Maria Butina was likely in contact with Russian Intelligence Services [FSB] throughout her stay in the US. FBI surveillance observed her in the company of a diplomat suspected of being a Russian intelligence officer for several weeks in Mar 2018.
#Maddow assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4609…
Prosecutors: Russian agent Maria Butina tried to trade sex for influence, "offering an individual other than US Person 1 [@GOP operative Paul Erickson] sex in exchange for a position within a special interest organization." #HONEYPOT
by @Tom_Winter #Maddow nbcnews.to/2Lqlu9f
In addition to her ties to the Russian govt & intelligence services, Maria Butina's financier is a Russian oligarch [other than Torshin] with deep ties to Putin, whom Butina refers to as her "funder" – so Butina is linked to @GOP, Trump campaign AND Putin.
@DavidCornDC #Maddow
NOV 2016 Steele memo [not in the 'dossier']: A senior Russian official discusses how the Kremlin intervened to block Trump's choice of Romney for Sec of State.
NOV 11, 2016: BUTINA sent Torshin a DM in which she predicted who would be named SoS.
#Maddow
Putin-linked Russian billionaire Konstantin Nikolaev funded Maria Butina. Nikolaev, who has ties to a Houston company praised by Trump, was at Trump's DC hotel during inauguration. His son volunteered for Trump's campaign.
by @CarolLeonnig @PostRoz #Maddow wapo.st/2A2GP3W?tid=ss…
Russian billionaire Konstantin Nikolaev [who bankrolled Maria Butina] is a major investor & board member [along with former Putin CoS, Voloshin] of Houston firm American Ethane, which Trump helped to seal a $26B export deal with China.
cc @lukeharding1968
"Trump applauded vigorously as American Ethane CEO John Houghtaling signed a 'historic' memorandum of understanding with his Chinese partner." A chief beneficiary of the deal: Maria Butina's financier, Konstantin Nikolaev.
@lukeharding1968 @PostRoz #Maddow
Trump's former NSA accused him of treasonous conduct –– “aiding and abetting” Russia's attack on the 2020 election –– and the story was blown away by the never-ending firehose of craziness and disinformation generated by Trump and his crew.
by @DavidCornDC motherjones.com/politics/2020/…
Also see this thread by @ChrisMurphyCT about "the massive coverup campaign underway to disguise the octopus-like Russian election interference operation being run on Trump's behalf."
Senior Pentagon leadership are quarantining after exposure to Vice Commandant of the US Coast Guard, Adm. Charles Ray, who tested COVID+ Monday:
-Gen. Mark Milley
-CoS of the USAF, Charles Brown
-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gilday
-Chief of Space Operations, Gen. Raymond.
Last Sunday, General Milley and many of the Pentagon’s senior leadership attended a White House reception for “Gold Star” families of fallen troops. Trump and Melania were at that event.nytimes.com/live/2020/10/0…
Feds are seizing masks and other #COVID19 supplies from hospitals without a word.
“Federal officials sweep in without warning to expropriate our supplies... Are they stockpiling it? Distributing it? Will we get any of it back? We can’t get any answers.”latimes.com/politics/story…
“Trump and other White House officials, including Jared Kushner, claim that the federal government is using a 'data-driven approach' to procure [STEAL] medical supplies from hospitals and direct them where they are most needed [TO HELP TRUMP'S REELECTION].”
!! Chairs of two key House panels are demanding answers about Jared Kushner's role “in the acquisition, distribution of, or federally directed sale of any form of PPE or medical supplies and equipment to be used for the diagnosis or treatment of COVID-19.”nbcnews.com/politics/white…
It took 70 days from the initial notification on Jan 3 for Trump to treat coronavirus not as a hoax, but as a lethal force poised to kill thousands. But by then, critical time had been squandered and opportunities to mitigate the pandemic were lost.washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Because of Trump and his admin's failures over the first 70 days of the coronavirus crisis, the US will likely go down as the country that was supposedly best prepared to fight a pandemic but ended up sustaining heavier casualties than any other nation.
For 70 days, Trump lied to the public about coronavirus.
By the time he proclaimed himself a wartime president and coronavirus the enemy, the US was on track to see more of its people die than in the wars of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq combined. washingtonpost.com/video/politics…
BREAKING: Trump has fired inspector general for the intelligence community, Michael Atkinson, who opposed then-DNI Maguire’s decision to withhold the whistleblower complaint from Congress, which sparked the impeachment inquiry.
NEW: Trump has fired intelligence community inspector general Michael Atkinson, who was first to sound the alarm to Congress last September about an “urgent” complaint he’d received from an intelligence official re Trump’s communications with Ukraine.politico.com/news/2020/04/0…
Schiff: Trump’s dead of night decision to fire ICIG Michael Atkinson is another blatant attempt to gut the independence of the Intelligence Community and retaliate against those who dare to expose presidential wrongdoing.