[View here as a Twitter thread]
“But,” you say, “The prosecutors said they won’t mention ‘Russia’” !! Yes, but, here are some things they said they WILL mention: They’ll mention the Russia-backed Ukrainian political party and the Russia-backed President Viktor Yanukovych.
They’ll illustrate Manaford’s relationship with the Russian oligarchs who paid Manaford through foreign bank accounts. They have to mention all these things to show where Manaford got his dirty money and how he laundered it.
They’ll talk about how Manafort’s task in Ukraine was to elect a Russian-backed president, Yanukovych—who appears to have been elected by fraud, with Russian interference: nbcnews.com/news/us-news/w… … … They may negotiate to keep some out, but they can’t keep it all out.
Trump’s talking point is that Manafort’s crimes occurred before Manafort joined the Trump campaign, so the trial has nothing to do with Trump. Except that Trump hired the guy who worked to install a Russian-backed president in Ukraine. Let that sink in.
Giuliani’s done such a good job flooding the zone with nonsense that nobody’s had a chance to let that sink in. (I don’t buy that ‘Giuliani’s confused.’ I think there’s method to the madness: getting ahead of stories, signaling talking points to surrogates, distractions, etc.)
Three years ago, I had no idea there were such deep GOP-Russia ties. Now we find out about Maria Butina. We find out the depth of the NRA-Russia connections. We now know how deeply Russia infiltrated and, as the Mueller indictments show, recruited American helpers.
We even know from Paul Ryan that Putin is paying Trump and Congressman Roharbacher. washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/na… I know, I know. Ryan was supposedly kidding. Okay, then, why did Trump hire so many people with Russian connections? Manafort, Gates, Papadopolous, Carter Page, etc.
And why are there so many similarities between the Manafort-Ukraine strategy and the Trump 2016 strategy? FDR said, “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” There can’t be this many coincidences.
It’s obvious by this point that there was coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russians. If anyone is just tuning in and feels inclined to argue with the above statement, please see twitter.com/Teri_Kanefield… )
