Trump told Russian officials in 2017 he wasn't concerned about Moscow's interference in U.S. electio

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

President Trump told two senior Russian officials in a 2017 Oval Office meeting that he was unconcerned about Moscow's interference in the U.S. election because the United States did the same in other countries, an assertion that prompted alarmed White House officials to limit access to the remarks to an unusually small number of people, according to three former officials with knowledge of the matter.

The comments, which have not been previously reported, were part of a now-infamous meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, in which Trump revealed highly classified information that exposed a source of intelligence on the Islamic State. He also said during the meeting that firing FBI Director James B. Comey the day before had relieved "great pressure" on him.

A memorandum summarizing the meeting was limited to all but a few officials with the highest security clearances in an attempt to keep the president's comments from being disclosed publicly, according to the former officials, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

The White House's classification of records about Trump's communications with foreign officials is now a central part of the impeachment inquiry launched this week by House Democrats. An intelligence community whistleblower has alleged that the White House placed a record of Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukraine's president, in which he offered U.S. assistance investigating his political opponents, into a code-word classified system reserved for the most sensitive intelligence information. The White House did not provide a comment Friday.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/trump-told-russian-officials-in-2017-he-wasnt-concerned-about-moscows-interference-in-us-election/2019/09/27/b20a8bc8-e159-11e9-b199-f638bf2c340f_story.html

---

Full headline: Trump told Russian officials in 2017 he wasn't concerned about Moscow's interference in U.S. election



EDIT to add - Chris Hayes now has this story and is about to talk about it after the commercial.

[Zorro]

1. And the Republican Party stands with him on this

"Who cares if our biggest adversary undermines our democratic processes? Not us"!

[TheRealNorth]

6. Only as long as the treasonous Republican Party benefits

If it were a Dem, that Dem would have been drawn and quartered by now.

[Botany]

2. It never has stopped with that mother fucker because it turns out that some of the Ukrainian ....

players that Trump/Rudy/Pence has some kind of interactions w/were also in touch w/pro putin
Russian forces and the rat fucking of our 2016 elections.

"... had interfered in the 2016 Presidential election ..." top of page 5

This goes way beyond the 2019 Trump/Zelenskyy phone calls


Now how were these factions in the Ukraine connected to Putin, the FSB, Alfa Bank, Cambridge Analytica, Manafort, Brad Parscale, and the Trump Campaign?


https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=12505237 Whistleblower complaint

[demmiblue]

3. Preet Bharara: It is all going to come out. All of it. The dam has broken.

Link to tweet

[Shaddox]

4. How can this not be the end?

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Don't underestimate the power of

$$$$$$$$$

Although if those who have been funding this criminal organization realize that this path has gone awry, they will cut their losses and cut them loose.

[LovingA2andMI]

7. Can We Call These Modern Day Republicans For What They Are....

Treasonous Traitors to the United States of America.

[ffr]

10. +63,000,000

Fake patriots.

[elleng]

11. Modern Day Republicans

Treasonous Traitors

[ffr]

8. That sounds like the Russians are done with him.

I cannot wait for the Kompromat to fully come bursting out.

[Yoopy]

21. Putin still loves him

The memo was written by US officials.

[SergeStorms]

9. No! Really?

I'm aghast I tell you! Aghast!

[world wide wally]

12. Yes collusion

Yes collusion

[ffr]

13. Which is really strange timing, given the other key coincidence in this UKR scandal

Julia Davis - On May 13th Russian state TV reported that no US officials would be attending the inauguration in Ukraine, on direct orders from Trump. According to the #WhistleblowerComplaint, on May 14th Trump ordered Pence not to attend. How did the Russians know that?

Link to tweet

[BumRushDaShow]

14. That story has been making the rounds today

Truly wild!

[marybourg]

15. I don't watch TV, except for special events,

and I turn down the volume on the radio or internet radio nearly every time I hear tRump’s voice, but even I heard tRump say exactly what was informally quoted in the first two lines of the OP. He said it as soon as the charges of Russian interference were made. I heard him. I don’t know why it’s now being characterized as “ not previously reported “.

[BumRushDaShow]

18. The "not previously reported"

has to do with an actual "memorandum" of the conversations and these conversations are being kept in a high-level secret server- not just the soundbites that have been played in the media for 2 years from a few blips of "open door" remarks he made before the U.S. media was shut out of the rest of the meeting.

Also, from what I recall, the infamous photos of Trump with the Russians were NOT pics from American media. They were the pictures taken by the Russian media who were allowed in the room for creating the photo ops (American media were not allowed in) -

Trump's meeting with Russians closed to U.S. media, but not to TASS photographer

Doug Stanglin, USATODAY Published 5:26 p.m. ET May 10, 2017 | Updated 5:53 p.m. ET May 10, 2017

At a time of strain between the White House and the media over coverage of the new administration, reporters raised questions Wednesday as to why a photographer from the Russian media, but not the U.S. press, was apparently allowed into an Oval Office meeting between President Trump and Russian officials.

The issue surfaced after photos of the meeting, including Trump shaking hands with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and controversial Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak, appeared in the Russian media. The images were taken by a photographer from TASS, the Russian state-owned new agency.

The issue was further inflamed by the presence of Kislyak, who has been at the center of several controversies involving administration officials, including now fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The Russian embassy even tweeted a photograph of Trump smiling broadly as he put his arm around the diplomat while shaking his hand in the Oval Office.

Flynn was fired in February for lying to Vice President Mike Pence by denying that he had discussed the issue of U.S. sanctions with Kislyak. Sessions recused himself from any investigations involving the Trump administration and Russia after acknowledging that he had failed to tell senators during his confirmation hearing that he had met previously with he diplomat.

<...>

Link to tweet

TEXT
Russia in USA 🇷🇺
✔
@RusEmbUSA

Ambassador Kislyak and President Trump / Посол С.Кисляк и Президент Д.Трамп
View image on Twitter
1,474
11:11 AM - May 10, 2017

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/05/10/trumps-meeting-russians-closed-us-media-but-not-tass-photographer/101520384/

[Kid Berwyn]

16. We wouldn't have known, if not for TASS.

In the Oval Office in the merry month of May 2017

President Trump gestures to Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, as he speaks to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Oval Office on Wednesday, May 10, 2017. (Alexander Shcherbak/TASS/Getty Images)

“I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job," Trump said, according to The Times. "I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off.”



"I'm not under investigation," he added.

Sources:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/10/527755991/trump-meets-with-russias-lavrov-at-the-white-house-today

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-nut-job-james-comey-russia-2017-5

[dalton99a]

20. +1

[DesertRat]

17. k&r

[dalton99a]

19. "Trump also seemed to invite Russia to interfere in other countries' elections"

It is not clear whether a memo documenting the May 10, 2017, meeting with Lavrov and Kislyak was placed into that system, but the three former officials said it was restricted to a very small number of people. The White House had recently begun limiting the records of Trump’s calls after remarks he made to the leaders of Mexico and Australia appeared in news reports. The Lavrov memo was restricted to an even smaller group, the former officials said.

White House officials were particularly distressed by Trump’s election remarks because it appeared the president was forgiving Russia for an attack that had been designed to help elect him, the three former officials said. Trump also seemed to invite Russia to interfere in other countries’ elections, they said.

According to the fourth former official, Trump lamented to Lavrov that “all this Russia stuff” was detrimental to good relations. Trump also complained, “I could have a great relationship with you guys, but you know, our press,” this former official said, characterizing the president’s remarks.

H.R. McMaster, the president’s then-national security adviser, repeatedly told Trump he could not trust the Russians, according to two former officials.

“What was difficult to understand was how they got a free pass on a lot of things — election security and so forth,” this former official said. “He was just very accommodating to them.”

The former official observed that Trump has “that streak of moral equivalency,” recalling how he once dismissed a question about the assassination of journalists and dissidents in Putin’s Russia by telling Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly, “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?”

Another former official said Trump wasn’t the only one to conflate Russia’s interference in the U.S. elections with U.S. efforts to promote democracy and good governance abroad.

The president and his top aides seemed not to understand the difference between Voice of America, a U.S.-supported news organization that airs in foreign countries, with Russian efforts to persuade American voters by surreptitiously planting ads in social media, this person said.

One former senior official said Trump regularly defended Russia’s actions, even in private, saying no country is pure. “He was always defensive of Russia,” this person said, adding the president had never made such a specific remark about interference in their presence.

“He thought the whole interference thing was ridiculous. He never bought into it.”

[Yoopy]

22. This should be included in the impeachment articles

This is not Trump denying Russian interference.
This is Trump encouraging them to do it again in future elections.

[littlemissmartypants]

23. Welcome to DU. nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

24. Of course he wasn't concerned

He benefitted.

[ck4829]

25. K&R