CONFIRMED: The Kremlin got involved with Konstantin Rykov's online ventures at exactly the point Rykov says his plot to help elect Trump (with the assistance of Cambridge Analytica and WikiLeaks) began. And Trump's connected to Rykov's pal, Artem Klyushin. theatlantic.com/international/…
2/ With this news, the plot to steal the 2016 presidential election is now fully revealed: the who, when, and how.
It's just a question of the U.S. media reporting on it (in advance of Bob Mueller informing us, several months from now, that he already has all this information).
It's just a question of the U.S. media reporting on it (in advance of Bob Mueller informing us, several months from now, that he already has all this information).
3/ What we now know is that the Trump campaign's point of contact with Russian conspirators was Trump himself, and in fact it predated Trump's June 16, 2015 campaign launch by exactly 2 years. It began in Las Vegas on June 16, 2013, with a follow-up on November 9, 2013 in Moscow.
4/ Trump was aware, as of November 9, 2013—at the latest—that he would receive some sort of clandestine Russian assistance when he ran for president (a run the Russians knew about before anyone in America). He may or may not have known what sort of assistance Russia would offer.
5/ Given tech-whiz Rykov's self-admitted involvement, Trump wouldn't have been surprised when he first learned of Russian electoral-infrastructure hacking, propaganda/psy-ops and computer crimes involving the DNC and Hillary Clinton. His Russia policy was designed to reward them.
6/ The president knowingly aided and abetted crimes against the United States in order to secure Russian assistance with his presidential bid. His part in the conspiracy was to pre-promise Russia the enormous financial/political windfall of a unilateral lifting of U.S. sanctions.
7/ Flynn almost certainly knows all of this, which means if he's signed a deal with Mueller, it's only a matter of time before the true circumstances of Trump's campaign and election (including the actions of Sessions, Trump Jr., Manafort and others) become internationally known.
8/ What's not yet clear is whether top Trump aides like Papadopoulos, Clovis, Page, or Gordon knew about Trump's 2013 contacts with Russian conspirators. They may not have. But Trump used them to to stay in touch with the Russians and reassure them on his 2013 policy promises.
9/ I can't keep repeating all the evidence—almost all of which is from public reporting—that got us to this point. Please see the last two weeks of my feed for all the details substantiating the summary I've offered here. The elements of this narrative are reliably substantiated.
10/ Kremlin-funded Kremlin propagandist (and Putin political-party member) Rykov confessed on Facebook to coordinating with Cambridge Analytica and WikiLeaks many, many months before the former's possible participation in a Trump campaign-Russia plot was publicly discussed.
11/ Rykov's story checks out in all particulars, from Kremlin involvement and funding, to his association with Trump associates/Trump himself, to the methods he describes for assisting Trump's campaign. One can track his interest in Trump back many years—before Trump announced.
12/ To be sure, there's more work to be done to flesh out the story and nail down with great particularity every detail. But the direction this is going in—the shape and scope of the plot, including the identity of nearly all major players and most important dates—is now clear.
