Thread by @tburages

Fox's worst propagandists say there was no basis for the FBI to open a counter-intelligence investigation into a presidential campaign which had nearly 200 contacts with Russian operatives.

Let's remind them of some of these contacts detailed in the #MuellerReport.

In 2015 Michael Cohen and Felix Sater were ironing out secret details for a Trump Tower Moscow. Sater was dealing directly with individuals close to Putin.

In 2016 Michael Cohen communicated with the personal assistant of Dmitri Peskov.

As soon as Paul Manafort joined the campaign, his first item of business was to notify pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarchs of his new position.

Manafort regularly communicated with Konstantin Kilimnik, who the FBI had tagged as Russian Intelligence.

A pro-Russia policy was a central part of the Trump campaign's plan for this country.

Jared Kushner hooked up with Dmitri Simes very early on. He communicated with Simes throughout the campaign - both in person and by phone.

Dmitri Simes is a pro-Kremlin advisor and was a direct conduit to Vladimir Putin.

Papadopoulos had contacts with individuals connected to the Russian government as well.

But back to Kushner and Simes first.

Kremlin operatives literally WROTE Trump's first foreign policy speech.

Meanwhile, Manafort is still having contacts with Kremlin operatives and giving them internal campaign polling data!

Then there was the infamous June 2016 Trump Tower meeting that was only "PART of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump."

Another HUGE "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump" was the millions of dollars the Kremlin was pouring into its online propaganda effort troll farms - all to benefit Trump

Another massive effort that was "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump" was the hacking of the Democrats' servers by Russian military intelligence.

The Trump campaign was THRILLED that the Democrats were attacked by the Russian military.

After the GRU passed their stolen goods to Wikileaks, Roger Stone got in touch quickly to help weaponize it for maximum impact.

Their entire campaign revolved around the HELP THEY KNEW THEY WERE GETTING FROM RUSSIA.

Since the Trump campaign knew they were getting so much help from Russia, they asked what they could give in return.

Simes started by giving Kushner some specifics on how Trump could propagandize the American public into softening their views on Putin and Russia.

And we STILL DON'T KNOW exactly WHAT a Trump campaign advisor was doing hanging out in Moscow during the summer of 2016.

Then you've got THIS guy running around saying he's connected to Mike Flynn and Steve Bannon and that he's in contact with Russian hackers.

After the election, Kushner wanted to communicate with Putin and asked for a back-channel at the Russian Embassy.

And then you've got Mike Flynn actively undermining the newly enacted Russian sanctions that Obama had just signed.

And perhaps if Bannon and Prince hadn't deleted all their communications to obstruct Mueller's investigation, Mueller would have gotten to the bottom of that meeting Prince had with the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.

Mueller noted in his report that Trump was not straightforward in his answers (that he answered under oath). He either lied by omission or his memory is so faulty he should be removed from office.

So yes, there was MORE THAN enough reason to open a counter-intelligence investigation. It was more important for the FBI to protect the United States than to protect the privacy of a bunch of traitors.