Calling Donald Trump a “Russian asset” is an insult to actual intelligence assets out there. It’s also pretty much a given for most of us – I’ve believed since 2016 that Trump has been working in tandem with Vladimir Putin. That’s when I started to believe it, but I would argue that Putin has been cultivating Trump as an asset for years beforehand. There is a mountain of evidence to back all of this up. None of this is brand-new information. As time goes on, more of the Steele Dossier gets proven right, and we learn more and more about Trump’s Russian connections. But I guess some people are still surprised when a new headline breaks, like this one from Friday night: the FBI began an investigation into whether Trump was a Russian asset back in May 2017.
Days after Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey, the bureau began to ask the question that had consumed much of the American public since it first learned of Trump’s Russian connections: could the president be working on behalf of Vladimir Putin, undermining American interests? According to a report from the New York Times, in May 2017, the FBI began to investigate if Trump was working – actively, or unknowingly – on behalf of the Kremlin while in office.
The inquiry took two modes: agents weighed if the president’s decision to fire Comey could be considered a threat to national security, and if the firing had a criminal aspect, constituting obstruction of justice. “Not only would it be an issue of obstructing an investigation, but the obstruction itself would hurt our ability to figure out what the Russians had done, and that is what would be the threat to national security,” said former FBI general counsel James A. Baker, who testified before the House in October 2018. While a potential obstruction of justice charge has already been reported, the detail of Trump as a target of a counterintelligence investigation is being made public for the first time.
During the campaign, FBI officials were troubled by Trump’s ties to Russia, and opened an investigation into the campaign in August 2016, two months after the Trump Tower meeting between campaign senior officials and Russian surrogates. But, according to the Times, the bureau decided not to open a file on Trump himself, because it was unsure of how to investigate a major party candidate for the president of the United States. It appears that the bureau’s knowledge of the Trump Tower meeting, and Trump’s July 2016 press conference request – “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing – wasn’t enough to pull the trigger on an inquiry.
When the special counsel was announced on May 17, 2017, Robert Mueller took over the FBI’s investigation, wrapping it into his larger pursuit of Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 election. The Times reports that it’s unclear if the Mueller team is still on the counterintelligence angle, and that former law enforcement officials believe that the agents who opened it may have overstepped their bounds.
As Jonathan Chait at New York Mag discussed in a separate article, the idea that Trump is a Russian asset is definitely within the realm of possibility. That’s what the Steele Dossier suggested too, that Trump is a Russian asset through blackmail, both sexual and financial. Anyway, this would have been just another drop in the bucket, but on Saturday morning, Trump got up bright and early to rage-tweet about it, so you know he’s worried. He should be – the Democrats now have subpoena power and tons of sh-t is about to come out. Trump tweeted:
Wow, just learned in the Failing New York Times that the corrupt former leaders of the FBI, almost all fired or forced to leave the agency for some very bad reasons, opened up an investigation on me, for no reason & with no proof, after I fired Lyin’ James Comey, a total sleaze! …Funny thing about James Comey. Everybody wanted him fired, Republican and Democrat alike. After the rigged & botched Crooked Hillary investigation, where she was interviewed on July 4th Weekend, not recorded or sworn in, and where she said she didn’t know anything (a lie),….the FBI was in complete turmoil (see N.Y. Post) because of Comey’s poor leadership and the way he handled the Clinton mess (not to mention his usurpation of powers from the Justice Department). My firing of James Comey was a great day for America. He was a Crooked Cop who is being totally protected by his best friend, Bob Mueller, & the 13 Angry Democrats – leaking machines who have NO interest in going after the Real Collusion (and much more) by Crooked Hillary Clinton, her Campaign, and the Democratic National Committee. Just Watch!
Yeah, I’m not going to cape for James Comey either. James Comey is the reason why Donald Trump is president and tweeting all of this sh-t. Both things can be true: James Comey is an a–hole AND Trump is a Russian asset.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Party time 🥳
The end of Trump and his cronies has begun.
Since this is celebitchy, putin looks a bloated mess of Botox n Stuff, ie, fillers cheek implants etC. Such a vain, oily, evil looking pumpkin, no?
He is 1,000,000% a Russian asset. The evidence is glaring (as far as I’m concerned). The only thing I would say is that I suspect he operates more under duress than as a willing participant.
PS: I also believe that during the 1-2 hours he was alone with Putin, (Interpreters immediately sent out and Putin reverted to speaking clear, perfect English) he not only got a fresh set of instructions direct from the horses mouth, but given the traumatized/petrified look Trump had for the duration of the joint press conference afterwards, I believe he probably also got a light/fairly heavy beating as well.
Also, McConnell, Rand Paul, Lindsey Graham, and Devin Nunes. Ryan is seriously compromised in some way as well.
Miss Lindsay & Mitch have big money ties to Russia. Have for years
I believe this too.
@Snappyfish, 😂 at Miss Lindsey. Yeah I suspect the Russians have A LOT on him that he doesn’t want public , hence all the panic tweets about that dumb wall.
Speaking of which I read that at the El Chapo trial that the smugglers relied on boats, trains, and cars through legal points of entry, which I’m guessing how most drugs get into this country.
Yes he’s an asset. That much was crystal clear in the primaries where the people of my former party failed the country by nominating him.
Hurry up please . Thanks, My Sanity
Come on Dems, subpoena the translators from his 2 ‘private’ meetings with Putin – the ones who’s notes he confiscated. What will it take for the deplorables to see what is right in front of their eyelashes.
At some point Putin will do what Individual 1 has done to others and throw him under the bus when he is no longer of use to Russia and that point is coming soon.
Look I am 100% anti Trump, but I have a feeling he hides those meetings simple because they make him look like a dick and he doesn’t want details to leak out that can be used to prove it. I am sure he is thoroughly obsequious and totally out of his league with other world leaders, but this way he can make any claims he likes about their discussions. I am 50-50 on whether he is compromised to the point of following Russian instructions, or just pathologically unable to accept any criticism and is wrapping himself up in lies to protect his ego. Putting Mueller aside, my greatest interest now is in what Michael Cohen will say in his public testimony before congress. I believe he will spill all Trump’s secrets and shred his ego; I want to see Trumps reaction.
Lol I finally just started watching The Americans and the way they play naive Americans into spying for them is both terrifying and hysterical.
I agree with your point though. Putin is playing chess as Trump plays Connect Four. He’s an idiot and Putin is a former KGB spy. To say he’s out of his league, is an understatement. God only knows what he’s done, knowingly or unknowingly.
Jellybean, I hear you but I gotta believe that it’s more than just fear of being exposed as an idiot that’s compelled Trump to hide those meetings. He shows his ignorance every day, and to pretty much everyone he encounters, so it’s not like keeping those meetings is preserving any sort of facade.
Debbie, I’m now watching The Americans, too, after a couple failed attempts and am obsessed. I feel like in this century we got so distracted by the threat (real or imagined) of “Islamic terrorists” that we took our eye off the Russians and they utterly exploited it.
@Esmom I read something the creator said about how when they started the show it was supposed to be somewhat comical how afraid of the Russians we were back then. He didn’t expect it to ever be relevant to today’s world. But history tends to repeat itself and here we are.
the “success” of his company is all based on laundering money for Russian Oligarchs, so there’s no doubt he’s compromised. All he needs to do to be an asset for Russia is create chaos & “deconstruct” our government – something he, his incompetent family & corrupt cronies seem to excel at.
I hope that 2019 will be the year when you will finally get rid of the orange buffon. I hope for all of you, becaus to me USA still is a great county, that deserves better.
Thank you, i hope so too
A heartfelt thank you from me too, Eleonor!
For anyone who hasn’t read it, this twitter thread is a really, really good read:
https://twitter.com/HoarseWisperer/status/1083931796419563520
If you don’t follow Hoarse Whisperer already, do so! Also follow the rogue and alt-agency sites. They provide lots of insight into how badly Trump is destroying our government from within, and they are, for the most part, very funny.
Hoarse is a great follow.
Thanks for the link to that thread! Following Hoarse Whisperer now.
I think Putin is getting close to the point where he will throw 45 under the bus. I can see Wikileaks doing a massive data dump of all the misdeeds of 45 and company(Trump family, top republicans) there is no reason I can see why so many GOP officials are afraid to rein in 45 unless they are compromised themselves.
Putin must have been pissed to call 45 on the carpet during their meeting(the look on 45’s face afterwards spoke volumes)
Is there a video I can see of him with Putin?
The look on Individual 1’s face after that meeting told me everything I needed to know. Putin has him by the balls. Scary times.
“Balls in a vice” is how I visualize it myself. 😅
So he ends up with someone competent in charge? Why on earth would Putin give up such a goldmine? The US President is a corrupt, chaotic buffoon that refuses to criticize Russia in any meaningful way. This is all Putin has ever wanted. He couldn’t have hoped for this in his wildest dreams.
I think at some point IQ45’s gross incompetence will stop being an asset to Putin – he has failed to stop the Mueller investigation and Russian citizens are being charged with treason, Putin won’t be happy about that.
Whatever Putin has on 45 is clearly going to shock everyone – given how shameless Agent Orange is he is clearly scared. I think the money he owes to the Russian mob runs into billions and they have proof of his darkest sexual predilections – remember the reports on how Trump behaved toward the contestants of the teen Miss Universe? The pee tape is real but I think we should be asking the age of the women involved – Trump likes them young, I think how young is what is going to shock everyone.
The GOP has been taking money from Russia via the NRA . The Maria Butina indictment showed this.
Lock him up as a traitor to the USA. What is taking so long??? Its obvious to anyone with eyes and a brain that he was promised money from shifty business deals to be a russian stooge. It really boggles my mind that one of the biggest western countries is so screwed up internally that its citizens accept this and are allowing it to continue.
He’s never going to spend a day in jail. If they find something truly irrefutable, he’ll resign and be pardoned. Having an American President taken away in cuffs and put in jail isn’t a good look, no matter how much of a treasonous POS he is. It won’t happen.
I have said right on this site over a year ago that Don the Con is compromised. All the things he has done and said does not make any sense unless he was in bed with Russia and Putin. IMO, there was no way Hillary would have won in ‘16. There were to many forces working against her and in the end she received about 3M more votes than he did. IMO, he should be kicked out of office before the end of this year.
Yes. As someone noted on Twitter, how would a President who’s been coerced by Russia behave any differently than Trump has?
An intelligent one wouldn’t be so blatantly obvious about it. They would occasionally criticize Russia and support sanctions that have bipartisan support in Congress. But we’re dealing with this very stable genius, so it’s playing out like the dumbest spy novel ever written.
Yes, exactly. But beyond that I’d hope that an intelligent POTUS wouldn’t sell the U.S. out like Trump and the GOP have.
@ Kebbi
That’s the thing though…..I think Putin WANTS the world to know that he owns Trump (and by proxy, America). I think it excites him and makes him feel incredibly powerful. So he has Trump saying and doing things that make it incredibly obvious while *just about* maintaining plausible deniability.
Im not about to sound in any way eloquent in this, but do you all remember the face he made when he won? I think no one looked more shell-shocked than he himself did. He looked like he was afraid, I think he was under the Russian thumb way before then (obviously) and they told him they were gonna put him in office to do their bidding in exchanged for all he owed, but I dont think he expected them to come through with it. He probably thought he looked like he was giving it his all during the campaign so when he lost he could tell the russians that it wasnt his fault. Except they did come through and all he could do was keep playing the puppet that he is. And like you all said, they will cut him loose when he is no longer useful.
I have to say nothing will be done. Too many political puppets in place for a fall.
This was and still is a very well planned out takeover of our government.
@ Chef Grace sadly I agree. It’s been clear for a while that he isn’t going to face any meaningful consequences.
I hope you know that the investigation into whether Emperor Zero is a Russian asset (he is!) is a PRESENT TENSE condition. Not only has Robert Sean Mueller folded that particular part of the FBI’s investigation into his overall series of investigations (which includes Obstruction, Witness Tampering, Computer Crimes, Aiding and Abetting, and Conspiracy) but The NY Times story was allowed to be released by Mueller’s team after a 17- month gap in reporting.
Why now?
Because Mueller allowed it to be dropped and is prepared to bring the hammer down on the Trump Crime Syndicate.
As the teenagers say, the next two months are gonna be lit!
💥💥💥🔪🔪🔪💥💥💥
Eric- what’s your take on the notes confiscation thing? Do you think Mueller has talked to the interpreter?
I don’t think Mueller needs the testimony of the interpreter(s) (or to gain access to the interpreter’s notes, if they exist) to move forward.
Mueller has everything he needs to proceed toward indictments of the inner circle and a subpoena of the *president. Mueller has the Mayflower Hotel info, Trump Tower meeting I and Trump Tower meeting II, Manafort, Flynn, Gates, and Cohen—all really big fish in the grand scheme.
I think Mueller spoke with the interpreter not long after Helsinki. It was a huge breach of all US Russia past protocol to meet with Putin alone as he did.
Jeanine Pirro flat out asked Trump if he was a Russian asset. And he didn’t utter the word no. Not once. WTF. We’ve been sucked into a bad Tom Clancy novel.
Usurpation. Someone’s been using his word of the day app in between rage tweets.
Sometimes I think Stephen Miller helps with the tweets.
The evidence against Trump must be overwhelming–can’t wait to see it all. I think it’s now time to indict Julian Assange and Roger Stone, to expose Wikileaks as a propaganda arm of the Russian government. Then we can move on to exposing more of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica’s election crimes. (Cambridge Analytica has not really shut down–their nefarious work continues under the company name Emerdata.)
I think he’s absolutely a Russian asset. And I think he’s under duress with Putin holding some kind of serious blackmail material. But I also think that fully 50% of the time, he’s doing Putin’s bidding without even realizing it, by parroting Putin’s views.
Also, if you’re a podcast fan, check out Mueller She Wrote. It’s hosted by three women, one of whom is a veteran with a PhD in political science and a current federal employee (so she stays anonymous on the podcast). They can sometimes run a little long but the other two women are standup comedians and the show is funny and insightful and one of my favorites for dissecting all things Mueller.
Bonus: they have a fantasy indictment draft. 🙂
I am so disappointed with myself. My friend and I were discussing this last night and we both commented on the fact that the FBI thinks our president may (is most likely) an asset for Russiia and committing treason should be making our heads explode. Holy cow this is insane! But he has worn me down, I am like welcome to the USS Obvious. we have known this for 2 years what ever. I am mortified that after 2 years of this, I can hardly work up a surprised face. My fear and I do mean FEAR is that they are slowing preparing us for the really bad stuff and if the president being a Russian asset is the start of the story …
Tulsi Gabbard has announced she’s running for President TULSI 2020.
He should be in jail. He should be impeached for his idiot tweets.
Putin’s exit plan for the Donald can’t be a healthy one. Frump is right to be afraid of being poisoned. OT while on Twitter I just can’t believe how many defend this anti-American POS. We need to improve our nation’s educational system so cognitive thought can be achieved by all, or at least those who have a triple digit IQ.
Thanks again Eric, you’ve kept me almost sane during the orange administration. It’s unbelievable trump hasn’t been caught years ago but I’ll take what I can get. Go Mueller!!!
Same here…I’ve muted so many of them.
It’s infuriating because so much of this was apparent in the summer of 2016. Hiring Manafort (who worked for free) – the guy who had an office in the Ukraine! I will never forget the look on my Ukrainian (now naturalized!) friend’s face when I brought that up. He was so solemn. “This is bad,” he said. “This is what Russia does.”
We knew about the weird Ukrainian platform change at the convention and the Alfa Bank server in Trump tower. Hillary herself! CALLED! HIM! ON! IT! In their debate! And the MSM and Comey and -I’m sorry – braindead sexist Americans – shrugged it all off. I try really hard to focus on the progress that’s being made and not waste my energy in I-Told-You-So Anger but it’s been a long two years WHEN PEOPLE KNEW SO MUCH OF THIS IN 2016!!!!