016 FISA warrant it was granted to monitor Carter Page. So attorneys and those in intelligence long ago knew the Dossier didn't launch the probe by itself.— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) December 31, 2017
3/ The NYT story gives us—it appears—an additional piece of the warrant application the FBI filed to get a FISA warrant in July '16. But again, this is merely a piece—as was the Dossier. We know multiple intelligence agencies, not just Australia's, provided the FBI with evidence.— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) December 31, 2017
4/ So Trump's claim that the FBI grabbed a dossier of raw intelligence it hadn't yet confirmed and ran to the FISA court to secure a warrant to wiretap Americans connected to the Trump campaign has been laughably false from Day 1. And media has not done enough to underscore that.— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) December 31, 2017
5/ What we learn from the NYT (though again it's not—contrary to what the NYT seems to believe from its headline—what makes today's breaking news significant) is that the Australians informed U.S. law enforcement in July 2016 that Papadopoulos had made covert contact with Russia.— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) December 31, 2017
6/ In fact, while today's NYT story is indeed this month's second-biggest Trump-Russia revelation—after the December 1 guilty plea by Mike Flynn—what makes it significant isn't that it rebuts Trump's false claims but that it may have *sealed the Trump-Russia collusion narrative*.— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) December 31, 2017
7/ If the NYT understood this, it would've led with it. But one must know the *prior* reporting on Papadopoulos to understand why today's news constitutes one of the biggest revelations in the 18-monthy history of the Trump-Russia probe. So I'll *briefly* summarize what we know.— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) December 31, 2017
8/ On September 22—40 days before we learned Papadopoulos was cooperating with the Mueller probe—I said that he had directly identified himself to Trump as a Kremlin agent in March 2016. This led to major-media coverage of the now-infamous "TIHDC meeting." https://t.co/SP0zDTX7Rh— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) December 31, 2017
9/ It hadn't previously been discussed that Papadopoulos was at the first meeting of Trump's national security (NatSec) team at the Trump International Hotel in DC (TIHDC) on March 31, 2016. But he was there—a *week* after revealing himself as a Kremlin agent to the NatSec team.— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) December 31, 2017
This thread goes on to include about 30 tweets, so I am not going to post them all.10/ So when (per the NYT) Papadopoulos revealed in May '16 to an Australian diplomat that he knew Russia had committed major federal crimes against the U.S.—via computer theft and fraud—it was two months after he told Trump's NatSec team *and Trump* he was in contact with Russia.— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) December 31, 2017
However if you have read this far you are likely very intrigued and I suggest you click the top tweet and read the entire thread.
I think that Abramson makes some very astute points, and if his assertions are correct Mueller is going to be dropping the mother of all bombs on the Trump Administration sometime this year.
2018 may see this country's first popcorn shortage.
Source http://ift.tt/2CkFFkT
