Former Department of Homeland Security executive director, Miles Taylor, was the focus of a stunning anti-Trump ad Monday. The video above is a followup, honing in on the threat from Russia-- whether with Trump's connivance or not-- to election integrity in our country. At the bottom of the page there's a clip of Taylor talking with Jake Tapper yesterday about an entirely different matter: Trump's inability to focus on deadly threats to Americans.But this clip is a report from CBS News on the 1,000 page account (Volume V) of the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee's 3 year long investigation into Russia's efforts to "compromise" the 2016 presidential election. This is the final volume and these are the key takeaways:
1- a glaring link between Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who the committee labeled "a grave counterintelligence threat," and Konstantin Kilimnik, a Russian intelligence officer (a spy)2- a network between Roger Stone, wikileaks and the Trump campaign. Trump lied boy his knowledge of this to the Mueller Investigation, a crime that should land him in prison after January, 2021. The report specifies that "Despite Trump's recollection, the committee assesses that Trump did, in fact, speak with Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his campaign about Stone's access (to the group) on multiple occasions."3- Trump, Jr. could get the cell next door at least in part because of the meeting he set up with Russian spy Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower (a meeting Kushner also participated in): "it was the intent of the campaign participants in the meeting, particularly Donald Trump Jr., to receive derogatory information that would be of benefit to the campaign from a source known... to have connections to the Russian government." The Committee found that the offer of information was part of a "broader influence operation targeting the United States that was coordinated, at least in part, with elements of the Russian government."
A trio of reporters from the Washington Post wrote that "The long-awaited report from the Senate Intelligence Committee contains dozens of new findings that appear to show more direct links between Trump associates and Russian intelligence, and it pierces the president’s long-standing attempts to dismiss the Kremlin’s intervention on his behalf as a hoax... At one point, the document concludes that members of Trump’s transition team probably fell prey to Russian manipulation that they were too callow to recognize. Kremlin operatives 'were capable of exploiting the transition team’s shortcomings,' the report said. 'Based on the available information, it is possible-- and even likely-- that they did so.' ... The committee determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally directed the hack-and-leak campaign.
The document describes Trump and associates of his campaign as often incapable of candor. It offers new proof that former national security adviser Michael Flynn lied about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, raises troubling questions about Manafort’s decision to squander a plea agreement with prosecutors by lying to Mueller’s team, and accuses Blackwater founder Erik Prince of “deceptive” accounts of his meetings with a Russian oligarch in the Seychelles weeks before Trump was sworn into office.The overall portrait that emerges from the report’s 966 pages is of repeated collisions between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives, but no formal collusion. The two sides shared the same objective-- the defeat of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton-- and basked in one another’s admiration. But more because of ineptitude than any principled commitment to the sanctity of American democracy, the partnership was never consummated, the committee determined.The report is the last of five installments in the Senate probe that confirm the broad outlines presented in 2017 by U.S. intelligence agencies: that Russia waged a massive campaign of cyber-intrusions and social media disinformation at first to disrupt the 2016 election, then to try to sway its outcome.The document would read more like a harrowing historical account were it not for mounting evidence that many of the same forces of disruption are lining up again for the 2020 election. The top U.S. counterintelligence official recently warned that Russia is again waging a far-reaching interference campaign and favors Trump in the upcoming election.The United States has taken some steps to thwart Moscow’s efforts, including a reported effort by the State Department to flood Russian citizens’ cellphones with offers of reward money for information on the Kremlin’s operations.But Trump continues to amplify many of Russia’s divisive messages. Attorney General William P. Barr has intervened in criminal cases against Trump allies Stone and Manafort. And Trump supporters on Capitol Hill, including Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), have reportedly accepted material from Russian-tied sources to discredit Trump’s opponent in November, former vice president Joe Biden....The Intelligence Committee’s report notes that it had made referrals to the Justice Department “for potential criminal activity” suspected during the course of its investigation. As The Washington Post reported late last week, Trump Jr., Kushner and Manafort were among those flagged to federal prosecutors because the committee believed that their testimony was contradicted by information unearthed by Mueller.
Vicente Fox, respected and personable former President of Mexico, knows exactly how unfit Trump is for public office and he put out a brilliant and hilarious spoof ad yesterday that I just could not resist including. I think you'll probably enjoy it as much as I did. Share it with your friends.