While everyone was rightfully distracted by Greg Gianforte news last night, more Russia bombshells continued to drop. In the past 24 hours, we learned that last summer, top Russian officials boasted of their various ways to influence Donald Trump through former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and disgraced National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. In addition, it was also reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions failed to disclose his meetings with Russian officials on his security clearance form.
“For an administration that claims they’ve got nothing to hide, they do an awful lot of hiding and lying,” said American Bridge spokesperson Sabrina Singh. “It’s now looking more and more like people in Trump’s orbit may have colluded with Russian officials to rig our election last year, and the FBI must get to the bottom of this immediately. Anyone who broke the law must be held accountable.”
The New York Times: Top Russian Officials Discussed How to Influence Trump Aides Last Summer
- “American spies collected information last summer revealing that senior Russian intelligence and political officials were discussing how to exert influence over Donald J. Trump through his advisers, according to three current and former American officials familiar with the intelligence. The conversations focused on Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman at the time, and Michael T. Flynn, a retired general who was advising Mr. Trump, the officials said…. Some Russians boasted about how well they knew Mr. Flynn. Others discussed leveraging their ties to Viktor F. Yanukovych, the deposed president of Ukraine living in exile in Russia, who at one time had worked closely with Mr. Manafort.”
CNN: AG Sessions did not disclose Russia meetings in security clearance form, DOJ says
- “Attorney General Jeff Sessions did not disclose meetings he had last year with Russian officials when he applied for his security clearance, the Justice Department told CNN Wednesday. Sessions, who met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at least two times last year, didn’t note those interactions on the form, which requires him to list ‘any contact’ he or his family had with a ‘foreign government’ or its ‘representatives’ over the past seven years, officials said.”
Published: May 25, 2017