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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDavid Corn: How the Mueller News Is an Indictment of...Donald Trump and His GOP Enablers
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/07/how-the-mueller-news-is-an-indictment-of-donald-trump-and-his-gop-enablers/How the Mueller News Is an Indictment of Donald Trump and His GOP Enablers
The special counsels charges reinforce what we already know: Trump aided an attack on America.
David Corn
Jul. 13, 2018 5:15 PM
The latest news from special counsel Robert Mueller is a stunning indictment of President Donald Trump and his Republican minions.
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For some of us, this indictment of the Russian cyber spies comes as no surprise. It has long been expected. Government bodies, media outlets, and cybersecurity firms have documented the Russian operation and described it as part of a wide-ranging Russian assault on the US political system. Many reportersincluding mehave been fixated on all this for nearly two years. Michael Isikoff and I wrote an entire book on the subject: Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putins War on America and the Election of Donald Trump. My colleagues at Mother Jones have maintained an extensive Trump-Russia timeline. The New York Times and the Washington Post shared a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the Russia connection. Yet many Republicans and conservatives have continued to avert their eyes from the matterarguably the greatest political scandal in American history. Instead, Trump, Fox Newsers, and lapdog congressional GOPers claimed that tangential and phony issuesunmasking, surveillance warrants, Trump being wiretappedand a nefarious deep-state plot against Trump comprised the true scandal. And, too often, media outlets have taken the bait and chased after these concocted narratives.
Yet the new indictment is a reminderunfortunately, a much-needed reminderof, well, reality. In detail, it depicts how the (alleged) attack transpired. The specifics are revelatory. The indictment quotes messages WikiLeaks (identified in the document as Organization 1) allegedly sent to Guccifer 2.0the internet entity set up by Russian military intelligence to disseminate the Democratic National Committee emails stolen by Moscows hackersas WikiLeaks tried to obtain these documents so it could post them shortly before the Democratic convention to hurt Clinton and benefit Trump. It confirms that Roger Stoneidentified as a person who was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign of Donald J. Trumpwas in contact with Guccifer 2.0 during the campaign. (In August 2016, he and Breitbart published a piece in which Stone insisted Guccifer 2.0 was indeed what this persona claimed to be: a lone Romanian hacker. The bottom line: Stone and Breitbart actively assisted a Russian disinformation operation conducted to camouflage an attack on the United States.)
Though the indictment does not address this particular issue, it does indirectly cast light on the sin that Trump and his henchmen have been trying to hide: They helped this Russian operation by repeatedly insisting it wasnt happening. The main question in this scandal is not whether there was outright collusion between Trump and the indicted Russian intelligence operatives. (Who seriously believes that Trump told Viktor Borisovich Netyksho or the 11 other indicted Russians what DNC documents to pilfer or how to release them?) Trumps already proven transgression is that during the campaign he kept insisting Russia was not engaged in this wrongdoingeven after he was told in a briefing by US intelligence that Moscow was mounting this assault. Trumps echoing of Moscows own denials helped a foreign adversary as it sought to covertly influence an American election.
For a long time, I and others have contended this is the foundation of the Trump-Russia affair. (Over a year ago, I went through how Trump and his crew assisted and encouraged Moscow.) Yet Trump and his acolytes have sought to draw notice away from this profound act of betrayal. Their mission: to prevent thorough consideration of the Russian attack and Trumps role in the cover-up. After all, these are misdeeds that do raise questions about Trumps legitimacy as presidentor, at least, his ability and willingness to fulfill his No. 1 responsibility: protect the nation.
Muellers indictment, perfectly timed for Trumps upcoming summit with Putin, inhibits Trumps self-serving effort to make the Trump-Russia scandal vanish. It undercuts his attemptsand those of his amen chorusto move past his treachery. It places the Russian attack in the spotlight and rings a bell on Trump. In between the lines, the indictment presents a grave charge: Trump abetted a serious Russian operation to undermine an American election. It also conveys an important message: This story is not over yet.
dalton99a
(81,485 posts)Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)they are aiding and abetting America's enemy - the Evil Empire that reagan warned them about. Why are republicans pissing on ronald reagan? Why are they so willing to betray America?
dlk
(11,564 posts)They were only too happy to sell out our country in their quest to amass even more dollars. They are all traitors and dont deserve to be Americans.
FakeNoose
(32,638 posts)But they're not doing it. They're pretending to see nothing, even though the truth is right in front of them.
Why is just about everyone in the GOP doing this? Because they're complicit and they share in his guilt.
It's all premeditated, they're all in on it.
uponit7771
(90,336 posts)tecelote
(5,122 posts)No one else could do that and get away with it.
Lock him up to Make America Great Again.
Solly Mack
(90,765 posts)They funded Breitbart. Bannon worked with Breitbart.
Another connection along with Cambridge Analytical = Stephen Bannon/Robert Mercer/Rebekah Mercer
Just a reminder.