Great, now Trump has ammunition for his “The Democrats and Obama administration colluded with Russia!” meme.
He doesn’t need additional ammunition. He’s got all the blanks he needs.
“He doesn’t need…ammunition.”
So true; especially when he gets rousing ovations from an audience when he instructs them ignore reality, i.e., the MSM.
"No one from our staff was present, and since no one from our staff was present, no, I really don’t know what happened.”
I bet I can guess who does…
It is plausible for fed and treasury officials to meet with other central bankers, even Russian. Not sure they can just bring anyone, I imagine some eyebrows went up. And State?
“She wasn’t somebody who we knew,” he said. “He brought her with him. He was the principal, and she was, like, an aide or something.”
Makes sense
I thought I read that she started out as his translator? Guess not. If he made a presentation, and no one knows why she was there, I’m going to assume his English was just fine.
You’re right. Apologies, I thought we’d included that bit of the interview. I’ve added Saunders saying Butina was an interpreter in the third-to-last graph.
That’s what CNN said last night
I’m going to assume that Ms. Rushman was scouting the room for future money marks.
Kfile will likely find out
“Butina and Torshin also spoke at an off-the-record discussion attended
by a career State Department official, Paul J. Saunders, CNI’s executive
director, told TPM Tuesday.” – the writing here is ambiguous. Was Saunders with CNI or the state department?
That will be difficult considering this think tank was founded by Nixon, plus this story from 2016
Both: He was at State in the Bush II administration.
Yeah, I had to read that like three times, because I initially thought he was the career State guy, but the second paragraph doesn’t work well with that take. Saunders is with CNI.
When I think of a spy, I think of someone under another identity posing as something else. It seems to me that she and Torshin were pretty much out in the open, and their comments and emails to each other read pretty much like you would expect any political influence peddlers communications would read. I think the real story here is how the NRA and other conservative groups are so willing to openly embrace this kind of thing as long as it helps them to win elections and wield power. Is anyone claiming that they did not know she was Russian? I feel like I am missing part of the story here.
So the part I don’t get is yes the NRA would be happy to help another country get it’s own 2A type rights, but didn’t anyone at the NRA check to see what the Russian Federation constitution said? Talk to someone, say works at the State Dept., or did they just see more markets to sell in?
OK really why can’t right wing groups vet? Do they not understand the concept?
Knida OT: Laughingstock Alert.
Butina’s gun rights group was a ruse. A foot in the door gambit for contact with conservatives. It just happened to pair nicely with NRA efforts to funnel Eastern Bloc money to Trump’s campaign, although the NRA was certainly not the only organization she wormed her way into.
Putin will squeeze Trump for some concessions so he can avoid abject embarrassment.
Sorta Related: Goodlatte is threatening to subpoena John Brennan. You’d think these guys would get tired of having their asses handed to them. Brennan is no shrinking violet. I hope Goodlatte does subpoena him. Brennan will chew him up, digest him, eliminate him and make Goodlatte into compost.