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Monday, October 30, 2017

When Trump bragged on WikiLeaks he knew Russia stole the emails

When Donald Trump used the WikiLeaks dumps of DNC and Podesta emails to advance his presidential campaign, he had to have known that these emails had been stolen by the Russian government before they were given to WikiLeaks. It is impossible to reach any other conclusion given the facts revealed in the George Papadopoulos Stipulation and Plea Agreement. This document is the most important one released today because unlike the Paul Manafort and Rick Gates indictments, it deals directly with the Trump - Russia connection, and most importantly because unlike the charges alleged in the indictments, this stipulation is a statement of FACTS agreed to by both sides.

IMHO the most important fact revealed in document is the fact that the Trump campaign knew as of 26 April 2016, months before the first WikiLeaks DNC email dumps, that the Russian government claimed to have "thousands of emails" that contained "dirt" on Hillary Clinton.
Case Document 19 Filed 10/05/17 Page 2 of 14

 a. Defendant PAPADOPOULOS claimed that his interactions with an overseas professor, who defendant PAPADOPOULOS understood to have substantial connections to Russian government officials, occurred before defendant PAPADOPOULOS became a foreign policy adviser to the Campaign. Defendant PAPADOPOULOS acknowledged that the professor had told him about the Russians possessing "dirt" on then-candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails," but stated multiple times that he learned that information prior to joining the Campaign. In truth and in fact, however, defendant PAPADOPOULOS learned he would be an advisor to the Campaign in early March, and met the professor on or about March 14, 2016; the professor only took interest in defendant PAPADOPOULOS because of his status with the Campaign; and the professor told defendant PAPADOPOULOS about the "thousands of emails" on or about April 26, 2016, when defendant PAPADOPOULOS had been a foreign policy adviser to the Campaign for over a month.

 b. Defendant PAPADOPOULOS further told the investigating agents that the professor was "a nothing" and "just a guy talk[ing] up connections or something." In truth and in fact, however, defendant PAPADOPOULOS understood that the professor had substantial connections to Russian government officials (and had met with some of those officials in Moscow immediately prior to telling defendant PAPADOPOULOS about the "thousands of emails") and, over a period of months, defendant PAPADOPOULOS repeatedly sought to use the professor's Russian connections in an effort to arrange a meeting between the Campaign and Russian government officials.
WikiLeaks didn't make the first DNC email dump until 22 July 2016 on the eve of the Democratic Convention. As I pointed out in Timing is everything - Why were WikiLeaks DNC emails released now?, published 31 July 2016, these emails appear to have been hacked around 25 May but withheld from publication while they could have helped Bernie Sanders in his primary struggle against Hillary Clinton. They were released only when they could help Donald Trump in his struggle against Clinton. They were released after Clinton had already snagged the nomination, but just in time to disrupted the Democratic Convention.

The Russians didn't really need to use WikiLeaks to release the emails they had hacked. They could have published them through RT America, Sputnik, or any number of compliant "anti-imperialist" Left outlets. Donald Trump needed WikiLeaks. He couldn't say "I just got this great load of chickenfeed from the boys in the Kremlin." He needed WikiLeaks as a cutout. WikiLeaks as a source is something he could just barely sell to his base, but given the facts revealed in the Papadopoulos Stipulation, there can now be no question that Donald Trump knew the true source of these emails were the Russian hacks when he sent the following tweets.

Trump had a quick line up pattern. He was tweeting about the Wikileaks dumps on the day after they started:
Leaked e-mails of DNC could have been very useful to Bernie Sanders if they had been leaked soon after they were hacked. This is what would have happened if the main motive was defeating Hillary Clinton. Instead someone, WikiLeaks or the Russians, sat on them for months while Clinton wrapped up the nomination.
This was also the position taken by Jill Stein, RT and Democracy Now because they knew this position was most helpful to Trump. Sanders took the more principled position. Once he was defeated in the primaries, he threw his lot in with Clinton to stop Trump.
Not crazy at all, we now know!







I call this collusion.

Syria is the Paris Commune of the 21st Century!

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