In August 2013, future Trump national security advisor Joseph Schmitz was working on a secret, unsanctioned arms deal with Russia: $70 million-plus in Russian arms to Syrian rebels. Six months later, the U.S. sanctioned Russia over its invasion of Crimea. wsj.com/articles/priva…
2/ So when Trump brought Schmitz aboard his NatSec team in March 2016—one of its first five members, along with Page, Papadopoulos, Phares, and Flynn-replacement Kellogg—he knew he'd brought on a man who strongly opposed U.S. sanctions on Russia for the *same reasons* Russia did.
3/ Russia has long argued that sanctions on Russia hurt possible anti-terror partnerships—which is exactly what Schmitz believes. It's *also* what Panos Kammenos, the Greek defense minister who secretly met with George Papadopoulos, believes. And it's what Carter Page has argued.
4/ Phares has likewise said anti-terror partnerships are of paramount (unsurpassed) importance. In other words, Trump assembled a NatSec team in 2016 whose members all strongly believed anti-Russian sanctions were detrimental to anti-terror efforts and therefore should be ended.
5/ And we know Mike Flynn spent Fall 2015—leading up to his dinner with Vladimir Putin—saying the same thing to Donald Trump. And yet Trump knows nothing about foreign policy. So how did he end up surrounded by *so many* men who all share a minority view on U.S.-Russia sanctions?
6/ I know this much: after Assad killed 1,400 with poison gas in Damascus on August 30, 2013, Schmitz's Russian-arms-to-Syria deal fell apart. Schmitz spent September 2013 trying to save it. And it was then Trump retweeted a tweet directed to him and Kremlin agent Artem Klyushin: 
7/ So prior to Trump having *any* foreign policy advisors—he'd never met Flynn before—he was retweeting tweets about Russian attempts to intervene in Syria—a highly complex issue—and doing so while his future NatSec advisor was working on that exact (esoteric) issue. Coincidence?
8/ More attention needs to be paid to how and why Trump was being advised on Russia policy *18 months before* he announced his presidential run. It was a time period—June 2013 through Russia's invasion of Crimea in February 2014—Trump was spending *lots* of time with Russians.
9/
June '13: With Putin agents, Vegas.
September '13: Trump/Klyushin tweeted at re: Syria.
November '13: With Kremlin agents, Moscow.
January '14: Kremlin agent Alferova tweets at Trump.
February '14: Ivanka with Kremlin agent, Moscow.
March '14: Trump golfs with Kremlin agent.
June '13: With Putin agents, Vegas.
September '13: Trump/Klyushin tweeted at re: Syria.
November '13: With Kremlin agents, Moscow.
January '14: Kremlin agent Alferova tweets at Trump.
February '14: Ivanka with Kremlin agent, Moscow.
March '14: Trump golfs with Kremlin agent.
10/ Putin didn't invade Crimea in February 2014 out of the blue. The op was well--planned. During the planning, Trump was promising Putin he'd run for president and—apparently—developing a Russian sanctions policy at a time he was with Russians *and* Russia anticipated sanctions.
11/ So we have to start putting the "KARA plot" timeline—the plot begins shortly before Miss USA 2013 (late spring 2013) and continues until Aras Agalarov cancels the Trump Tower Moscow letter-of-intent in February 2017—against Russia's Crimean-invasion timeline. They're linked.
12/ But remember that Rykov claims his Kremlin-funded efforts to assist Trump began in November 2012—5 months before his pal Emin approaches Trump about bringing Miss Universe to Moscow (the real start of the KARA plot). So Putin began his work the moment the 2012 election ended.
13/ You think Putin didn't watch this? You think anyone watching this didn't see that Trump—who Luke Harding has said the KGB was priming since '87—was now sufficiently animated to work with *anyone* who'd help him run in the next available election ('16)?
14/ Trump says that during his November '13 call with Putin, Putin made clear how little he respects Obama. When Trump advisor Flynn dined with Putin in December '15, Putin again attacked Obama. Russia's approach to Trump from '13 through '15 was *always* about hatred for Obama.
15/ So yes, Putin and his agents were flattering Trump with business deals; they were also flattering him with their hatred of Obama. Which is why anyone who knows this history believed Chris Steele when he said Trump had prostitutes urinate on the Ritz Moscow bed Obama slept in.
16/ The Ritz Moscow "pee tape" is *literally* not about sex. It's about the Russians' efforts to flatter Donald Trump by giving him a chance to symbolically disgrace President Obama. So when the media refuses to discuss the tape, it's refusing to discuss the Trump-Obama timeline.
17/ Congress says it aims to understand Russia's plot to influence our election. Russia's development of Trump as an agent of influence—or asset—was part of that plot. And it involved sanctions policy; Trump Tower Moscow; the Trump-Obama feud and other things the GOP won't touch.
18/ So if you're part of #TheResistance and want a way to frame what should be called the "Ritz Moscow tape," explain that it's about a) a celebration of Trump signing a building deal with Kremlin agents; b) Trump's feud with Obama (a reason for running for POTUS); c) blackmail.
19/ I have yet to meet anyone who says they want to see Trump naked; who cares about his sex life (and that tape would be like the 10,000th-worst thing Trump has ever done on that score); or who gives one whit for the salacious nature of the tape rather than its use as blackmail.
20/ But for those who say, "Why would Trump care if a salacious tape is released?", consider this week: Trump told aides the most outrageous lie he's ever told ("a tape I confessed to already is fake") to cover his ass over *audio* in which he is *not* engaging in sexual conduct.
