# Leaked report of Russian blackmail of Trump **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 10, 2017, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846 "2017-01-10T23:59:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 24
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/461 "2017-02-12T22:36:51Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > If you’re on here saying trump is a strongman who doesn’t have to buckle to anyone you are deluding yourself. He is a weak weak little man who is vulnerable in myriad ways to pressures, and it can happen without him even having a clue about it. This is stupid America. Pressure from whom? ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/462 "2017-02-12T23:32:40Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > If you’re on here saying trump is a strongman … Say what? ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/463 "2017-02-13T01:29:40Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Pressure from whom? Pressure from who not? He’s very easily manipulated. ---
**Author:** ![Okrahoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/464 "2017-02-13T01:36:17Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > He’s very easily manipulated. I love this statement. Hey there is the opportunity - “progressives” should manipulate the easily-manipulatable Trump to accomplish their goals. Why aren’t you doing that? ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/465 "2017-02-13T02:06:45Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > Pressure from who not? He’s very easily manipulated. He’s easily pissed off. Maybe we can use that. What has he been manipulated about? Putin? That’s all I can think of. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/466 "2017-02-13T02:41:25Z")
> [@Okrahoma](#): > > I love this statement. Hey there is the opportunity - “progressives” should manipulate the easily-manipulatable Trump to accomplish their goals. Why aren’t you doing that? You don’t seem to have looked at the news, nor SNL, lately. ---
**Author:** ![Okrahoma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@Okrahoma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Okrahoma)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/467 "2017-02-13T03:46:41Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > You don’t seem to have looked at the news, nor SNL, lately. More fantasies. But hey - if you think you (progressives) are manipulating him to your desires, then you should be happy. Why are you so pissed off? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/468 "2017-02-13T04:06:20Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > An interesting quote in [this article in the Observer](http://observer.com/2017/02/donald-trump-administration-mike-flynn-russian-embassy/) (bolding mine): > > "What’s going on was explained lucidly by a **senior Pentagon intelligence official** , who stated that “ **since January 20, we’ve assumed that the Kremlin has ears inside the SITROOM,” meaning the White House Situation Room, the 5,500 square-foot conference room in the West Wing where the president and his top staffers get intelligence briefings. “There’s not much the Russians don’t know at this point,” the official added in wry frustration**. > > None of this has happened in Washington before. A White House with unsettling links to Moscow wasn’t something anybody in the Pentagon or the Intelligence Community even considered a possibility until a few months ago. Until Team Trump clarifies its strange relationship with the Kremlin, and starts working on its professional honesty, the IC will approach the administration with caution and concern." This is Jared Kushner’s paper. That’s… odd. Going to end up blaming everything on Flynn? ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/469 "2017-02-13T04:10:24Z")
Does “ears” mean electronic bugs? Why can’t they do something about that? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/470 "2017-02-13T04:44:18Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > Does “ears” mean electronic bugs? Why can’t they do something about that? They mean a person. If it was an electronic bug, that means someone in Trump’s administration planted it, which amounts to the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/471 "2017-02-13T05:00:35Z")
> [@Okrahoma](#): > > More fantasies. But hey - if you think you (progressives) are manipulating him to your desires, then you should be happy. Why are you so pissed off? What gave you the impression that I am? ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/472 "2017-02-13T05:20:11Z")
> [@Okrahoma](#): > > I love this statement. Hey there is the opportunity - “progressives” should manipulate the easily-manipulatable Trump to accomplish their goals. Why aren’t you doing that? You’re really defensive about your tiny handed orange crush. He is entrapped by his own insecurities and can’t control his impulses to flail and lash out. He is degrading the country and the office with his social media compulsion, and acts of vengeance against smaller or even insignificant citizens, when he is actually the president now, and he watches MSM Cable TV constantly. He likes people who complement him basically, and he is handing over the white house to white supremacists. These things will be exploited by other countries, (Not to mention the american left, and the world left), given a little more time in office. So keep fiddling and posting illiberal gobbledegook. If you want to believe he’s a big man have at it. but nobody here or around the world is buying. He is a tiny little man with parts all built to scale. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/473 "2017-02-13T05:27:15Z")
Also, I should note that I’m not a progressive. It’s just clear that so long as Trump is thin skinned, the media reporting on him is going to strongly modify the choices he makes. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/474 "2017-02-13T09:56:13Z")
If anyone thinks SNL couldn’t affect the credibility of a President, just ask the ghost of Gerald Ford what he thinks about that. More people remember Chevy Chase’s portrayal of Ford as a clumsy goofball than remember what Ford was really like. Baldwin’s Trump is already in that space. Not that this will directly influence what Trump does beyond provoking him into yet more puerile tantrums, but it will continue to ensure that fewer people take him seriously (and, like Ford, that history will not either). ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/475 "2017-02-13T14:12:49Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > This is Jared Kushner’s paper. That’s… odd. Going to end up blaming everything on Flynn? Former paper. He stepped down a month ago. But, still, yes a weird tidbit to keep in mind. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/476 "2017-02-13T14:26:56Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > “… Until Team Trump clarifies its strange relationship with the Kremlin, and starts working on its professional honesty, the IC will approach the administration with caution and concern.” The problem with this from the perspective of “Team Trump” is that there’s no hard evidence of any untoward relationship between “Team Trump” and the Kremlin. The entire issue is 100% speculation. So there’s nothing to clarify. You can’t clarify that someone else’s speculation is incorrect, and you can’t stop anyone from speculating anything they want. There’s all sort of things that still need to be “clarified” about the Kennedy assassination, or Area 51 happenings, or the 9/11 attacks, and so on. But no one will ever succeed in “clarifying” any of it to the satisfaction of people who look at them differently. If any actual evidence emerges of Trump business or blackmail ties with Kremlin, then we’ll have something that genuinely needs to be clarified. Until then, it’s just smoke and mirrors. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/477 "2017-02-13T14:39:25Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > If any actual evidence emerges of Trump business or blackmail ties with Kremlin, then we’ll have something that genuinely needs to be clarified. Until then, it’s just smoke and mirrors. I don’t disagree. Thus far there is a strong circumstantial case of odd ties between the Trump people and the Kremlin and we have a lot of anonymous, though apparently credible, sources. Personally, I believe that there is a ton of smoke and therefore a fire is likely burning, but acknowledge that the evidence provided to date is insufficient to make a conclusion. But, will you actually accept concrete evidence? Will concrete evidence of quid pro quo arrangements between the Russians and Trumps sway your opinion? If the Trump campaign offered to ease sanctions in return for help in swaying the election will you call for serious actions against the President? ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/478 "2017-02-13T14:42:09Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > If the Trump campaign offered to ease sanctions in return for help in swaying the election will you call for serious actions against the President? If he did that, then he needs to be impeached, and probably Pence too. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/479 "2017-02-13T18:28:56Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > The problem with this from the perspective of “Team Trump” is that there’s no hard evidence of any untoward relationship between “Team Trump” and the Kremlin. The entire issue is 100% speculation. So there’s nothing to clarify. You can’t clarify that someone else’s speculation is incorrect, and you can’t stop anyone from speculating anything they want. > > There’s all sort of things that still need to be “clarified” about the Kennedy assassination, or Area 51 happenings, or the 9/11 attacks, and so on. But no one will ever succeed in “clarifying” any of it to the satisfaction of people who look at them differently. > > If any actual evidence emerges of Trump business or blackmail ties with Kremlin, then we’ll have something that genuinely needs to be clarified. Until then, it’s just smoke and mirrors. No, no. It’s his tax returns that are the elephant in the room. And of course you are ignoring it. People want to see them. They are relevant to corruption via russia and he said he would release them. No good making your arguments without this part of it. Sorry. You can try again. ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846/480 "2017-02-13T18:36:08Z")
No need to try again. I said it was 100% speculation and your response is more speculation. It’s nice of you to help make my point for me, but unnecessary. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leaked-report-of-russian-blackmail-of-trump/776846.md?page=25)