Read on Twitter
Back in 2016 TN Sen. @MarshaBlackburn was selected as one of only 4 members of Congress to serve as co-chair of Trump's transition team along with the likes of Michael Flynn, Rebekah Mercer & Newt Gingrich.
[ #MondayMotivation #MoscowMarsha Megathread] https://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2016/11/trump-adds-vice-chairs-to-transition-team-including-several-women-231975
[ #MondayMotivation #MoscowMarsha Megathread] https://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2016/11/trump-adds-vice-chairs-to-transition-team-including-several-women-231975
What did @MarshaBlackburn do to earn such close proximity to the President-elect?
Did Transition look the other way while its closely allied org, the Trump Inaugural Committee, took bribes from Russia-friendly Ukrainians? https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/1083523496851005440
Did Transition look the other way while its closely allied org, the Trump Inaugural Committee, took bribes from Russia-friendly Ukrainians? https://twitter.com/kenvogel/status/1083523496851005440
This is important, of course, in light of the fact that Blackburn's 10+ year campaign org chair Kline Preston kept ties to close Putin ally Alexander Torshin as late as 2018. Preston also had ties to Ukraine starting in the 1990s. https://www.thedailybeast.com/pro-confederate-birther-introduced-maria-butinas-handler-to-nra-chief
(You've heard us talk about Torshin a lot.) https://twitter.com/NashvilleResist/status/1126856388662239232
In one of his many roles Torshin was the handler of Maria Butina, recently deported from the US for her role in a coordinated spying attempt against the government. https://www.newsweek.com/national-rifle-association-senate-finance-russia-1461825
(We're not sure why @Tennessean allowed Preston to downplay his association to @MarshaBlackburn in this now infamous article.) https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2018/03/20/russia-nashville-lawyer-marsha-blackburn/431448002/
Documents compiled by @CJCMichel prove Kline Preston was the head of @MarshaBlackburn's campaign re-elect org for the 10+ year duration of her time in the House. https://twitter.com/NashvilleResist/status/1198256030905442304
Are Preston's longtime ties to both Russia and Ukraine - in tandem with shady Ukraine donations to the Trump Inaugural Committee, with which @MarshaBlackburn's transition team closely worked - just a coincidence?
(Nashville @Tennessean, 19 Oct. '94, pg 1-E.)
(Nashville @Tennessean, 19 Oct. '94, pg 1-E.)
Second part of the article, which says Preston is "connecting Nashvillians with Russian and Ukrainian investment opportunities."
We can just imagine what kind of opportunities.
We can just imagine what kind of opportunities.
Preston appears to have been considered a local expert on Russia & Ukraine by the @Tennessean for years.
These articles start over 25 years ago.
These articles start over 25 years ago.
Preston's association with Torshin is chilling in light of Torshin's other work. Here Torshin is found by @TimKMak to have been in close contact with the Internet Research Agency, a Russian-government tied org that engineered 2016 #RussianHacking along with #CambridgeAnalytica.
(More on the @NRA angle in a second) https://www.npr.org/2018/09/21/648803459/russias-2016-twitter-campaign-was-strongly-pro-gun-with-echoes-of-the-nra
(Here's @MarshaBlackburn associate Rebekah Mercer, also on the Trump Transition Team, in conjunction with #RussianHacking.) https://demwritepress.com/2018/09/24/the-mercers-cambridge-analytica-and-putins-internet-research-agency-a-timeline/
Is it coincidence that one of the @Twitter handles tied to Internet Research Agency was called @TEN_GOP and purported to be located here in the Volunteer State? https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/16/politics/who-is-ten-gop/index.html
Is it coincidence that, during her 2018 race for Senate from TN, @MarshaBlackburn found access to internal @Google documents painting her in an unflattering light and used them in her campaign?
Who hacked those docs? https://twitter.com/VoteMarsha/status/1047253140406292480
Who hacked those docs? https://twitter.com/VoteMarsha/status/1047253140406292480
. @MarshaBlackburn won't confirm or deny having met with Alexander Torshin. But we can prove Kline Preston took him to a Williamson County polling location within walking distance of Blackburn's house back in 2012. https://twitter.com/NashvilleResist/status/1084910780586385408
Here's a pic of Torshin & Preston w/ @BillHaslam at the 2012 @TNGOP election night victory party, and a @Tennessean pic of @MarshaBlackburn at the same event.
Interestingly you can still view Torshin's poll pics at @torshin_ru, but the one with Haslam/Preston has been deleted.
Interestingly you can still view Torshin's poll pics at @torshin_ru, but the one with Haslam/Preston has been deleted.
Back to the @NRA and Russia. @MarshaBlackburn pushed hard for the @NRA convention to come to Nashville in 2015. Torshin and Butina both attended. https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/04/08/nra-welcome-nashville-middle-tennessee/25460957/
Alexander Torshin and Maria Butina were also working at the time, of course, to co-opt @NRA leadership for use against the American government. (Makes you kind of wonder about today's #VirginiaRally, eh?)
Excellent reporting by @woodruffbets as always: https://www.thedailybeast.com/kremlin-blessed-russias-nra-operation-us-intel-report-says
Excellent reporting by @woodruffbets as always: https://www.thedailybeast.com/kremlin-blessed-russias-nra-operation-us-intel-report-says
Torshin & Butina worked under the direction of Putin himself. That's Torshin next to Putin in the middle of the photo accompanying the article, btw. (Another good one from @chrissmithnymag) https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/06/the-nra-spent-dollar30-million-to-elect-trump-was-it-russian-money
Guess who gave @MarshaBlackburn over $1.2 million in 2018? @NRA, unsurprisingly, which made her race among its top 5 expenditures that year. Was it laundered Russian cash? (h/t @teamtrace)
https://www.thetrace.org/2018/11/nra-2018-election-results-gun-vote/
https://www.thetrace.org/2018/11/nra-2018-election-results-gun-vote/
In 2008 @MarshaBlackburn and Kline Preston failed to disclose over $400,000 in contributions and expenditures, so accepting tainted cash would likely be нет проблем. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/03/us/politics/tennessee-governor-blackburn-bredesen.html
Is it a surprise why @MarshaBlackburn spends so much time defending Trump these days and trying to thwart the impeachment trial? You'd think she'd be interested in the affairs of Tennesseans, but she's doing a lot more talking about national events:
https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn
https://twitter.com/MarshaBlackburn
In our opinion it isn't a stretch to say @MarshaBlackburn may be trying to stay out of prison for many of the same reasons as Trump. Unfortunately for #MoscowMarsha, the truth has a way of coming out. We'll be doing our part to help make that happen. #Resist
(An old version of this thread incorrectly stated Blackburn was a co-chair of the Trump Inaugural Committee, which is a different organization than the Transition Team although the two worked closely together. We regret the error.)
Another piece of the puzzle: Who ran this "Tennesseans for a Better Tomorrow" PAC that spent $1 million on @MarshaBlackburn's race, then shut down? https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/01/dark-money-fueled-super-pac/
