Trump, with his legendary belief that he can do anything he pleases, may well have been assuming that the Russians would never burn him no matter how far he strayed from their instructions/wishes/interests.
Burning Jared would therefore serve as a warning to Trump: yes, we WILL burn you if you cross us.
But of course it’s all speculation at this point–we just don’t know enough to say. Perhaps (as has been suggested in this thread), Kislyak never thought the US would get access to his communications home, and therefore there is no message to Trump intended at all.
Time will tell, or not. But, yes, Putin and his people might well want Trump to realize that they are willing to expose whatever he doesn’t want exposed. It’s scarcely far-fetched to assume that Trump would need such a warning.
As clearly disturbing as this is, what laws have been broken here by Kushner? I have to admit I don’t know enough about this to understand if this would even be illegal. I get that it is highly questionable behavior and potentially very damaging politically for the administration but beyond that in what ways would this be something that would result in criminal prosecution for anyone? Or is it the fact none of these contacts were disclosed when they should have been?
For certain he is guilty of falsifying his security clearance form. That’s a felony but I believe only punishable by a 5 year sentence. Some of the talking heads on television say he could be in violation of the Espionage Act but I’m not equipped to say how that works.
How he thought this would work out, I have no idea. Did he not realize that the FBI would notice frequent visits to Russian consulates? Maybe he figures that since nobody has ever heard his voice that they wouldn’t know who he is on the Russian phones.
The NYT reported today the main reason for this “was for Russian military officials to brief Mr. Flynn about the Syrian war and to discuss ways to cooperate there.” On its face I don’t know why that would be espionage. Of course, I don’t understand why this would have to be done using a secret back channel outside the reach of US intelligence agencies. That element alone is suspicious and is likely why Kushner is in such trouble.
Just when it seems like these people can’t be bigger buffoons…
I was wondering if there are laws that apply to intelligence agents, but not anyone else (or whether they only apply if you have access to materials that are classified as confidential).
e.g. - The whole being “treated like defection” thing. Is a US civilian intelligence officer who flees to the Russian embassy (or all the way to Russia), but does nothing else (provably at least) committing a crime? It would be totally legal for a normal US citizen to do so.
You’re right. There is no reason this would have to be done using a secret back channel. There are actual legitimate channels to do this. There is no reason to do it this way unless you’re actively trying to hide what you’re doing from the US government.
Yes, a lot of people are wondering why Russia would want to risk losing “their asset in the White House”, but that’s not what Russia really cares about. They know that if Trump, or anyone, started to blatantly favor Russia, the checks and balances of the US system would likely stymie their plans.
What they really want to do is delegitimize the the US as the world standard for how democracy is supposed to function. How could the US criticize a Syrian or Iranian election, if they can’t even keep their own elections free from corruption and foreign influence?
Russia is playing the long game here.
At a minimum, it would seem to be a clear attempt to circumvent the requirements of the Presidential Records Act:
Is this a serious sentence?
In 240 years no new nation has followed the US experiment, maybe some country in Africa that soon gave that up. The USA is a political basket case - you’ve elected a reality tv presenter as Head of State, he represents a political party that doesn’t want him, Congress is a licence to print money, the people have little representation, Princetown academics say it is a oligarchy, people are arguing seriously about which celebrity team should run the country next time.
Surely - as you see a Pope not wishing to even be in the President’s company, entire sessions of a G& spent trying to explain the basics of climate change to a man/child - you must grasp how USA has become the laughing stock of the world.
Syria, my ass. This is about money. Too many people in this administration have too many ties to Russia and they need a way to communicate with Putin in an untraceable way to make sure each side can get what they need from the other.
Sake of argument here. Let’s say that the intelligence community has Trump and his administration dead to rights. Manafort, Flynn and Kushner on tape colluding with Russians and all three willing to testify against Trump and Pence. Would even that be enough at this point? Would the GOP still be able to weather the storm?
Depends on public opinion. I absolutely think that McConnell and Ryan would forgive active collusion with Russia if the GOP survived, they keep their jobs, they can pass tax cuts, etc. Don’t think there’s any moral outrage in the leadership, just self preservation.
Now, if it did come out that there was proof I think public opinion would swing against them, so that theory probably won’t be tested (although their prevaricating so far is decent evidence, IMO).
