PART 01

 

There is ample evidence indicating collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

 

Let's begin our journey with George Papadapoulos. This Trump campaign foreign policy advisor, who has plead guilty to charges laid out by Special Counsel Mueller's investigation, provides a timeline of events. He was offered dirt on Hillary Clinton by a mysterious professor with ties to Russia.^[1] The Trump campaign knew of hacked emails before Trump made his rally speech in which he asked Russia to release their collection of hacked emails.^[2] Special Counsel Mueller's indictment of Papadapoulos listed him as a proactive cooperator - the implication being that Papadopoulos might have engaged with his former colleagues on behalf of investigators.^[3] Professor Mifsud, the individual with ties to Russia that had met with Papadapoulos offering dirt on Clinton, has since gone missing.^[4]

 

After Papadapoulos was offered dirt, top Trump campaign officials met with Russian operatives. Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, and Trump Jr. were present at the infamous Trump Tower meeting where adoptions were discussed with Russian operatives.^[5] Adoptions is an established euphemism used in reference to the Magnitsky Act, sanctions that are meant to cripple the power of Putin.^[6] President Trump's son, son-in-law, and Campaign Manager met with Russians with the expectation of receiving damaging information about Clinton.^[7] One of the Russian operatives present at the meeting, Rinat Akhmetshin, has ties to Russian intelligence and has a history of being embroiled in court cases related to hacking campaigns.^[8] During Fusion GPS CEO Glenn Simpson's Congressional testimony he confirmed that the Trump campaign likely received foreign intelligence aid as Manafort had close ties to Russian Intelligence.^[9]

 

We know Manafort was in contact with Russian Oligarch Oleg Deripaska during the campaign. We know Paul Manafort offered to give the Russian billionaire private briefings on the Trump campaign trail.^[10] Manafort used a campaign account for the aforementioned email correspondence.^[11] According to videos recorded by an escort that were discovered by Russian opposition activist, Alexei Navalny, show Deripaska meeting a Russian Deputy Prime Minister on a yacht 1 month after the email correspondence between Manafort and Deripaska took place, the United States came up as a topic of discussion.^[12] Russia has threatened to block access to social media sites, such as YouTube and Instagram, if they do not remove the videos of Deripaska and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Prikhodko meeting on the yacht.^[13]

 

Now here's another avenue of possible collusion, Roger Stone.^[14] While Roger Stone has attempted to downplay his communication with Guccifer 2.0, he has admitted to have been in contact with the DNC hacking suspect.^[15] According to the Daily Beast report, US investigators have found out that Guccifer 2.0 is a Russia Intelligence Officer that worked for the GRU.^[16] The discovery was made because the Russian officer forgot to use a VPN while logging into Twitter and Wordpress. Last month investigative journalists discovered direct contact made between Roger Stone and Wikileaks.^[17] We also know that Special Counsel Mueller has been asking questions about whether or not President Trump knew of the hacked DNC emails before they were released. They've asked about the relationship between GOP operative Roger Stone and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and why Trump took policy positions favorable to Russia.^[18] WikiLeaks can be considered an extension of Russia's 2016 disinformation campaign,^[19] we knew that WikiLeaks shared material hacked by the GRU^[20] before The Daily Beast report was released.

 

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1) The Hill - Timeline: Campaign knew Russia had Clinton emails months before Trump 'joke'

2) CNN - Papadopoulos' guilty plea visualized: From Russian contact to arrest

3) The Atlantic - What Is a 'Proactive Cooperator'?

4) The Daily Beast - Professor at Center of Trump-Russia Probe Goes Missing

5) New York Times - Talking Points Brought to Trump Tower Meeting Were Shared With Kremlin

6) The Atlantic - Why Does the Kremlin Care So Much About the Magnitsky Act?

7) Global News - 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Russians under further scrutiny

8) New York Times - Lobbyist at Trump Campaign Meeting Has a Web of Russian Connections

9) Senate Judiciary Committee - Glenn Simpson Fusion GPS CEO Testimony Pg. 154-155

10) Washington Post - Manafort offered to give Russian billionaire ‘private briefings’ on 2016 campaign

11) Politico - Manafort used Trump campaign account to email Ukrainian operative

12) Telegraph - Oligarch met with top Russian official after Trump aide 'offered briefings'

13) The Guardian - Russian watchdog orders YouTube to remove Navalny luxury yacht video

14) New York Times - Roger Stone, the ‘Trickster’ on Trump’s Side, Is Under F.B.I. Scrutiny

15) Chicago Tribune - Ex-Trump adviser Roger Stone swapped messages with DNC hacking suspect

16) The Daily Beast - ‘Lone DNC Hacker’ Revealed as Russian Intelligence Officer

17) The Atlantic - Roger Stone's Secret Messages with WikiLeaks

18) NBC - Mueller asking if Trump knew about hacked Democratic emails before release

19) Foreign Policy - WikiLeaks Turned Down Leaks on Russian Government During U.S. Presidential Campaign

20) CBS - How did WikiLeaks become associated with Russia?

 

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PART 02

 

There are 2 excuses peddled I often see in response to my sourced comment; Firstly that the Russian hackers would be too intelligent to forget to turn on their VPN, secondly that the Trump campaign receiving dirt on Clinton from Russia is not illegal. Both claims are wrong.

 

To the first point - While the system the Russian hackers use is indeed genius, that doesn't mean it's impervious from human error. In fact here is a CSE report from 2011 that elaborates on that point.^[1] The CSE, Communications Securities Establishment, is Canada's national cryptologic agency that collects foreign signal intelligence in order to inform and alert the Government of Canada to the activities of foreign entities outside Canada.^[2]

 

But a 2011 presentation to the NSA and its foreign partners by Canada’s signals intelligence agency, the Communications Security Establishment, undermines the notion of a foreign hacker so skilled that a victim would never know their identity. The document calls Russian hackers “morons” for routinely compromising the security of a “really well designed” system intended to cover their tracks; for example, the hackers logged into their personal social and email accounts through the same anonymizing system used to attack their targets, comparable to getting an anonymous burner phone for illicit use and then placing calls to your girlfriend, parents, and roommate.

 

And to the second point - In short, what the Trump campaign did could very well be illegal according to Federal Election Commission laws.^[3]

 

Foreigners who aren’t U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents, the argument goes, are barred from providing candidates any “thing of value” in connection with any American election campaign. Campaign staff are barred from soliciting any “thing of value” from such foreigners. And, the argument goes, valuable political information about an opponent’s misdeeds is a “thing of value.” (Hasen notes that the Federal Election Commission has treated some information, such as contact lists, campaign materials, and polling information as a “thing of value.”)

 

Trump Jr. may have broken campaign finance laws if Russia provided illegal campaign contributions, which seems incredibly likely at this point.^[4]

 

Trump Jr. could have run afoul of campaign finance law if Russia was offering an illegal campaign contribution that he agreed to accept. To be considered an illegal campaign contribution, what Russia offered must be considered “of value,” as defined by campaign finance law. There are reasons to question whether simply exchanging information with a foreign national would count.

 

Now how does this differ from the Clinton campaign doing opposition research? We can ascertain the thought that something of value was given to the Trump campaign illegally, as outlined in my comments. A foreign nation was not offering dirt on President Trump, the Clinton campaign went through the correct procedures and hired an American research company, Fusion GPS, to conduct opposition research. Futhermore, Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpson had already begun doing opposition research on Trump during the GOP primary. Fusion GPS was initially hired by Conservative Brian Singer through the Washington Free Beacon. This op-ed does a good job explaining it;^[5]

 

The other answer is more subtle. Adav Noti, who served as a Federal Election Commission lawyer between 2007 and 2017, told me that all of this goes back to the ban on contributions and donations from foreign governments or foreign nationals in federal elections. The law has been on the books since the 1970s, and he said it applies to promises of deleted emails and other kinds of opposition research.

 

"There is a real meaningful distinction," said Noti, who is now senior director of the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan group that monitors election law. "The Clinton campaign, based on what has been reported, paid for opposition research, which included paying people to dig up dirt in foreign countries." Unsavory? Perhaps. But not illegal.

 

Compare that to what we know about George Papadopoulos, a low-level Trump campaign foreign-policy adviser, who has pled guilty to lying to the FBI. The plea agreement, released Monday by Mueller, says Papadopoulos emailed a Russian professor and another Russian contact who promised to turn over Clinton's emails free of charge.

 

Or consider the meeting in the summer of 2016 between Donald Trump Jr. and Russian nationals who reportedly offered to hand over dirt on Clinton. Noti said that if the Trump officials solicited the information, "the act itself was unlawful."

 

Noti cannot be dismissed as a partisan. Last week, his law center filed a formal complaint with the FEC against the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee for filing misleading federal reports that hid the contract with Fusion GPS. "They routed the money through their legal counsel so that no payment showed up on their federal disclosures," Noti said. "The activity was legal, but they misreported it."

 

Glenn Simpson, former Wall Street Journal journalist, is the CEO of Fusion GPS and is American. President Trump and the GOP have repeatedly tried to paint him as someone on the "left", but Simpson is far from that. His previous investigative work has uncovered many Democratic scandals, he has been lauded by the right. He has investigated and brought down many Democratic politicians, including previously investigating the Clintons. It just so happens that he's landed his biggest find, Trump and Russia. When the Conservative Paul Singer and his Washington Free Beacon wanted Trump research, which was then continued by the Clinton campaign, Simpson used his network of contacts to probe President Trump's financial ties to Russia.^[6]

 

I’ve been friends with “Shaggy,” as I dubbed him, ever since. Over the years, I’ve watched him make mischief: exposing the Clintons’ campaign finance abuses, including the “Chinagate” scandal of 1996; scoring a key scoop in the Clinton travel office scandal; bedeviling Clinton financier Terry McAuliffe; and forcing the resignation of James Johnson, a top Obama adviser in 2008, over the Countrywide scandal.

 

... This is the same Journal editorial page that repeatedly praised Simpson’s work when he was bringing down Democrats. It hailed “enterprising reporters such as the Journal’s own Glenn Simpson” for exposing the hypocrisy of the Clinton fundraising operation. Paul Gigot, now editorial page editor, also praised the “enterprising” Simpson for a scoop about Anita Hill. The page cited Simpson’s book on corruption, and even before Simpson came to the Journal, it reprinted and hailed his “illuminating” scoop for Roll Call about Democratic Speaker of the House Tom Foley (Wash.) making money from insider stock tips.

 

... Simpson’s foreign-money investigations infuriated politicians of all stripes. With Jill Abramson (later top editor at the New York Times), he helped break key stories about John Huang, Webb Hubbell and overseas Asian interests giving big campaign gifts to Democrats.

 

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Simpson probed terrorism financing. Then he went to Brussels under Journal bureau chief Peter Fritsch (now his Fusion partner) and became fascinated with Russian money. In March 2007, he wrote to Paul Manafort with a prescient inquiry, saying he had “credible information” that the future Trump campaign manager represented Ukrainian official Viktor Yanukovych without registering as a foreign agent. A decade later, Robert Mueller indicted Manafort over exactly that.

 

At Fusion, Simpson has investigated political money for clients of all persuasions, including a hedge-fund manager and more than a few Trump supporters. So it follows that when conservative Paul Singer’s Washington Free Beacon and then the Democrats wanted Trump research, Simpson used his intelligence contacts from Brussels to probe Trump’s financial ties to Russia.

 

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1) The Intercept - White House Says Russia's Hackers Are Too Good To Be Caught But NSA Partner Called Them "Morons"

2) Government of Canada CSE - What we do and why we do it

3) Washington Post - Can it be a crime to do opposition research by asking foreigners for information?

4) Time - Was Donald Trump Jr.'s Russia Meeting Illegal? Here's What Experts Say

5) Bloomberg - Both Campaigns Sought Russian Dirt. Clinton's Way Was Legal.

6) Washington Post - I know Glenn Simpson. He’s not a Hillary Clinton hit man.

 

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PART 03

 

How do Cambridge Analytica and WikiLeaks play into all of this?

 

Cambridge Analytica wanted to work with Wikileaks, an extension of Russia's disinformation apparatus. Cambridge Analytica^[1] is a data analysis organization that purchases and compiles demographic data on voters and is run by the Mercer family, the CEO was recently caught on camera admitting that they won President Trump the election. Cambridge Analytica were hired by the Trump Campaign.^[2] We know that Cambridge Analytica reached out to Wikileaks during the 2016 presidential election.^[3] Rebekah Mercer wanted to organize the hacked DNC emails.^[4] Cambridge Analytica is under investigation by the Russia probe.^[5] Wikileaks can be considered an extension of Russia's disinformation apparatus,^[6] sharing material hacked by the GRU.^[7]

 

Steve Bannon was a member of the board at Cambridge Analytica until he stepped down and became the campaign Chairman for Trump, later becoming his Chief Strategist in the White House.^[8] Steve Bannon oversaw the collection of Facebook data in 2014 and was the boss of current Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix.^[9]

 

“We had to get Bannon to approve everything at this point. Bannon was Alexander Nix’s boss,” said Wylie, who was Cambridge Analytica’s research director. “Alexander Nix didn’t have the authority to spend that much money without approval.”

 

The Cambridge Analytica whistleblower has come out and said that in 2014 CA was testing slogans, such as drain the swamp and deepstate, the Trump campaign later adopted these slogans.^[10] The Paradise Papers leak confirms that the Mercer family used off-shore money, hidden to avoid taxation, to fund Bannon and attacks on Hillary Clinton.^[11]

 

Their efforts, compounded with Russian interference, helped Donald J. Trump win the presidency of the United States of America. Just to summarize Special Counsel Mueller's indictment of 13 Russians and 3 Russian entitities;^[12] Russian operatives used stolen US identities, travelled across 9 states collecting intelligence, discussed escape routes if they were caught inside the country, bought equipment including burner phones/SIM cards. This operation included hundreds of employees conducting information warfare during the election, it was funded with millions of dollars from the Kremlin. Russia was and is actively pushing propaganda and fake news to create a system that manipulates the narrative using social media sites as conduits for this endeavour. It took less than 80 thousand votes in 3 states to flip the electoral college vote in favour of President Trump.^[13] Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein put it best when he said that Russia was waging information warfare.^[14] This is a Republican who was appointed by President Trump.^[15]

 

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1) Business Insider - Cambridge Analytica bosses were secretly filmed boasting about how they helped Trump win the US election

2) CNN - Trump. Cambridge Analytica. WikiLeaks. The connections, explained.

3) CNN - Trump campaign analytics company contacted WikiLeaks about Clinton emails

4) Wall Street Journal - Trump Donor Asked Data Firm If It Could Better Organize Hacked Emails

5) The Daily Beast - Russia Probe Now Investigating Cambridge Analytica, Trump’s ‘Psychographic’ Data Guru

6) Foreign Policy - WikiLeaks Turned Down Leaks on Russian Government During U.S. Presidential Campaign

7) CBS - How did WikiLeaks become associated with Russia?

8) CNN - Trump. Cambridge Analytica. WikiLeaks. The connections, explained.

9) Washington Post - Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica’s collection of Facebook data, according to former employee

10) CNN - Whistleblower: We tested Trump slogans in 2014

11) The Guardian - Offshore cash helped fund Steve Bannon's attacks on Hillary Clinton

12) Justice Department - indictments against 13 Russian nationals and 3 entities

13) Washington Post - Donald Trump will be president thanks to 80,000 people in three states

14) PBS - WATCH: Rosenstein says 13 Russian nationals committed ‘information warfare against the United States’

15) Politico - Mueller shifts focus back to Russian 'information warfare'

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