In one of my recent blog posts “Trump’s Russian Motivations”, I questioned why Donald Trump has been Tweeting that he will continue his public bromance with Vladimir Putin after he is installed in the Oval Office while questioning the assessments of entire US intelligence community. Trump knows that Putin, the Russian Federation’s “elected” dictator, also has been attempting for years to subvert the democratically elected governments in Eastern Europe, has annexed the Crimea, and has sent his tanks to invade the Ukraine, and earlier Georgia. There should be no question in Trump’s mind that Putin is an enemy of the United States and democracy in general.
In my resent blog post I questioned the assumption that Trump has been acting as he has only because he feared that the intelligence reports would de-legitimize his election. I expressed my assumptions that there something, something much more sinister, motivating Donald Trump.
Well I’m no prophet, but by chance that article has proved to be very prophetic. CNN reported today that both President Obama and Donald Trump, along with senior members of Congress, have been briefed that in additional to what we have all heard about the Russian hackings, the Russians have both personal and financial information that could be used to blackmail Donald Trump. CNN also reported that they had evidence of communications, coordination, and sharing of intelligence between Russian surrogates and members of the Trump campaign staff throughout his Presidential run.
CNN stated that they had copies of a 35 page memo compiled by a trusted former British MI6 operative detailing the blackmail information which the Russians have on Trump, but so far they are not releasing that information, some of which they claim is “salacious”, because they have not yet been able to independently verify the sources themselves. Other news organizations have been more forthcoming. For instance, an article in Business Insider entitled “REPORT: Intel chiefs tell Trump that Russian operatives claim to have compromising information on him” contains the follow statements:
“The intelligence officials gleaned their information from a former British intelligence operative who provided the FBI with a series of memos in August 2016 detailing how Russia has tried to cultivate Trump for at least five years.”
“The memos authored by the operative claim that the Trump campaign and the Kremlin had established an “exchange of information” of “mutual benefit,” and that Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, met secretly with Kremlin officials in Prague in August 2016. The memo also said that month earlier, Trump’s adviser on foreign affairs, Carter Page, held secret meetings in Moscow with the president of Russia‘s state-owned oil company and a senior Kremlin internal affairs official, according to the dossier”
“The operative claimed that Russian intelligence sources said they had “compromised” Trump during his visits to Moscow and could “blackmail him” with evidence of his conduct, which included “perverted sexual acts arranged and monitored” by the Russian federal security service (FSB). But the Russians, the operative says in the dossier, ‘promised not to use the ‘kompromat’ they hold on Trump as leverage, given high levels of voluntary cooperation forthcoming from his team.”
We would do well to remember that all of this information was originally provided the former British operative to FBI and the Bureau was investigating the matter well before Election Day, but information about the investigation was not released by the FBI. Now we know what Harry Reed was complaining about in his letter to the FBI asking them to release the information he knew they had. According FBI Director Comey, he didn’t release the information because he didn’t want compromise the election. Given the information about on-going investigations that Comey did release, I am sure the irony of that statement is not lost on you.
However, that is a minor situation compared to the spectacle of a President-elect found to be cooperating with and compromised by a known foreign enemy of the United States. To my knowledge that has never happened before except in fiction. In my estimation it is equivalent to scene of alternative history where Aaron Burr’s treachery isn’t discovered until after he is elected President of the United States.
Americans of every political persuasion must band together and demand that this situation be thoroughly investigated in as transparent a manner possible and the results of that investigation be presented to the American people. Then let the chips fall where they may.
Cajun 1/11/2017