Trump agents and enablers AMI catching and killing a story about Trump having an illegitimate child from a doorman for $30,000 in LATE 2013 is further confirmation that when Trump went to Moscow in November 2013 his closest allies knew he was running. We will learn Putin did too.
2/ The evidence Trump had decided to run for POTUS by the time he was negotiating a business deal with Putin and his agents in November '13 includes Trump-bought polls, statements by Michael Cohen, statements by Trump friends, statements from Russian business associates and more.
3/ The overlap between Trump paying off potential blackmailers and the Russia probe is simple: among other things, it helps prove whether Trump was secretly running a political campaign at the same time he was negotiating business deals with Russia, thus using his run as a chit.
4/ We already know Trump was *definitely* doing that when he set up a Trump Tower Moscow deal in the fall of 2015, the question is whether he was *also* doing that when he set up a Trump Tower Moscow deal in *late 2013*. Today's news is more evidence the answer is a clear "yes."
5/ Haven't you wondered why Trump lied about talking to Putin in 2013? (He told FNC he had—then retracted it after the Russia probe began.) What could *possibly* have happened during a call with Putin about BUSINESS while Trump was running for PRESIDENT that could pose a problem?
6/ It matters not at all—for the purposes of the Russia probe—whether the doorman's story was true. What matters is when the story came to light for Trump's allies, when they killed it, why they killed it, and why Trump is lying about why, when, and how his allies killed stories.
7/ Don't let people tell you these "catch-and-kill" stories are simply about Donald Trump being unfaithful to his wife over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.
They're about Russia—and the *selling of the presidency for cash*.
They're about Russia—and the *selling of the presidency for cash*.
8/ Remember that as Trump agents and enablers AMI begin catching and killing Trump infidelity stories in late 2013, Steve Bannon is ramping up Cambridge Analytica's preparation for assisting a presidential campaign, "MAGA" has been registered, "drain the swamp" is being tested...
9/ This thread is an example of why media needs to be talking to people who have not just subject-area expertise but *also* a sense of the Trump-Russia timeline. Otherwise, explanations of why Mueller is looking at AMI and "catch-and-kill" become legally and factually incoherent.
10/ I need to correct something in this thread, which is that the reports I'm seeing now are saying the doorman was paid off in late *2015*; the first reports did indeed say 2013, as I indicated here. That's great news for Trump—as 2015 was during his run rather than well before.
PS/ Hopefully there's still a utility in the observations here—e.g. that if certain activities are found to have taken place in 2013 (such as paying off potential Trump blackmailers or putting polls in the field) it will be critical to Mueller's probe of Trump's 2013 Moscow trip.
