We have multiple contacts with Russia from multiple people in Trump’s campaign and administration, including highly questionable contacts that have resulted in two resignations.
We have, at least in one case, a contact that arguably broke the law, followed by lying to the FBI about said contact.
We have the unanimous verdict of all of America’s various federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies that Russian agents, directed by Russia’s leaders, interfered in the U.S. election with the goal of electing Donald Trump.
We have the Trump campaign’s change to the Republican Party platform with regard to Russia and Ukraine, the only change in that platform that they were actively involved in.
We have Trump’s language with respect to Putin, Ukraine, and Russia.
We have Trump’s views on Russian sanctions.
We have the Trump camp’s conflicting stories about Russian cash in Trump business activities.
We have the reports of millions in secret cash payments to then Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort from a pro-Russian party in Ukraine.
We have Russian attempts to blackmail Paul Manafort.
We have a dossier of information about Trump’s involvement with Russia, gathered by a source that U.S. intelligence agencies take seriously. The dossier includes both established facts and rumor, some of which has been corroborated, some of which appears to be false, and the rest of which remains to be investigated. The latest, as reported by the New Yorker, is that, “But, in the weeks that followed, they confirmed some of its less explosive claims, relating to conversations with foreign nationals. ‘They are continuing to chase down stuff from the dossier, and, at its core, a lot of it is bearing out,’ an intelligence official said.”
We have reports of a Trump campaign server’s connection to a Russian server.
We have the conflicting stories from Trump about his business connections in Russia and about his connection with Putin.
We have admissions from Russia’s foreign service about repeated and continuing communications with the Trump campaign.
We have Tillerson’s connections to Russia and Putin.
We have Trump’s attacks on the U.S. intelligence community.
We have multiple intelligence officials who have insisted that “members of the Trump campaign and other Trump associated had repeated contacts with senior intelligence officials in the year before the election.”
We have the Trump team’s initial refusal to do anything about Flynn even after they knew he had acted inappropriately and lied about it. Instead, they attempted to stonewall and lie.
Edited to add the stories that Josh has been commenting on about Felix Sater, Michael Cohen, and Paul Manafort, where the various parties cannot seem to get their story straight.
Edited to add the story that commenter randyabraham pointed out below: “Also, Russia paid Michael Flynn $40,000 to attend the 10th anniversary banquet for the English-language propaganda channel Russia Today, which seems like a lot of money for a disgraced and fired ex-military figure.”
We have zero credible explanations from the Trump camp on these various activities. Instead, their only responses thus far have been to attack the intelligence community and vow to go after “leakers.”
If politicians opened an inquiry into themselves every time there was some hare-brained conspiracy theory (cf Benghazi, birtherism, the illuminati etc)
See above. The various pieces of this puzzle taken individually do not make a smoking gun, perhaps, but, when viewed collectively, they present a picture that absolutely warrants further investigation. You have no answer for this, which is why you’re lying about what the people here believe and why you’re trying desperately to chalk all of this up to some “conspiracy theory.”
There is zero upside.
Well, aside from our national security…