# Trump associates may have coordinated with Russians, according to US officials **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 23, 2017, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799 "2017-03-23T00:28:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 242
**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:** [July 19, 2018, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4825 "2018-07-19T17:02:59Z")
> **[Kazakh moguls, the pal of Donald Trump, teen models, and the yacht of the...](https://theblacksea.eu/stories/football-leaks/football-leaks-kazakh-moguls-the-pal-of-donald-trump-teen-models-and-the-yacht-of-the-father-of-the-turks/)** > > Scandal on the Mediterranean: a police raid, suspected trafficking of girls and connections to the elite of America, Russia, Turkey and Kazakhstan: new findings More detailed information about the case. This link seems to have a bunch of random accusations an suspicious links: > **[PIMPOTUS - Trump Models and Russia's Human Traffickers - Patribotics](https://patribotics.blog/2017/08/15/pimpotus-trump-models-and-russias-human-traffickers/amp/)** > > EXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump's modeling company investigated for sex trafficking of underage girls I’ll have to go through it and check how many seem plausible. ---
**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:** [July 19, 2018, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4826 "2018-07-19T17:04:41Z")
> [@Silver\_lining](#): > > Yes. There is a lot on the web saying Obama told his chief cyber security person to stand down during Russia hack attempts. Yikes! > > Why would Obama do this? I answered at the top of the page. It is not hard to determine what Rice asked Mr. Daniel to stand down _from_, which you’ll note that none of your links bother to mention. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4827 "2018-07-19T17:10:20Z")
> [@Chip\_Dundas](#): > > Cyber attacks on our electoral system = using bots on twitter. LOL, every country does that. > > Are you silly enough to think that “cyber attacks on our electoral system” = Russian hackers hacked voting machines (which are not connected to the internet) and changed voting results? I certainly hope not. > … Nice strawman, but almost no none believes they screwed with the vote tally. What they did was screw with voter registration data. What they did was steal DNC analytics and apparently give them to the Trump campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4828 "2018-07-19T17:10:26Z")
> [@Silver\_lining](#): > > Yes. There is a lot on the web saying Obama told his chief cyber security person to stand down during Russia hack attempts. Yikes! > > Why would Obama do this? > [https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/obamas-cybersecurity-coordinator-confirms-susan-rice-ordered-stand-down-russian-meddling-2016-election](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/obamas-cybersecurity-coordinator-confirms-susan-rice-ordered-stand-down-russian-meddling-2016-election) > > [Obama cyber chief confirms 'stand down' order against Russian cyberattacks in summer 2016](https://www.yahoo.com/news/obama-cyber-chief-confirms-stand-order-russian-cyberattacks-summer-2016-204935758.html) > > [https://hotair.com/archives/2018/06/21/obama-cyber-chief-youd-better-believe-ordered-stand-russia/](https://hotair.com/archives/2018/06/21/obama-cyber-chief-youd-better-believe-ordered-stand-russia/) Well, considering Trump’s guiding mission as president is to do the opposite of everything Obama did, I _ **wholeheartedly welcome Trump’s upcoming order for his chief cyber security person to use the full force the the U.S. government to stop future Russian hack attempts on our elections** _, including the 2018 and 2020 elections which his CIA director says are at-risk of being hacked. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4829 "2018-07-19T17:20:18Z")
> [@Chip\_Dundas](#): > > …because the elites desperately want a war with Putin… So, all you are saying is “Give peace a chance!”? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4830 "2018-07-19T18:51:43Z")
Ten bucks on the phrase most often found in Russian clipboards: “the elites desperately want a war with Putin.” Who wants odds? ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4831 "2018-07-19T21:19:31Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Well, considering Trump’s guiding mission as president is to do the opposite of everything Obama did, I _ **wholeheartedly welcome Trump’s upcoming order for his chief cyber security person to use the full force the the U.S. government to stop future Russian hack attempts on our elections** _, including the 2018 and 2020 elections which his CIA director says are at-risk of being hacked. House GOP refuses to renew election security funding as Democrats fume over Russian meddling [https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/House-GOP-refuses-to-renew-election-security-13086636.php](https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/House-GOP-refuses-to-renew-election-security-13086636.php) ---
**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:** [July 19, 2018, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4832 "2018-07-19T21:26:22Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Ten bucks on the phrase most often found in Russian clipboards: “the elites desperately want a war with Putin.” Who wants odds? Well, that and “cyber attacks? every country does that.” That one, I’d guess, they have tattooed on their foreheads. (Until you’ve seen mirror-image Cyrillic, you haven’t lived!) The ‘elites want war with Putin’ message-initiative is fairly recent–as recent as this week, I think, or at least its widespread use is. And of course it’s intended to solve the massive problem Trump created by being so visibly cowed and submissive toward Putin at Helsinki. That’s an obvious problem for Trump: his followers prioritize Strong Bullies and have contempt for grovelers. They are trying to make excuses, for him, but this has shaken his base as nothing else has. And weakening support for Trump is an obvious problem for Putin, too: though he may personally enjoy having the whole world acclaim him as master of the fawning American president, he does need that president to have enough status to be able to pull off an end to sanctions, the pull-out of American troops from Europe, etc. etc. So the problem needs fixing. And the best they’ve been able to do is this idea that “Trump had to look subservient to Putin because if he hadn’t it would have meant NUCLEAR WAR. So Trump only did that to prevent NUCLEAR WAR.” This “explanation” is as pathetically weak as Trump showed himself to be, of course. But it’s the best they’ve been able to come up with. So in the coming days, expect to see a lot of ‘_what do you want, war with Russia? Trump has saved us from that inevitable development! Be grateful to Trump for the clever way he pretended to kowtow to Putin–he’s saved us!_’ and similarly risible constructions. ---
**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:** [July 19, 2018, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4833 "2018-07-19T21:29:59Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > House GOP refuses to renew election security funding as Democrats fume over Russian meddling > [https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/House-GOP-refuses-to-renew-election-security-13086636.php](https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/House-GOP-refuses-to-renew-election-security-13086636.php) This was shocking–the House Republicans were willing to, basically, admit that they DO want Russia to interfere in the upcoming elections. This article has a clip of the ensuing “USA, USA, USA!” chant the Democrats took up in response (video is about half-way down the page): > **[Democrats chant 'USA!' on House floor during push to bolster election security](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/07/19/house-dems-chant-usa-push-increase-election-security-funds/800567002/)** > > The amendment's sponsor, Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois, pointed to Russian interference in U.S. elections, making note of last week's indictment that charged 12 Russian nationals with meddling in 2016. ---
**Author:** ![Thing\_Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@Thing\_Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing_Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4834 "2018-07-19T21:50:51Z")
I find it hilariously appropriate that Silver lining is posting cites from something called [www.hotair.com](http://www.hotair.com). ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2018, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4835 "2018-07-19T22:46:56Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > This was shocking–the House Republicans were willing to, basically, admit that they DO want Russia to interfere in the upcoming elections. That would assume that the Russians want Republicans to win. Putin wants to destabilise the US, and what better way to do that than to support Trump’s opposition in Congress. It just shows how clueless Republicans can be regarding the motives of the Kremlin. ---
**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:** [July 19, 2018, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4836 "2018-07-19T23:09:08Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > That would assume that the Russians want Republicans to win. Putin wants to destabilise the US, and what better way to do that than to support Trump’s opposition in Congress. It just shows how clueless Republicans can be regarding the motives of the Kremlin. I’m not really sure which side they would support in this election, honestly. If the Democrats win, then it causes havoc in the government and paralyzes it. If the Republicans win, then they’ll keep empowering Trump do Putin’s bidding. Russia is slightly better off with Republicans, but not by a significant amount, in any practical sense. I suspect that they’ll target moderates on both sides. That’s probably more useful than trying to target a certain party. Fill Congress with nutters. ---
**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:** [July 19, 2018, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4837 "2018-07-19T23:58:57Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > That would assume that the Russians want Republicans to win. Putin wants to destabilise the US, and what better way to do that than to support Trump’s opposition in Congress. It just shows how clueless Republicans can be regarding the motives of the Kremlin. That vote was dependent not on what the Russians actually _will_ do, but on what the Republicans _think_ they will do. If, in the event, the Russians double-cross their eager ‘allies,’ then it’s just too bad that the Republicans voted that way. But at this point, the Republicans are confident that shenanigans with the voting system will work in their own favor. ---
**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:** [July 20, 2018, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4838 "2018-07-20T00:46:07Z")
Bernie Sanders’ chief strategist for the campaign, Tad Devine, and Manafort were emailing about Ukraine, including a trip. Email contents unknown (to us), only titles. > **[Mueller Examining Emails between Manafort and Former Sanders Chief Strategist...](https://www.nationalreview.com/news/bernie-sanders-paul-manafort-emails-mueller-examines/)** > > Emails to Manafort from the chief strategist for Bernie Sanders’s 2016 campaign were among the evidence listed in a court filing by Mueller’s team Thursday. 12 2011.09.20 Email Chain D. Rabin, J. Mulvey, P. Manafort, R. Gates, K. Kilimnik, T. Devine, et al re Ukraine - First Draft 13 2012.04 Email Chain T. Devine, R. Gates, P. Manafort, et al re Ukraine 14 2012.08.06 Email T. Devine to P. Manafort re Memo 15 2014.03.31 Email T. Devine to R. Gates, et al re Call - Important 16 2014.03.31 Email T. Devine to R. Gates, et al re Draft Proposal 17 2014.06.09 Email T. Devine to R. Gates, et al re Kyiv 18 2014.06.14 Email T. Devine to K. Kilimnik, R. Gates, et al re Ukraine Trip ETA: This is before he started to work with Sanders. Apparently, he had worked for Yanukovitch along with Manafort. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2018, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4839 "2018-07-20T09:57:59Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Well, considering Trump’s guiding mission as president is to do the opposite of everything Obama did, I _ **wholeheartedly welcome Trump’s upcoming order for his chief cyber security person to use the full force the the U.S. government to stop future Russian hack attempts on our elections** _, including the 2018 and 2020 elections which his CIA director says are at-risk of being hacked. Considering the Yahoo article alone details exactly WHY Obama didn’t take aggressive measures against Russia, I’d say **silver lining** is tilting at windmills, yet again. ---
**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:** [July 20, 2018, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4840 "2018-07-20T23:47:56Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Bernie Sanders’ chief strategist for the campaign, Tad Devine, and Manafort were emailing about Ukraine, including a trip. Email contents unknown (to us), only titles. > > [Bernie Sanders Aide's Paul Manafort Emails: Mueller Examines | National Review](https://www.nationalreview.com/news/bernie-sanders-paul-manafort-emails-mueller-examines/) > > 12 2011.09.20 Email Chain D. Rabin, J. Mulvey, P. Manafort, R. Gates, K. Kilimnik, T. Devine, et al re Ukraine - First Draft > > 13 2012.04 Email Chain T. Devine, R. Gates, P. Manafort, et al re Ukraine > > 14 2012.08.06 Email T. Devine to P. Manafort re Memo > > 15 2014.03.31 Email T. Devine to R. Gates, et al re Call - Important > > 16 2014.03.31 Email T. Devine to R. Gates, et al re Draft Proposal > > 17 2014.06.09 Email T. Devine to R. Gates, et al re Kyiv > > 18 2014.06.14 Email T. Devine to K. Kilimnik, R. Gates, et al re Ukraine Trip > > ETA: This is before he started to work with Sanders. Apparently, he had worked for Yanukovitch along with Manafort. So, it would be interesting to know why Sanders decided to work with Devine. There must have been a reason. ---
**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:** [July 22, 2018, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4841 "2018-07-22T03:34:01Z")
Initial wiretap request against Carter Page: > **[Document: Justice Department Releases Carter Page FISA Application](https://www.lawfareblog.com/document-justice-department-releases-carter-page-fisa-application)** > > Pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the Justice Department has—in a highly unusual move—released a redacted copy of the FISA application seeking a warrant against former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. The application became the... Supposedly, there’s some 400 pages of further material, but I don’t know that I’ll go through that. This document makes it absolutely clear that Christopher Steele was a paid source working for a partisan boss. It’s not a matter of footnotes, there’s a whole discussion of the topic in the main body of the text. More interesting to me is the initial mention of Papadop, who appears in the very first sentence and then disappears after that. GIven that \> 50% of the document is redacted, one has a reasonable suspicion that Pappy might have been working with the FBI previous to 2017 and whatever perjury offense it is that he committed was well into his work for them. The redacted materials plausibly detail the information that he was feeding to them, but because it wasn’t pursuant to the question of whether the FBI revealed that Steele’s credibility was imperfect, they kept that all redacted. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4842 "2018-07-22T04:48:17Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > This document makes it absolutely clear that Christopher Steele was a paid source working for a partisan boss. It’s not a matter of footnotes, there’s a whole discussion of the topic in the main body of the text. The above is completely irrelevant…was the information in the dossier accurate? Of COURSE he was a paid source…that was his goddamn job! Nobody has ever tried to claim that Steele was some simon-pure innocent who just happened to be an expert at ferreting things out and stumbled across all of this stuff. He was a private investigator with deep connections to British intelligence, which was his value to his CLIENTS. That doesn’t speak to the dossier’s accuracy, nor does it have anything to do with whether or not the dossier was what the original FBI investigation was based on (protip: It was not.). ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4843 "2018-07-22T04:49:37Z")
Of course, I admit my partisanship. I want this entire administration and anyone who’s ever worked with them (and the Congressional GOP contingent) up against a wall for the Russia treason. If that’s cause for people to doubt when I post accurate data, that’s their problem. ---
**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:** [July 22, 2018, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/4844 "2018-07-22T06:25:18Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > The above is completely irrelevant…was the information in the dossier accurate? Of COURSE he was a paid source…that was his goddamn job! Nobody has ever tried to claim that Steele was some simon-pure innocent who just happened to be an expert at ferreting things out and stumbled across all of this stuff. He was a private investigator with deep connections to British intelligence, which was his value to his CLIENTS. > > That doesn’t speak to the dossier’s accuracy, nor does it have anything to do with whether or not the dossier was what the original FBI investigation was based on (protip: It was not.). It does mention the accuracy, stating that he is known to have provided good intelligence before and to have proven himself on previous cases. And, of course, he’s just one of a variety of sources - though we don’t know what all else, given the quantity of redacted information. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799.md?page=241) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799.md?page=243)