The future is Russian towards you very fast, Donnie Boy…
It is starting to look more and more like Watergate except faster. It took 2 years for Watergate but this is coming at us fast and furious.
165 days
Think about it
I remember waiting breathlessly for both the morning and evening newspapers in those days. Much the same way I now check news feeds multiple times a day. But the pace of modern life, with the internet and smart phones, has absolutely sped things up.
Well that’s because Trump is inexperienced and we should give him a chance to grow into the job.
That picture above looks like a couple of drunks. Not very comforting. I’m already spent on this bullshit. Time to get outside and enjoy the day…Perfect weather here. No plans. Maybe I’ll start reading another book or take a nap outside in the lounge chair.
This administration is soooo bonkers, there really is nothing I can write here that will ameliorate what I feel except to know that there is a rising resistance to their bullshit…and it will grow over time.
Well he should start practicing waving from the helicopter door.
THAT will be the happiest day in my life when that motherfucker is gone
I think it might be Meth head meets Liver damage, but be that as it may, it is a beautiful day! I’m going to take your idea and relax for a few hours. This Smith story is quite a brain teaser, leave for later…
Josh summed up the importance and significance of this but I’d add a few things:
As TR Ramachandran (@yottapoint) has noted, over the same timeline that Smith was working to ‘find’ hacked emails from HRC’s server, Roger Stone was openly stating that Wikileaks had HRC’s private emails and would release them. Stone wasn’t referring to the DNC hack, the Podesta emails, or to the emails HRC provided to the FBI which were later released. Stone was referring specifically to emails on HRCs server which were not released because they were deemed ‘personal’. This became the urban legend ‘30k missing emails’ that Trump wanted found. Stone, like Smith, assumed that foreign/Russian hackers hacked HRC’s private email server (no proof that this happened btw (i.e., it did not happen)).
This means that Stone was aware of the same story that Smith told: that is of a pro-Trump US group that was working with foreign/Russian hackers to find HRC’s emails and that Wikileaks would be the release point. This is evidence that more than a few pro-Trump figures and connected operatives had knowledge of the same objective.
Incidentally, what Smith and Stone describe is exactly what foreign intel told the CIA/FBI. It’s on the basis of foreign intel that the FBI began this investigation into this particular work stream of #trumprussia.
Malcolm Nance also adds to this timeline. The original source for the notion that Russia had hacked HRCs server and found ALL of her emails came from Putin. In early 2016, an article appeared in Russian gov’t owned/affiliated Sputnik news (the same Sputnik news where Russian asset and pro-Bernie to Trump Cassandra Fairbanks works) which stated that Putin was debating releasing HRC’s emails from her private server, claiming that HRC’s server had been hacked and Putin/Russia had come into possession of the emails. A few months later, the same story was repeated by Andrew Napolitano on Fox. A few months after that Trump makes the big call at the July presser in the middle of the Democratic Convention demanding that Russia find those missing emails. Nance believes that Trump gave up the game there, because he was excited by the prospects of how all this foreign help could hurt HRC and help him.
In addition, Seth Abramson also adds to this timeline. During the same week that Smith met with Tait and started his group in earnest, Sessions met with Kislyak (September 9th I believe). Seth surmises that sanctions were likely a topic at that meeting, which again points to parallel quid pro quo tracks coming together to form the general agreement between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Moreover, we know that Smith was well connected to the GOP, had inside info from the Trump campaign and knew Conway’s husband quite well. We also don’t know how he died. Rachel Maddow asked that question of the WSJ reporter and he dodged it. I would also surmise that the only reason that Russian hackers were talking to Smith is because Smith said he had connections to the Trump campaign via Flynn, and that the Russian gov’t validated that connection.
In short, Putin created a conspiracy theory (hacking HRCs emails) which he used to drive a particular narrative and as a vehicle to supply the media with anti-HRC news as well as to encourage hackers to be aggressive. Trump more than played along, and signaled to his campaign and its allies to actively participate in this Russian backed scheme.
This shit goes SO deep. Very scary - the powers arrayed against freedom and the common man