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:: It was because ] believed that Trump was actually being blackmailed that he became "very concerned about whether this represented a national security threat". This concern led him to go to the FBI with his initial findings in July 2016.<ref name="LaFraniere_Mazzetti_Apuzzo_12/30/2017">{{cite web | last=LaFraniere | first=Sharon | last2=Mazzetti | first2=Mark | last3=Apuzzo | first3=Matt | title=How the Russia Inquiry Began: A Campaign Aide, Drinks and Talk of Political Dirt | website=The New York Times | date=December 30, 2017 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/us/politics/how-fbi-russia-investigation-began-george-papadopoulos.html | access-date=January 21, 2018 }}</ref><ref name="Herb_Raju_Cohen_1/10/2018">{{cite web | last=Herb | first=Jeremy | last2=Raju | first2=Manu | last3=Cohen | first3=Marshall | title=Fusion co-founder: Dossier author feared Trump was being blackmailed | website=CNN | date=January 10, 2018 | url=http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/09/politics/feinstein-releases-glenn-simpson-transcript/index.html | access-date=January 21, 2018 | quote=<p>'''Quote''': Chris said he was very concerned about whether this represented a national security threat and said he wanted to -- he said he thought we were obligated to tell someone in government, in our government about this information," Simpson said. "He thought from his perspective there was an issue -- a security issue about whether a presidential candidate was being blackmailed. }}</ref> :: It was because ] believed that Trump was actually being blackmailed that he became "very concerned about whether this represented a national security threat". This concern led him to go to the FBI with his initial findings in July 2016.<ref name="LaFraniere_Mazzetti_Apuzzo_12/30/2017">{{cite web | last=LaFraniere | first=Sharon | last2=Mazzetti | first2=Mark | last3=Apuzzo | first3=Matt | title=How the Russia Inquiry Began: A Campaign Aide, Drinks and Talk of Political Dirt | website=The New York Times | date=December 30, 2017 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/30/us/politics/how-fbi-russia-investigation-began-george-papadopoulos.html | access-date=January 21, 2018 }}</ref><ref name="Herb_Raju_Cohen_1/10/2018">{{cite web | last=Herb | first=Jeremy | last2=Raju | first2=Manu | last3=Cohen | first3=Marshall | title=Fusion co-founder: Dossier author feared Trump was being blackmailed | website=CNN | date=January 10, 2018 | url=http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/09/politics/feinstein-releases-glenn-simpson-transcript/index.html | access-date=January 21, 2018 | quote=<p>'''Quote''': Chris said he was very concerned about whether this represented a national security threat and said he wanted to -- he said he thought we were obligated to tell someone in government, in our government about this information," Simpson said. "He thought from his perspective there was an issue -- a security issue about whether a presidential candidate was being blackmailed. }}</ref>

:: Luke Harding states that "Steele was shocked by the extent of collusion his sources were reporting." Steele told friends: "For anyone who reads it, this is a life-changing experience."<ref name="Borger_11/15/2017">{{cite web | last=Borger | first=Julian | title=Christopher Steele believes his dossier on Trump-Russia is 70-90% accurate | website=The Guardian | date=November 15, 2017 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/15/christopher-steele-trump-russia-dossier-accurate | access-date=January 22, 2018}}</ref> He felt that what he had unearthed "was something of huge significance, way above party politics".<ref name="Blum_3/30/2017">{{cite web | last=Blum | first=Howard | title=How Ex-Spy Christopher Steele Compiled His Explosive Trump-Russia Dossier | website=Vanity Fair | date=March 30, 2017 | url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/how-the-explosive-russian-dossier-was-compiled-christopher-steele | access-date=December 24, 2017}}</ref> Howard Blum described Steele's rationale for becoming a ]: "The greater good trumps all other concerns."<ref name="Blum_3/30/2017"/> Steele was so "alarmed" by his findings, that he showed them to FBI agents in Rome in early July. Their reaction was "shock and horror".<ref name="Kessler_1/9/2018">{{cite web | last=Kessler | first=Glenn | title=What you need to know about Christopher Steele, the FBI and the Trump ‘dossier’ | website=The Washington Post | date=January 9, 2018 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/01/09/what-you-need-to-know-about-christopher-steele-the-fbi-and-the-dossier/ | access-date=January 22, 2018}}</ref> :: Luke Harding states that "Steele was shocked by the extent of collusion his sources were reporting." Steele told friends: "For anyone who reads it, this is a life-changing experience."<ref name="Borger_11/15/2017">{{cite web | last=Borger | first=Julian | title=Christopher Steele believes his dossier on Trump-Russia is 70-90% accurate | website=The Guardian | date=November 15, 2017 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/15/christopher-steele-trump-russia-dossier-accurate | access-date=January 22, 2018}}</ref> He felt that what he had unearthed "was something of huge significance, way above party politics".<ref name="Blum_3/30/2017">{{cite web | last=Blum | first=Howard | title=How Ex-Spy Christopher Steele Compiled His Explosive Trump-Russia Dossier | website=Vanity Fair | date=March 30, 2017 | url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/03/how-the-explosive-russian-dossier-was-compiled-christopher-steele | access-date=December 24, 2017}}</ref> Howard Blum described Steele's rationale for becoming a ]: "The greater good trumps all other concerns."<ref name="Blum_3/30/2017"/> Steele was so "alarmed" by his findings, that he showed them to FBI agents in Rome in early July. Their reaction was "shock and horror".<ref name="Kessler_1/9/2018">{{cite web | last=Kessler | first=Glenn | title=What you need to know about Christopher Steele, the FBI and the Trump ‘dossier’ | website=The Washington Post | date=January 9, 2018 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/01/09/what-you-need-to-know-about-christopher-steele-the-fbi-and-the-dossier/ | access-date=January 22, 2018}}</ref>
:: ] of ] later revealed that "Steele severed his contacts with the FBI before the election following disclosures that the bureau’s inquiry had found no connection between Trump campaign and Russia and concerns that it was being 'manipulated for political ends by the Trump people'."<ref name="Jalonick_1/9/2018">{{cite web | last=Jalonick | first=Mary | title=Democratic report warns of Russian meddling in Europe, US | website=The Washington Post | date=January 9, 2018 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal_government/author-of-trump-dossier-had-concerns-about-russian-blackmail/2018/01/09/a893fce2-f5a0-11e7-9af7-a50bc3300042_story.html | access-date=January 22, 2018}}</ref>


=== DNC email hack === === DNC email hack ===

Revision as of 15:11, 22 January 2018

The 35-page Trump–Russia dossier contains a number of allegations, some of which are currently unproven. Natasha Bertrand has stated that it "alleges serious misconduct and conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia's government", and that, quoting the dossier, the "well-developed conspiracy of cooperation between and the Russian leadership was managed on the Trump side by the Republican candidate's campaign manager, Paul Manafort."

The allegations can be grouped into several main allegation themes. There are a number of allegations which received little or no attention in reliable sources, and they are not listed here.

Donald Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations, labeling the dossier as a "witch hunt", "discredited", "debunked", "fictitious", and "fake news".

Cultivation, conspiracy, and cooperation

  • That Russia has been "cultivating, supporting and assisting" Trump for at least five years.
Although the dossier alleges (in June 2016) that the Kremlin had been cultivating Trump for "at least five years", they had been interested in him since his first visit to Russia in 1987. Luke Harding asserts that: "The top level of the Soviet diplomatic service arranged his 1987 Moscow visit. With assistance from the KGB... The spy chief wanted KGB staff abroad to recruit more Americans." Harding then gives a detailed description of the process of cultivation used by the KGB. He posits that the KGB may have opened a file on Trump as early as 1977, when he married Ivana Trump (née Zelníčková), and that they were closely observed and analyzed from that time on.
  • That a "regular exchange between Mr Trump surrogates and Kremlin actually dates back eight years."
  • That there was a "well-developed conspiracy of co-operation between and the Russian leadership" to interfere in the 2016 election to Clinton's detriment.

Key roles of Manafort, Cohen, and Page

  • That Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort, had "managed" the "well-developed conspiracy of cooperation", and that he used "Carter Page and others as intermediaries" between the campaign and high-level Kremlin officials.
  • That Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, played a critical role in the Trump–Russia relationship by arranging cover-ups and deniable cash payments.

Why Kremlin backed Trump and opposed Clinton

  • That Russia supported Trump because he was "viewed as divisive in disrupting the whole US political system" and to "sow discord and disunity within the U.S. and the West".
According to Aiko Stevenson, some of Trump's actions seem to align with "Putin’s wish list", which "includes lifting sanctions on Russia, turning a blind eye towards its aggressive efforts in the Ukraine, and creating a divisive rift amongst western allies." Trump has "called Nato, the centrepiece of Transatlantic security 'obsolete', championed the disintegration of the EU, and said that he is open to lifting sanctions on Moscow."

Kompromat on Trump and Clinton

  • That kompromat exists on Trump in the form of blackmailable behavior. Harding has posited that the collection of kompromat on Trump could have started as early as 1977.
  • That Putin ordered the keeping of a secret dossier on Hillary Clinton. It dated back to the time of the Clinton presidency and was comprised mainly of eavesdropped conversations, some from bugging devices and others from phone intercepts. It did not contain "details/evidence of unorthodox or embarrassing behavior", but focused more on "things she had said which contradicted her current positions on various issues". It had been collated by the FSB and was managed by Dmitry Peskov, Putin's press secretary.

Blackmailable behavior by Trump

  • That Trump was compromised with the blackmailable acts of paying bribes and engaging in "perverted sexual acts" in Russia.
  • That "our separate sources also described 'unorthodox' and embarrassing behavior by Trump over the years" that could be used for blackmail.
  • That Trump had explored the real estate sectors in St Petersburg and Moscow, "but in the end Trump had had to settle for the use of extensive sexual services there from local prostitutes rather than business success".

Activated blackmail threat

  • That the Kremlin has enough "embarrassing material" (kompromat) on Trump "to be able to blackmail him if they so wished", but it has "promised not to use 'kompromat'...as leverage, given high levels of voluntary co-operation forthcoming from his team".
It was because Christopher Steele believed that Trump was actually being blackmailed that he became "very concerned about whether this represented a national security threat". This concern led him to go to the FBI with his initial findings in July 2016.
Luke Harding states that "Steele was shocked by the extent of collusion his sources were reporting." Steele told friends: "For anyone who reads it, this is a life-changing experience." He felt that what he had unearthed "was something of huge significance, way above party politics". Howard Blum described Steele's rationale for becoming a whistleblower: "The greater good trumps all other concerns." Steele was so "alarmed" by his findings, that he showed them to FBI agents in Rome in early July. Their reaction was "shock and horror".
Glenn R. Simpson of Fusion GPS later revealed that "Steele severed his contacts with the FBI before the election following disclosures that the bureau’s inquiry had found no connection between Trump campaign and Russia and concerns that it was being 'manipulated for political ends by the Trump people'."

DNC email hack

See also: Democratic National Committee cyber attacks and 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak
  • That the operation had been done with the full knowledge and support of Trump and senior members of his campaign team.
  • That Russia was responsible for the DNC email hacks and the recent appearance of the stolen DNC e-mails on WikiLeaks. The reason for using WikiLeaks was "plausible deniability".
  • That Trump's foreign policy adviser Carter Page had "conceived and promoted" the idea that the DNC emails to WikiLeaks should be leaked during the Democratic convention, “to swing supporters of Bernie Sanders away from Hillary Clinton and across to Trump".
  • That "Trump literally paid for them with his foreign policy platform" by dropping "Russian intervention in Ukraine as a campaign issue".
  • That the hacking of the DNC servers was performed by Romanian hackers ultimately controlled by Putin and paid by both Trump and Putin.
  • That Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, had a secret meeting with Kremlin officials in Prague in August 2016, where he arranged "deniable cash payments" to the hackers and sought "to cover up all traces of the hacking operation", as well as "cover up ties between Trump and Russia, including Manafort's involvement in Ukraine". Trump and Cohen have denied the allegations. Cohen said that between August 23 and August 29 he was in Los Angeles and in New York for the entire month of September. There is no record of him entering Prague by plane, but he could have entered by car or train from a neighboring country in the Schengen Zone.

Kickbacks and quid pro quo agreements

  • That former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who had requested Russian military intervention in Ukraine before he fled to Russia in 2014, told Putin he had been making supposedly "untraceable" "kickback payments" to Paul Manafort, who was Trump's campaign manager at the time.
  • That the Trump campaign engaged in a "Ukraine-WikiLeaks quid pro quo" agreement "to sideline Russian intervention in Ukraine as a campaign issue" in exchange for Russia leaking the stolen DNC emails to WikiLeaks.
  • That Trump's foreign-policy adviser, Carter Page, arranged a quid pro quo deal in which the Trump administration would get a 19% stake (ca. $11 billion) in Rosneft oil company in exchange for Trump lifting the Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia after his election. Page confirmed, on Trump's "full authority", that this was Trump's intent.
This deal has been described by Rolf Mowatt-Larssen in Newsweek as a quid pro quo deal that "colloquially, if not in the legal sense,... is called treason".
In Paste Magazine, Jacob Weindling described this deal as a "potential scandal so big, words don't exist to convey it." He further stated: "I want to take a moment to stress this potential revelation. In exchange for dropping sanctions that were levied for invading an ally , the president of the United States would receive a personal stake in a Russian oil company. Treason doesn't even begin to describe it."

See also

References

  1. ^ Bertrand, Natasha (February 11, 2017). "The timeline of Trump's ties with Russia lines up with allegations of conspiracy and misconduct". Business Insider. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  2. Breuninger, Kevin (January 13, 2018). "Fusion GPS testimony on infamous dossier shines new light on Trump's perilous financial ties". CNBC. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  3. ^ Withnall, Adam; Sengupta, Kim (January 12, 2017). "The 10 key Donald Trump allegations from the classified Russia memos". The Independent. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  4. ^ Sumter, Kyler (November 16, 2017). "The five most interesting claims in the Donald Trump dossier". The Week UK. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  5. ^ Harding, Luke (November 15, 2017). "How Trump walked into Putin's web". The Guardian. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  6. ^ Price, Greg (December 21, 2017). "What's True in the Trump 'Golden Shower' Dossier? Salacious Report Dogged President Throughout 2017". Newsweek. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  7. ^ Harding, Luke (November 19, 2017). "The Hidden History of Trump's First Trip to Moscow". Politico Magazine. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
  8. ^ Harding, Luke (2017). Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win. Vintage. ISBN 978-0525562511.
  9. Wood, Paul (March 30, 2017). "Trump Russia dossier key claim 'verified'". BBC News. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  10. ^ Weindling, Jacob (January 11, 2017). "The 31 Most Explosive Allegations against Trump from the Leaked Intelligence Document". Paste Magazine. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  11. ^ Yglesias, Matthew; Prokop, Andrew (January 5, 2018). "The Steele dossier on Trump and Russia, explained". Vox. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  12. Borger, Julian (October 7, 2017). "The Trump-Russia dossier: why its findings grow more significant by the day". The Guardian. Retrieved December 28, 2017.
  13. ^ Bertrand, Natasha (January 15, 2017). "Explosive memos suggest that a Trump-Russia quid pro quo was at the heart of the GOP's dramatic shift on Ukraine". Business Insider. Retrieved January 20, 2018.

    Quote: So this change on Ukraine definitely came from Trump staffers — not from RNC staffers.

  14. ^ Harding, Luke (May 10, 2017). "What do we know about alleged links between Trump and Russia?". The Guardian. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  15. ^ Borger, Julian (April 28, 2017). "UK was given details of alleged contacts between Trump campaign and Moscow". The Guardian. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
  16. ^ Bertrand, Natasha (November 6, 2017). "Carter Page's testimony is filled with bombshells - and supports key portions of the Steele dossier". Business Insider. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  17. ^ Sipher, John (September 6, 2017). "What exactly does the Steele dirty Russian dossier on Trump contain?". Newsweek. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  18. Stevenson, Aiko (January 18, 2017). "President Trump: The Manchurian Candidate?". HuffPost. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
  19. Satter, David (June 12, 2017). "From Russia With Chaos". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  20. Corn, David (October 31, 2016). "A Veteran Spy Has Given the FBI Information Alleging a Russian Operation to Cultivate Donald Trump". Mother Jones. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  21. Bertrand, Natasha (November 10, 2017). "Trump's bodyguard's testimony raises new questions about the most salacious allegations in the dossier". Business Insider. Retrieved January 14, 2018.
  22. Whitaker, Morgan (November 11, 2017). "Trump's bodyguard's testimony raises new questions about salacious allegations in the Russia dossier". AOL.com. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  23. Harding, Luke (January 11, 2017). "What we know – and what's true – about the Trump-Russia dossier". The Guardian. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  24. Smothers, Hannah (January 10, 2017). "Detailed Reports Allege President-Elect Donald Trump Hired Prostitutes to Pee on a Hotel Bed". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
  25. Stein, Jeff (January 10, 2017). "Trump, Russian spies and the infamous 'golden shower memos'". Newsweek. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
  26. ^ Parfitt, Tom (January 12, 2017). "Putin spies 'taped Trump sex game with prostitutes'". The Sunday Times. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
  27. LaFraniere, Sharon; Mazzetti, Mark; Apuzzo, Matt (December 30, 2017). "How the Russia Inquiry Began: A Campaign Aide, Drinks and Talk of Political Dirt". The New York Times. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
  28. Herb, Jeremy; Raju, Manu; Cohen, Marshall (January 10, 2018). "Fusion co-founder: Dossier author feared Trump was being blackmailed". CNN. Retrieved January 21, 2018.

    Quote: Chris said he was very concerned about whether this represented a national security threat and said he wanted to -- he said he thought we were obligated to tell someone in government, in our government about this information," Simpson said. "He thought from his perspective there was an issue -- a security issue about whether a presidential candidate was being blackmailed.

  29. Borger, Julian (November 15, 2017). "Christopher Steele believes his dossier on Trump-Russia is 70-90% accurate". The Guardian. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  30. ^ Blum, Howard (March 30, 2017). "How Ex-Spy Christopher Steele Compiled His Explosive Trump-Russia Dossier". Vanity Fair. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  31. Kessler, Glenn (January 9, 2018). "What you need to know about Christopher Steele, the FBI and the Trump 'dossier'". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  32. Jalonick, Mary (January 9, 2018). "Democratic report warns of Russian meddling in Europe, US". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 22, 2018.
  33. ^ Bertrand, Natasha (October 6, 2017). "Mueller reportedly interviewed the author of the Trump-Russia dossier - here's what it alleges, and how it aligned with reality". Business Insider. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  34. Bertrand, Natasha (November 17, 2017). "Kushner received emails from Sergei Millian - an alleged dossier source who was in touch with George Papadopoulos". Business Insider. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  35. ^ Cormier, Anthony (May 5, 2017). "This Is The Inside Of Trump's Lawyer's Passport". BuzzFeed. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
  36. ^ Gray, Rosie (January 10, 2017). "Michael Cohen: 'It Is Fake News Meant to Malign Mr. Trump'". The Atlantic. Retrieved December 24, 2017.

    Quote: I'm telling you emphatically that I've not been to Prague, I've never been to Czech , I've not been to Russia.

  37. RFE/RL (January 11, 2017). "Report: Czech Intelligence Says No Evidence Trump Lawyer Traveled To Prague". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved January 19, 2018.

    Quote: According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 'A Czech intelligence source told the Respekt magazine that there is no record of Cohen arriving in Prague by plane, although the news weekly pointed out he could have traveled by car or train from a nearby EU country, avoiding passport control under Schengen zone travel rules.'

  38. ^ Mowatt-Larssen, Rolf (June 20, 2017). "Have the Russians compromised Trump?". Newsweek. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  39. Roazen, Ben (February 21, 2017). "What Else Does the Donald Trump–Russia Dossier Tell Us?". GQ. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  40. Bertrand, Natasha (January 27, 2017). "Memos: CEO of Russia's state oil company offered Trump adviser, allies a cut of huge deal if sanctions were lifted". Business Insider. Retrieved December 29, 2017.
  41. Tracy, Abigail (November 7, 2017). "Is Carter Page Digging the Trump Administration's Grave? Three things the former campaign adviser revealed to Congress that should scare the White House". Vanity Fair. Retrieved December 29, 2017.

Further reading

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