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1. It's been overshadowed by other matters (the pandemic, impeachment), but @realDonaldTrump's betrayal of the United States related to Putin's attack on American democracy should not be overlooked or forgotten on this Election Day. Here is a thread with some basics.
2. In 2016, Putin mounted a covert op to sow discord, hurt Clinton & help Trump. When this plot became public—when WikiLeaks dumped DNC emails and documents stolen by Russian hackers—the Trump campaign (inc. Paul Manafort & @DonasldJTrumpJr) denied the Russian attack.
3. The Trump campaign aided & abetted the Russian attack by providing cover for Moscow and by echoing Putin's false denials. The campaign did this even though it had tried to collude with a Kremlin operative as part of what it was told was a secret Moscow plot to help Trump.
4. This was the infamous June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting, attended by Jr., Kushner, and Manafort. The meeting informed the Trump campaign that Russia was trying to secretly help Trump AND it signaled to the Kremlin that the Trump campaign welcomed its covert assistance.
5. Meanwhile, Manafort was secretly communicating with a Russian intelligence official (as the recent Senate intel comm. report described him) and sharing polling data with him. The report noted that this Konstantin Kilimnik might have been connected to Putin's hack-and-leak op.
6. So here was Trump's campaign manager possibly colluding with a Russian intelligence officer. At the least, Manafort was again signaling to Moscow that the campaign did not mind its underhanded intervention in the election.
7. Trump signaled this directly himself when he publicly called on Russian hackers to hack Clinton and find the personal emails that she had destroyed. Trump aides later said he was joking. But that same day, Russian hackers did try to break into HRC's email.
8. And there's this: through the first half of 2016, Trump was secretly trying to do a huge Moscow tower deal. His lawyer, Michael Cohen, even asked Putin's office for help with the venture. Yet Trump said nothing to American voters about this project.
9. This was probably the most significant conflict-of-interest in modern American presidential politics. While being asked to comment on Putin and Russia—and making positive public statements about Putin—Trump was attempting to make big money in Moscow.
10. His Moscow deal certainly would not go through if he criticized Putin. Trump was compromised in this way. Plus, he claimed he had nothing to do with Russia regarding business. That was a lie.
11. During the first half of 2016, George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign aide, repeatedly tried to set up a private link between the campaign and Putin's office. This was yet another signal to Moscow that the Trump campaign did not mind Russia's intervention in the US election.
12. In August 2017, Trump was briefed by US intel that Russia was behind the hack-and-leak operation. Still, Trump publicly and repeatedly stated there was no reason to suspect it was Russia. For the rest of the race, he kept covering for Putin. Imagine how the Kremlin saw this.
13. As the Senate intel. comm. report notes, even as Trump and his aides publicly denied Russia was intervening, they sought to exploit the attack. Trump even used Roger Stone to try to get inside information from WikiLeaks about its releases of Russian-stolen material.
14. The Senate intel. comm. report—which was endorsed by its GOP members—essentially says that Trump lied to the Mueller probe when he said he could not recall any discussions with Stone about this.
15. So as Trump tacitly helped the Russian op in 2016, the Kremlin plot continued--with a big release of material that began on the day the Access Hollywood tape emerged and that continued for the last four weeks of the race.
16. This prolonged dump helped shape the race in the final weeks and, no doubt, was one factor in Trump's victory. The Russians succeeded. Trump was elected with Putin's direct assistance.
17. In the years after the 2016 election, Trump has continued to aid & abet by denying or discounting the Russian intervention. In 2017, he told Russian officials visiting the White House he wasn't concerned w/ the 2016 attack. He allowed them to get away with it.
18. During the 2020 campaign, as US intel officials have stated publicly that Putin was covertly intervening again, Trump has said nothing about this. He has refused to challenge Putin or protect the US election. He has once again betrayed the nation he swore to defend.
19. There's a lot more. See the updated paperback version of "Russian Roulette" by @Isikoff and me. https://www.amazon.com/Russian-Roulette-Inside-America-Election/dp/1538728761/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=russian+roulette+paperback&qid=1604426219&s=books&sr=1-2
20. The large point is the Trump-Russia scandal was no hoax. The US was attacked. Trump and his campaign encouraged and helped cover up that attack--while seeking to exploit it. As president, he refused to address it--and took no steps to beat back a repeat attack.
21. Trump and his cult deny this treachery—and have tried to distract attention from it. But the record is clear and definitive. In 2016 & since, Trump sided with the enemy—because it served his political interests. The GOP has protected his betrayal. This is not America First.
