,
13 tweets,
5 min read
Read on Twitter
THREAD: The timing of the amazing @jimsciutto story on the CIA pulling their asset out of Moscow is critical and it is bonkers. Lost is Putin's call with Trump on May 2, 2017. A bizarre chain of events followed. 1/ cnn.com/2019/09/09/pol…
On May 2nd, Trump had a call with Putin, which was ostensibly about Syria. But Putin also proposed a visit from Russian FM Sergei Lavrov and Trump agreed. It was arranged for just 8 days later... and Ukraine seems to be the actual purpose. 2/ nytimes.com/2017/05/02/wor…
The next day, Wed. May 3rd, James Comey testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and refused to speak about the Russia investigation. But Trump was apparently incensed that Comey didn’t explicitly say that he wasn’t under investigation. 3/ cnbc.com/video/2017/05/…
On Friday May 5th, Trump goes to Bedminster w/ Jared, Stephen Miller, and family and decides to fire Comey. 4/ nj.com/politics/2019/…
Tuesday evening May 9th, Comey was fired. Trump thought firing Comey and ending the Russia investigation w/d free his hand. Trump told DNI Coats that he "can’t do anything with Russia. There’s things I’d like to do with Russia." 5/ theassetpodcast.org/episode/payoff/
The next morning, May 10th, Lavrov at the WH w/ Kislyak. Trump tells them, "I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job. I face great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off. I’m not under investigation." 6/ nytimes.com/2017/05/19/us/…
He also disclosed classified information about an Israeli asset in Syria.(!) This likely would have freaked out the CIA... 7/
But that's not all. Later that same afternoon Trump met with Ukrainian FM Pavlo Klimkin. Tweeting "LETS MAKE PEACE." 8/
Remember the Russians wanted the Trump admin to deliver was a pro-Russian Ukrainian peace plan. Konstantin Kilimnik was pressing Manafort w/ one. And Andrei Artemenko worked w/ Felix Sater and Michael Cohen to get a plan to Flynn at the NSC. 9/ themoscowproject.org/players/andriy…
And here Trump is pushing for peace, arranging for a set of meetings seemingly AT the direction of the Kremlin. 10/
It was presumably after this - and the firing of Comey - which prompts the FBI to open a counterintelligence investigation into whether Trump is a Russian asset. 11/ nytimes.com/2019/01/11/us/… 
My guess is that the CIA's push back vs CNN's story that it was the Kislyak meeting which triggered the exfil is not technically wrong. It wasn't one event. It was likely a confluence of events. It wasn't just Trump disclosing TS/SCI info, it was him acting like an asset! 12/
We break this down in detail in episode 11 of @AssetPodcast. theassetpodcast.org/episode/payoff/
