# 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:** 260
**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:** [December 2, 2018, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5185 "2018-12-02T19:35:07Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Because drawing a line in the sand and starting a war for the country would be a spectacularly bad move. And that’s what would happen if the Dems tried to start impeachment proceedings: the GOP would circle the wagons and defend Trump. > > Can’t have it happen. The GOP has to show that they want to preserve this democratic republic too. That’s politics. > > Oh, I think that if the GOP says “OK, let’s jump” they’ll find themselves _at best_ in the backseat of a tandem parachute, not in one that they control. My point is we shouldn’t start impeachment proceedings no matter what, even if (or rather \*especially \*if) Republicans said “OK, let’s do this.” If the GOP said they’re ready to impeach, that means they see an advantage for themselves to rid themselves of Trump. I say, don’t give them that advantage. Let them hang. We’ve got 2020. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2018, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5186 "2018-12-02T19:49:19Z")
> [@Red\_Wiggler](#): > > The president, and others in his organization, lied about not having any business dealings with a hostile power during the campaign. Wait a minute - since when was Russia a hostile power? I wasn’t aware America and Russia were at war. No one would count Russia a friend of the USA, mind. Separately, is there any distinction in US law between Trump having contacts with Russian citizens as a representative of the Trump organisation and as a political candidate? ---
**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:** [December 2, 2018, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5187 "2018-12-02T21:19:57Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > many senators would prefer Pence over Trump. But what they really prefer is keeping their jobs. If they vote to remove Trump it’s pretty much a lock they would get a Trumper primary opponent next time they run which could be as early as 2020 for some of them. Riding the tiger’s a hell of a thrill. That dismount, though… ---
**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:** [December 2, 2018, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5188 "2018-12-02T22:06:25Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Wait a minute - since when was Russia a hostile power? I wasn’t aware America and Russia were at war. No one would count Russia a friend of the USA, mind. GRU = **Military** Intelligence Directorate I think it’s fair to say that if you’re attacked by another country’s military, with the aim of installing their chosen candidate, they’re hostile. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2018, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5189 "2018-12-02T22:09:56Z")
And the Russian government themselves have stated their position that since the hacking was a military act, they’re not civilly liable. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2018, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5190 "2018-12-02T22:11:22Z")
It’s funny to me how a new Republican line on all of this amounts to: "Golly, conspiring with the Russians sure would be a bad thing, dadgummit, I would love to see some proof. By the way, I can believe without proof that Obama was a Muslim- as though that’s a bad thing- who wasn’t born in this country, and the Clintons have people that they don’t want alive murdered. “Murica!” ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2018, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5191 "2018-12-02T22:42:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And the Russian government themselves have stated their position that since the hacking was a military act, they’re not civilly liable. Could very well be the first time war was declared via a civil lawsuit filing. #Winning! ---
**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:** [December 2, 2018, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5192 "2018-12-02T23:57:35Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Separately, is there any distinction in US law between Trump having contacts with Russian citizens as a representative of the Trump organisation and as a political candidate? Yes. He was in the clear previous to being a candidate. Less so once he was. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5193 "2018-12-03T10:51:02Z")
A [recent Rachel Maddow show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy1INiv-nJQ) summarizes some of the perfidy of Trump officials. Do the Board’s Trumpists ever address these charges? Or are they still too obsessed with the 40 year-old Whitewater allegations to move on? > [@Jesus of Nazareth](#): > > Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5194 "2018-12-03T12:33:35Z")
A [recent Colbert show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkN9V0Ox6pY) also offers good insight into the treasonous crimes of Trump, Stone, Cohen et al. ---
**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:** [December 3, 2018, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5195 "2018-12-03T13:10:24Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > A [recent Rachel Maddow show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy1INiv-nJQ) summarizes some of the perfidy of Trump officials. > > Do the Board’s Trumpists ever address these charges? Or are they still too obsessed with the 40 year-old Whitewater allegations to move on? I think I’m pretty clearly not a Trumpist, but Maddow makes the point that the Moscow Tower deal was dropped on June 14, so the Maria Butina question on July 11 and Flynn’s call with Kislyak on December 29, both on the question of sanctions, would seem to be unrelated to Trump Tower Moscow. Vnesheconombank can be sanctioned with impunity and Trump Tower will not be affected, since it’s already off the table. Obviously, the Russians could have told Trump that they had him over a barrel, legally, after June 14 and so he had to go forward with helping them. But he had no financial incentive to remove sanctions, post June 14. And, I don’t think, Trump would view his legal danger of running a business deal with Russia, in mid-2016, as being particularly great. He has no reason to expect to win. He’ll probably lose. No one will give a crap that he continued doing business at the same time as running a campaign, as the loser. On July 11, if he was against sanctions, I’d put it as more likely that there was more to it than Trump Tower Russia. Even if we assume that he might have been trying to keep the door open with Russia by giving a favorable line for them, so the development deal could be resumed after he lost, it seems like a pretty bad idea so soon after the DNC hacking story. And, for the question to come from Butina, seems to make one feel like the Russians knew what his answer would be and they wanted it out there. I think that Trump was compromised in some greater way - money laundering, underaged prostitutes, something - and Russia was having him run as [a pro-Russia advertising force](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=20489876&postcount=2344). Moscow Tower was just a bit of carrot. But a stick also existed. ---
**Author:** ![Dacien](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dacien/32/5663_2.png) [@Dacien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dacien)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5196 "2018-12-03T13:44:52Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > A [recent Colbert show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkN9V0Ox6pY) also offers good insight into the treasonous crimes of Trump, Stone, Cohen et al. > [@septimus](#): > > A [recent Rachel Maddow show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy1INiv-nJQ) summarizes some of the perfidy of Trump officials. > > Do the Board’s Trumpists ever address these charges? Or are they still too obsessed with the 40 year-old Whitewater allegations to move on? They probably have a Sean Hannity clip you’ve just got to see, explains it really well. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5197 "2018-12-03T17:58:19Z")
Trump is tweeting he wants Cohen locked up and the key thrown away. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5198 "2018-12-03T18:18:24Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > My point is we shouldn’t start impeachment proceedings no matter what, even if (or rather \*especially \*if) Republicans said “OK, let’s do this.” If the GOP said they’re ready to impeach, that means they see an advantage for themselves to rid themselves of Trump. I say, don’t give them that advantage. Let them hang. We’ve got 2020. I can’t say that I agree with the wisdom of the “winner take all” aspect of this gambit, but I do agree that “waiting things out” is a time-tested and mostly successful way of resolving untenable situations; it’s the #1 go-to solution amongst humans. And in this case, it’s definitely one that is being enabled by practicality. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5199 "2018-12-03T18:54:17Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Trump is tweeting he wants Cohen locked up and the key thrown away. The president is pressuring prosecutors to punish Cohen, who cooperated, and at the same time he’s praising Stone for not cooperating. And he publicly dangled a pardon for Manafort. I think there’s a legal term of art for someone trying to influence what witnesses say to prosecutors. It’s on the tip of my tongue. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5200 "2018-12-03T19:01:53Z")
> [@Defensive\_Indifference](#): > > The president is pressuring prosecutors to punish Cohen, who cooperated, and at the same time he’s praising Stone for not cooperating. And he publicly dangled a pardon for Manafort. > > I think there’s a legal term of art for someone trying to influence what witnesses say to prosecutors. It’s on the tip of my tongue. I would edit the legal term into your reply, but I don’t want to tamper with anything in quote tags. That would be wrong, as God is my witness. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5201 "2018-12-03T19:05:58Z")
EDIT: wanted to make a joke, thought better of it. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5202 "2018-12-03T19:08:48Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Trump is tweeting he wants Cohen locked up and the key thrown away. Worst. Pokerface. Ever. ---
**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:** [December 3, 2018, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5203 "2018-12-03T22:19:52Z")
No news item, but just so people are on the watch, I think that we are expecting the following things this month: [December 7:](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/30/mueller-could-hit-manafort-with-retrial-new-charges-1034623) Manafort’s breach of cooperation overview [December 10:](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/10/31/has-robert-mueller-subpoenaed-trump-222060) Possible Trump subpoena - but something interesting either way [December 18:](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/19/michael-flynn-sentencing-mueller-830724) Flynn sentencing ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799/5204 "2018-12-03T22:34:46Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > No news item, but just so people are on the watch, I think that we are expecting the following things this month: > > [December 7:](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/30/mueller-could-hit-manafort-with-retrial-new-charges-1034623) Manafort’s breach of cooperation overview > [December 10:](https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/10/31/has-robert-mueller-subpoenaed-trump-222060) Possible Trump subpoena - but something interesting either way > [December 18:](https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/19/michael-flynn-sentencing-mueller-830724) Flynn sentencing [December 4:](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/judge-sets-dec-18-sentencing-for-michael-flynn) Flynn Sentencing memorandum [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799.md?page=259) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-associates-may-have-coordinated-with-russians-according-to-us-officials/782799.md?page=261)