MINI-THREAD: President Trump has been tweeting this morning about the Mueller indictments and Russian interference. Lots of half-truths and obfuscation. Here's a quick and simple fact-check of his comments.
Rosenstein did say this. But he made it clear that he was referring only to "the indictment." This indictment does not contain proof of collusion. But it does not exonerate the Trump campaign in the other matters that are still under investigation.
Parts of the Russian interference operation began in 2014, according to the indictment. But Russia's goals shifted over time. At some point, the operation turned from "sow division" to "sow division and help Trump," as early as the GOP primary.
FB exec says the majority of Russian ad spending was AFTER the election. Okay. But that still means a foreign power bought ads on Facebook DURING the election to mess with our political process. POTUS does not seem concerned.
Friday's indictments provide clear examples of anti-Clinton FB ads from Russia. Broadly, it can be true that the social media part was more to sow discord. But the WikiLeaks releases clearly helped one candidate (Trump) over another (Clinton).
This is a complete red herring. While Mueller's team has drawn on some resources from the FBI to assist the Russia investigation, the involvement of FBI agents is far too small to likely impede the bureau's efforts to prevent mass shootings.
For the billionth time: The US intel community report "did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election." (Also, this tweet is a stunning rebuke by the president of his National Security Adviser.)
Once more, POTUS is publicly leaning on the FBI to investigate his political opponents. We have become quite familiar with this behavior in the past year, but that doesn't mean that it is OK or appropriate.
Accusations of leaks have been prevalent on both sides of the House Intel Committee. Also this logic from Trump is a bit counter-intuitive. Schiff wishes Obama came out earlier and told the nation that Russia was meddling to help Trump win.....
1) Trump told @TIME on 11/28/16: "I don’t believe they interfered. That became a laughing point, not a talking point."
2) Trump speculated that it could be China or a hacker on his bed AFTER the US government publicly accused Russia of hacking the DNC.
2) Trump speculated that it could be China or a hacker on his bed AFTER the US government publicly accused Russia of hacking the DNC.
I don't really have much to say about this one.
Actually, a leading criticism of the (GOP-led) Congressional inquiries is that there are NOT ENOUGH public hearings on Russia. Open hearings allow the American people to watch on TV, learn the truth and make better decisions.
All right, that's a wrap. Thanks for reading.
