Another member of Donald Trumps campaign tried to reach out to Russia: report
Each time President Donald Trump says there’s nothing to the allegations that his presidential campaign colluded last year with Russians to topple Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, more information seems to emerge indicating otherwise.
The Washington Post reported Monday that its reporters have seen emails from a low-level campaign aide indicating his efforts to set up meetings with Russian leaders, including President Vladimir Putin himself.
The documents are part of a 20,000-page trove turned over by the Trump campaign to congressional committees investigating Trump’s Russia ties. The emails were vetted by campaign lawyers.
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The aide was identified as George Papadopoulos. According to unnamed sources that spoke to the newspaper, the communications raised concern among Trump campaign officials, and advisers questioned the legality of such a move.
“We thought we probably should not go forward with any meeting with the Russians until we have had occasion to sit with our NATO allies,” Trump campaign co-chair Sam Clovis wrote in a response.
But Papadopoulos endured by making repeated attempts between March and September to pitch the idea of setting up the meetings to discuss Russian relations with the U.S. should Trump win the presidency.
Steven L. Hall, a retired CIA official, told the Post the communications between Russians and Papadopoulos could have been part of a general fishing expedition by Moscow to find ways into the Trump campaign in order to influence the U.S. elections.
“The bottom line is that there’s no doubt in my mind that the Russian government was casting a wide net when they were looking at the American election,” Hall told the Post. “I think they were doing very basic intelligence work: Who’s out there? Who’s willing to play ball? And how can we use them?”
http://www.salon.com/2017/08/15/another-member-of-donald-trumps-campaign-tried-to-reach-out-to-russia-report/
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