SCOOP: Lindsey Graham was pranked by the same Russians who got to Adam Schiff. In a call with the "Turkish defense minister," he called the Kurdish YPG a "threat" and said Trump "wants to be helpful, within the limits of his power" in the Reza Zarrab case. politico.com/news/2019/10/1…
Bloomberg reported last night that Trump pressured Tillerson to ask DOJ to drop the Zarrab case. Graham suggested Trump would try to help as best he could. “I think President Trump likes President Erdogan. I think he’s a strong man and we need to deal with strong people."
In the call, Graham was concerned w/getting Turkey back into the F-35 program & urged the “defense minister” to refrain from using Russia’s S-400 system. But Graham also expressed sympathy for Turkey’s “Kurdish problem” and described Kurds as a “threat.” politico.com/news/2019/10/1…
The pranksters’ conversation with Graham also raises questions about potential security breaches. While the pranks appear on their face to have been relatively harmless, the incident suggests it’s getting easier for bad actors to elicit sensitive information from policymakers.
Graham also suggests setting up an "informal, off the record, not public" call between Trump and Erdogan. You can listen to the full audio of both calls here:
politico.com/news/2019/10/1…
politico.com/news/2019/10/1…
