Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–December 13, 2016
Initially, official statements about Russian hackers who broke into the DNC as well as private email accounts and released information through WikiLeaks, were careful not to speculate about the reasons behind their actions. Or those activities were attributed to more general attempts to “create doubt about democratic elections.” However, the fresh round of calls for an investigation into the hackers have been focused on intelligence agency conclusions that Russia wasn’t out to simply show it could dominate headlines through a slow drip of information. Russia’s goal was to ‘elect Donald Trump.’
But now President Obama has gone well beyond the idea of Russia working to aid Trump. In a Daily Show interview, the President drew those lines in the other direction..
You had what was very clear relationships between members of the president-elect’s campaign team and Russians, and a professed shared view on a bunch of issues.”
The president’s statement confirms comments made by Russian officials following the election.
Russia said it was in contact with President-elect Donald Trump’s team during the U.S. election campaign, despite repeated denials by the Republican candidate’s advisers that any links existed.
President Obama wasn’t the only one to go past benefited-from to a position closer to colluded-with. Senator Harry Reid drew connections between documents provided through WikiLeaks and the Trump campaign.
Reid … said he was unsure if Trump himself was aware of the activity. But he said people in Trump’s orbit certainly were.
“Someone in the Trump campaign organization was in on the deal. I have no doubt. Now, whether they told [Trump] or not, I don’t know. I assume they did. But there is no question about that,” Reid said in an interview with The Huffington Post. “So there is collusion there, clearly.”
President Obama noted that releasing documents to the press wasn’t exactly a new form of espionage.
Calling the hacked emails “not a particularly fancy brand of espionage or propaganda,” he claimed that “Russia trying to influence our elections dates back to the Soviet Union,” and then explained why he’s ordered a hasty review of Russia’s alleged hacking.
What was different this time around was the attention given the documents. The method in which the documents were obtained was all but ignored in media coverage, while the contents of the documents were not just gone over with a fine-toothed comb, but subject to speculation and given an inflated importance well beyond what the bland contents would suggest.
“The real question that I think we all have to reflect on is this: What has happened to our political system where some emails that were hacked and released ended up being the overwhelming story, and the constant source of coverage… that was depicted as somehow damning in all sorts of ways, when the truth of the matter was it was fairly routine stuff,” said Obama.
“Don’t put blindfolds on,” he said. “Here is the deal: We have a situation where during the campaign, especially the last few months of the campaign, WikiLeaks was heavily involved in trying to hurt Hillary Clinton and it helped Trump. And you have Trump who said he likes Putin better than he likes Obama.”
What were Russian officials saying just two days after the election?
Russian government officials had contacts with members of Donald Trump’s campaign team, a senior Russian diplomat said Thursday. …
“Obviously, we know most of the people from his entourage,” Rybakov said. “… I cannot say that all of them but quite a few have been staying in touch with Russian representatives.”
That Russia hacked the emails is the conclusion of every security firm and intelligence agency that has taken a serious look at the information.
Trump’s organization had numerous connection to Russia, including money coming to Trump himself.
Trump not only made numerous statements praising Putin, but attacked NATO allies, weakened language in the Republican platform concerning Russia’s occupation of Ukraine, and personally called on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s email.
Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort worked for the Russians to put Moscow’s man at the head of the Ukraine government, staged protests against NATO and the United States, and created a pretext for Russian invasion. He also pocketed millions in under-the-table payments.
Trump’s selection for Secretary of State is not only great friends with Putin, but has worked to cement a deal that would award Russia with enough money to patch over budget deficits and greatly expand their military ambitions—a deal now held up by sanctions against Russia.
Russia says they were working with Trump.
The CIA says Russia was trying to elect Trump.
Harry Reid says the Trump campaign was coordinating on release of hacked documents.
President Obama says that the Trump campaign had a relationship with Russia.
There are so many strings to be pulled here. Any one of them might unravel the depth of Russian involvement in the Trump campaign, and the depth of Trump’s knowledge and cooperation. It could easily take months—years—to track down each connection.
But we don’t have years. We have at most a month, and in truth less than a week. After that, Donald Trump will put his own people in intelligence. Which will be the end of any investigations, and perhaps the end of much more.
Source: http://dailykos.com
