(MUST-SEE VIDEO) The Russian national who asked this question of Trump about sanctions, Maria Butina, was just charged with a major crime. There's *every possibility* that Trump knew this woman when he called on her—as her boss says he's a friend of Trump.
2/ In 2017, I said if Trump knew Maria Butina as he knows her boss, it was likely he called on her in order to make a public statement on sanctions that he knew Putin was listening to. If so, this is part of the "collusion in plain sight" theory. Butina now faces federal charges.
3/ Trump's reply to now-charged Butina includes:
1. "I know Putin"
2. "We [NB: 'royal we,' i.e. 'I'] get along with Putin"
3. "I believe I'd get along very nicely with Putin"
4. "I don't think you'd need the [Russia] sanctions"
5. "I think that we would get along very very well"
1. "I know Putin"
2. "We [NB: 'royal we,' i.e. 'I'] get along with Putin"
3. "I believe I'd get along very nicely with Putin"
4. "I don't think you'd need the [Russia] sanctions"
5. "I think that we would get along very very well"
4/ If Trump called on Butina knowing she was a Russian agent—as Mueller says she is—he answered her question intending to send a clear message to Vladimir Putin, in Summer 2015, just weeks after he'd announced his run, knowing that he was communicating directly with the Kremlin.
