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Karol 🌿
@karolcummins
, 35 tweets, 11 min read Read on Twitter
Is Trump a Russian Agent?: Explaining Terms of Art and Examining the Facts

By John Sipher justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌Aside from Trump’s flawed personality, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence that Trump is nonetheless acting counter to U.S. interests in a conspiratorial manner.

justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌Trump has attacked the FBI and U.S. foreign policy establishment, driven a wedge between NATO and the U.S., and delivered Russia a free hand in Syria.

📌Trump willingly enabled the very damage that the Russians were promoting.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
If not for significant political resistance (including from his own Party), he may well have also provided sanctions relief, recognized Russia’s seizure of Crimea, returned Russian diplomatic residences, and weakened the enforcement of the Magnitsky Act.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
Needless to say, for his part Trump gained an ally in his effort to damage Hillary Clinton, benefited from Russian disinformation, and explored personal financial rewards.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌📌Trump clearly crossed a line and can be objectively labeled an agent of a foreign power in the standard definition of the word.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌From the Russian perspective, it is a win-win even if the relationship doesn’t meet the cloak-and-dagger definition of a wholly clandestine espionage agent.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
RUs are more comfortable managing an stable of controlled assets, witting collaborators, useful idiots and loosely-connected people who can promote Russian narratives and propaganda.
In this sense.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
Trump’s dishonesty and disloyalty to American interests would have served the Russians well.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
Even more likely, the Russians may see him as similar to the corrupt oligarchs around Putin. In many ways, Putin has built a mafia/gangster state reliant on a powerful intelligence apparatus
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
Oligarchs know they cannot rely on the legal system or an ethos of protecting the individual against the state, they’ve created a system akin to the mafia in which those with money and power play along
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
For fear that the Kremlin or others have compromising material that could undermine them – a form of Slavic mutual assured destruction.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
It is not beyond the pale that Trump’s decades of shady business dealings may have landed him smack in the middle of the Russian system of “kompromat” whereby he is unsure of who holds what compromising information on him.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
Trump may suspect the Kremlin has access to past misdeeds in Russia, or knowledge of financial shenanigans elsewhere.

justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌📌However, once you swim in the pool of dirty money, corruption, blackmail and espionage, you need to play by the unwritten rules in order to keep your head above water.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌Trump therefore may seek to maintain a good relationship with the Kremlin as a matter of practicality.

📌Indeed, these types of corrupt alliances are nothing new to the Kremlin.

justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌📌It is hard to imagine that the highly transactional Trump would resist offers of assistance.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌While President Trump is unlikely to be a full-blown recruited and controlled source, there may be those around him who are.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌A number of members and associates of the Trump campaign displayed a clear willingness to engage in shady behavior and cover-ups.

📌Russia made multiple attempts to penetrate the U.S. presidential campaign.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
The approaches were not rebuffed. Members of the Trump campaign showed a willingness to collude and conspire.

📌They welcomed receipt of materials stolen from Americans by a hostile intelligence agency and apparently never reported the fact to the FBI.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌Then, all of those contacted concealed the contacts and repeatedly lied about them.

justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌After all that, they added insult to injury by repeatedly attacking the credibility of those professionals empowered by the American people to investigate foreign intelligence attacks and hold wrongdoers accountable.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌📌In any event, playing footsie with a hostile intelligence service may not be illegal but it is unpatriotic, unwise and dangerous.

justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
Page’s history with the FBI and Russian services is fairly well known.

If the Russians didn’t pitch him to become an agent it was because they determined he wasn’t worth the effort. 🤣🤣🤣
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌Manafort is a different story. Manafort’s out-of-control ego and greed were apparent to everyone he met.

📌He spent years conspiring with and enabling war criminals, undermining U.S. policy and looking to make a buck anywhere he could.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌Manafort enriched himself while engaged with Russians and Russian-linked Ukrainians.

📌Anyone who has spent years making money on the fringes of Russian politics has rubbed up against the cesspool of Russian intelligence, criminality and corruption.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
The one campaign official who participated in the infamous June 9, 2016 meeting who certainly had enough experience to understand how the Kremlin would seek to exploit that meeting was Manafort.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌The fact that Manafort accepted the meeting and failed to report Russian efforts to fence stolen data suggest that he was comfortable engaging in illicit, subversive, and potentially criminal behavior.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌Manafort surely knew how the Russians operate, what was on offer and the stakes involved.

📌He displayed top-level access and a clear willingness to conspire.

📌Manafort failed to put his country first.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌Trump is clearly a useful tool to promote their interests.

📌The Russians want to weaken the U.S. and sow chaos.

📌Trump was the chaos candidate.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌Even if his assistance has been unintentional, his lies and cover-up provide the Kremlin leverage it could use at a later date.

justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌Likewise, many of the meetings between Trump associates and Russians appear to have been part of the early courtship phase of classic espionage gamesmanship.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
In the world of counterintelligence there is a big difference between knowing something and being able to prove it in a court of law.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
Given these variables, it may be unlikely that any legal judgment or other formal, public determination will prove Trump or his associates sold out their country to the Russian intelligence services.
justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
📌📌Their clear willingness to do so, however, demands at least a political reckoning, as provided for in the U.S. Constitution.justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
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More from @karolcummins see all

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Karol 🌿
@karolcummins
💰Trump=RUagent💰

"Trump has weakened NATO, given Russia an increasingly free hand in Syria, minimized sanctions against Russian actors, questioned America’s commitment to protecting Eastern Europe from Russian aggression and defended Putin on the world stage."
💰T=RUagent2💰

RU attacked us. The MR still doesn’t give us the full story.

If not for significant political resistance, he may have provided sanctions relief, recognized RU’s seizure of Crimea, returned RU diplomatic residences & weakened the enforcement of the Magnitsky Act.
💰T=RUagent3💰

📌Trump gained an ally in Putin in his effort to damage HRC, benefited from Russian disinfo, & explored personal financial rewards.

📌Trump clearly crossed a line and can be objectively labeled an agent of a foreign power in the standard definition of the word.
Read 61 tweets
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Karol 🌿
@karolcummins
🏆Congress🏆

🏆Power of Oversight🏆

Upon carrying out its Constitutional obligations of oversight, it is up to Congress—not Bill Barr and not Robert Mueller—to determine if Trump is fit to be president and whether or not any of his behavior rises to the level of impeachment.
🏆Congress🏆

Mueller:

“The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President’s corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our Constitutional system of checks and balances and the principles that no person is above the law.”
🏆Congress🏆

Sounds like an impeachment referral.

The Mueller report paints a very damning portrait of Trump.

It paints a picture of someone who knew RU was interfering, invited that interference, & then did everything in his power to stop the inv’n into that interference.
Read 50 tweets
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Karol 🌿
@karolcummins
🚫Illigitimate🚫

📌Trump was elected with the help of a hostile foreign nation

📌Russia attacked us. We still doesn’t know the full story. Stay tuned!

WH = A Culture of Dishonesty

Trump seethes after MR paints damning portrait per WH aides

📌TeamTrump & RUs = 140 contacts
🚫Illigitimate2🚫

Barr’s incredibly misleading words

Due Process:

Prosecutors do not stand on the courthouse steps BEFORE a trial & announce a defendant is guilty of a crime, ergo SC was unwilling to stand on the steps of Congress & announce “Trump Is guilty - so impeach him.”
🚫Illigitimate3🚫

The counterintel probe into TeamTrump & RU is ongoing

Sean Hannity aided the Trump Tower meeting clean-up effort

Erik Prince financed effort to find HRC’s emails

DEMs examine Prince’s stmts on 2017 Seychelles meeting for possible perjury
Read 63 tweets

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Righteous Babe
@RighteousBabe4
Really good read. justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
I think it is entirely plausible that Mr. Trump is somehow compromised by his personal and financial dealings with Russia and Russians, but I do not think he is an “agent” in the sense that intelligence professionals use the term.
Russia ➡️ are also more comfortable with sources who can help them in some manner or other even if they are not fully recruited spies.
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To a professional he is nightmare.Yes, he is a cauldron of potentially exploitable vulnerabilities.He is greedy has lax morals & shameisn’t particularly patriotic has a difficult time with right & wrong & is easy to manipulate. He would be easy to exploit and entice
1/ he would be essentially impossible to control. His narcissism, poor memory and ego would make it all but impossible for him to follow directions and keep a secret. He would be a nightmare to debrief.
2/ He blathers about things he doesn’t understand, never admits that he is not an expert, is loathe to admit mistakes, lies constantly and is barely intelligible.
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article58
@article_58
Sipher: Trump “clearly crossed a line and can be objectively labeled an agent of a foreign power in the standard definition of the word.” justsecurity.org/63660/is-trump…
“Russian services are not as stuck on the issue of control as are the American services. They are more comfortable managing an stable of controlled assets, witting collaborators, useful idiots and loosely-connected people who can promote Russian narratives and propaganda.”
“Once you swim in the pool of dirty money, corruption, blackmail and espionage, you need to play by the unwritten rules in order to keep your head above water. Mr. Trump therefore may seek to maintain a good relationship with the Kremlin as a matter of practicality.”
Read 6 tweets
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How #Trump became a #Soviet/#Russian Agent
1. #Trump's first known visit to #Soviet and #Moscow in 1987 looks to be part of a pattern. The #SteeleDossier says that the #Kremlin had been cultivating# Trump for “at least five years” before 2016 elections, meaning it asserts a beginning in 2011 or 2012.
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@DrDenaGrayson
THREAD: here’s a breakdown of the JUICY details in the sentencing memo filed by lawyers for Alex van der Zwaan (“v.d.Swamp”), the son-in-law of #Russian🇷🇺oligarch, German Khan (AlfaGroup/AlfaBank co-founder)‼️1/

#TrumpRussia

Link to court document👉🏼courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
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Zach Everson
@Z_Everson
Trump Hotels' website still lists Trump SoHo New York among its properties in the Our Hotels menu. Select its name though to access its page and there's a message about it being renamed

bit.ly/2EPCSy1
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bit.ly/2CpL7z2
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