The Veunes Blog: February 2017

The list below is a collection of publicly available and verifiable facts connecting United States President Donald Trump and his closest associates during his presidential campaign and administration with Russia, generally, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, specifically. The list doesn't include the Russian hacking into the U.S. presidential election in favor of Trump, although it’s very well-established that Russian agents, under the direction of Putin, were indeed responsible. Following the list is my take on the whole Trump-Russia connection. After my take, I’ve included some important questions to consider pertaining to the Trump-Russia connection and a section describing the big picture as the Trump presidency unfolds. Finally, I list my sources (including links to specific web pages). Since this blog post was first published, it has been updated multiple times as the story of the connection between Trump and Russia has unfolded and whenever new information has been revealed. Consequently, the note in parentheses at the very bottom of the blog post lists when the blog post was last updated.

The facts about the Trump-Russia connection:

Donald Trump traveled to Moscow for the first time on July 4, 1987, by invitation of the then-Soviet ambassador, to pursue a hotel deal.
Trump purchased a Palm Beach mansion for $41.35 million in 2004 that he sold to a Russian oligarch about four years later for more than double the price.
Felix Sater, a Russian-born principal for real estate investment firm and Trump Tower tenant Bayrock Group, which has worked on deals with the Trump family, has admitted to having close ties to the Kremlin and the KGB. Sater communicated with Trump lawyer and Trump Organization executive Michael Cohen during the presidential campaign about helping Trump get a Trump Tower built in Moscow and win the election with the help of Vladimir Putin.
In a 2008 real estate conference, Donald Trump Jr. admitted that the Trump Organization gets a large amount of business from Russia.
Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani's law firm counted Russia's state-run oil company as a client.
Trump held the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow in 2013, in a deal that was financed in part by a Russian billionaire ally of Putin.
In 2013, Trump admitted to having a relationship with Putin (video below). He also claimed to have close ties to many Russian oligarchs.

Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort worked for a Russian billionaire with close ties to Putin. Manafort also advised the Putin-backed former Ukrainian president.
Trump’s former foreign policy adviser Carter Page lived in Moscow and advised Russian state-run company Gazprom. During the Republican National Convention, Page had communications with the Russian ambassador. Also during the presidential campaign, Page gave a speech in Moscow criticizing U.S. sanctions against Russia.
Russian-born Boris Epshteyn, a Trump aide, worked to promote investments in Russia.
Howard Lorber, a long-time Trump friend and adviser who donated to the Trump presidential campaign, runs a company with business interests in Russia.
Michael Cohen wrote to Putin's personal spokesman regarding the Trump Tower project in Moscow.
Starting in March 2016, George Papadopoulos, an adviser for the Trump campaign, sent multiple emails about arranging a meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russians.
Richard Burt, who helped draft a foreign policy speech Trump delivered in April 2016 that called for greater cooperation with Russia, was lobbying at the time for a Russian-backed gas pipeline. He also advised an investment group with close ties to the Kremlin.
Before his April 2016 foreign policy speech, Trump met the Russian ambassador. During the speech, the Russian ambassador sat in the front row.
The Republican National Committee, under the leadership of Chairman Reince Priebus, who later became Trump's White House chief of staff, paid a firm with ties to a Russian former KGB agent for reports on Trump's presidential opponent Hillary Clinton.
At a news conference during his presidential campaign, Trump said he hoped Russia could find Clinton's "30,000 emails that are missing" (video below).

Roger Stone, a former campaign adviser for Trump, communicated privately with Guccifer 2.0, the persona tied to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee, in the summer of 2016.
Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign official, arranged a meeting between Stone and a Russian offering to help provide information that would help Trump's presidential campaign.
Trump's deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn, who was a Trump aide during the presidential campaign, communicated with campaign officials in June 2016 about efforts to arrange a meeting between Trump officials and Putin.
On June 9, 2016, shortly after Trump secured the Republican nomination, Donald Trump Jr., along with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, met at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin.
During the presidential campaign while he was an adviser to Trump, Michael Flynn was paid tens of thousands of dollars for work he performed on behalf of two Russian companies. He was also paid to attend and participate in an event for the Kremlin-financed network RT, where he sat next to Putin (pictured below).

Trump’s Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, serving as CEO of ExxonMobil in 2011, struck a $500 billion oil deal with Russia. In 2013, Putin awarded Tillerson the Russian Order of Friendship (pictured below). The oil deal was canceled in 2014 as a result of U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia after Russia’s invasion of Crimea.

In 2016, Trump's Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was a member of Trump's presidential campaign at the time, met privately with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.
J.D. Gordon, the Trump campaign's director of national security, communicated with the Russian ambassador during the Republican National Convention. He also advocated for a softening of the language against Russia in the Republican platform.
Gordon communicated with a Russian accused of being a foreign agent.
Gordon, Sessions, Page, Trump campaign national security advisory committee member Walid Phares, and Trump's former Deputy National Security Advisor K. T. McFarland, were part of a diplomacy conference held during the Republican National Convention attended by the Russian ambassador.
Trump's Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross served as vice-chairman of the Bank of Cyprus. A part-owner of the bank, along with a former KGB agent who was vice-chairman of the bank, are both close allies to Putin. Another one of the part-owners of the bank is the same Russian oligarch who had bought a Palm Beach mansion from Trump. Ross is also invested in a shipping company with ties to a Russian gas company owned in part by Putin's son-in-law.
Jason Greenblatt, a former Trump Organization lawyer and current White House special representative for international negotiations, met with the chief rabbi of Russia, an ally of Putin.
A Russian bank with leaders who are close allies to Putin was found to be communicating with an email server from the Trump Organization.
In September 2016, Representative Dana Rohrabacher, who has met multiple times with Russian officials, met with then-Trump campaign adviser Michael Flynn.
In October 2016, Donald Trump, Jr. spoke at a private dinner hosted by a group with connections to Russia's Foreign Ministry that promotes pro-Kremlin initiatives.
Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and White House senior adviser, met with the Russian ambassador at Trump Tower in December 2016 and discussed setting up a secret communication channel between Trump's team and Russia. Kushner also met with an official from a Russian bank tied to Putin that's been under U.S. sanctions since 2014.
During the presidential transition, while attending intelligence briefings with Trump, Flynn was lobbying on behalf of a Turkish man with business ties to Putin.
Flynn also communicated with the Russian ambassador. Flynn later resigned as national security adviser as a result of providing misleading information regarding these contacts.
Erik Prince, a major donor to the Trump campaign and brother of Trump's Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, also with ties to Trump's one-time campaign CEO, Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor Steve Bannon, met in January 2017 in the Seychelles with a Putin associate.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has explored lifting sanctions placed on Russia by the Obama administration for invading Ukraine and interfering in the U.S. presidential election.
In February 2017, during his first foreign trip as secretary of state, Tillerson met privately with the Russian foreign minister after the press was ushered from the meeting (video below).

Yachts belonging to Robert Mercer, a major Trump campaign donor, and the Russian oligarch who bought a mansion from Trump were seen anchored near each other off the coast of the British Virgin Islands.
The law firm representing Trump that wrote a letter declaring that he has no significant business ties to Russia received a "Russia Law Firm of the Year" award.
Stephen Schwarzman, an economic adviser for Trump, helped a Russian bank with ties to Putin seek international investments.
A number of individuals with ties to Russia attended events related to Trump's inauguration.
Trump met with the Russian foreign minister and the Russian ambassador, per Putin's personal request, at the White House (pictured below). No American media were allowed to attend, although a Russian media member was in attendance. In the meeting, Trump shared highly classified intelligence with the Russians.

Trump met with Putin for the first time as president at a Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany in July 2017 (pictured below). The only other people present at the meeting were Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the Russian foreign minister, and the translators. After the meeting, Putin told reporters it appeared Trump agreed with him that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Trump called a bill strengthening U.S. sanctions against Russia "significantly flawed" and "unconstitutional."
In response to Putin's order to expel 755 U.S. embassy workers from Russia, Trump thanked him for helping the U.S. "cut down on payroll."
Trump and Putin met informally at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference. Trump afterwards said that Putin "very strongly" denied meddling in the U.S presidential election. Trump also said he had a "very good feeling" about meeting with Putin.
The Trump administration sent to Congress a list of Russian defense and intelligence entities subject to sanctions almost a month past the deadline. Later, the Trump administration declined to impose any sanctions related to those entities.
Trump said he congratulated Putin on Putin's election victory.
Russia's Foreign Ministry announced that Trump had notified Russia that the U.S. would not impose sanctions on Russia, even after UN Ambassador Nikki Haley had announced the sanctions.
Putin said that he and Trump speak regularly on the phone.
At a G7 summit in June 2018, Trump said that Russia should be allowed back into the group of leading industrialized nations.
On July 16, 2018, Trump and Putin met in Helsinki with only their translators present. In a press conference after the meeting (video below), Trump said, "I think that the United States has been foolish," when asked whether he held Russia accountable for anything. Trump also said he didn't see any reason why Russia would have interfered in the election, despite what his own intelligence officials have told him. When asked whether he wanted Trump to win the election and whether he directed any officials to help, Putin answered, "Yes, I did."

The Trump administration lifted sanctions on companies linked to a Russian oligarch with close ties to Putin.

My take:

Trump seems to value loyalty almost as much as money. And in the midst of several bankruptcies, he may have been bailed out by Russian organized crime. For this, he would feel indebted to the Russians, both literally and figuratively. He would also feel a sense of loyalty toward those who looked out for him when no one else, certainly no American, would. Of course, because of the criminal source of this money, Trump would likely feel a real threat, whether physical or through blackmail.

The nature of Trump's compromising situation would provide the proper context for Russia to interfere in the election on his behalf, in order to be able to extract usefulness out of him as president. While Trump has failed to significantly advance his relationship with Russia the way he would like since becoming president, it definitely hasn't been for lack of trying.

Further complicating matters is Trump's party. Many Republicans go out of their way to undermine the special counsel investigation into Russian election meddling and collusion with the Trump campaign. This raises the possibility of a Constitutional crisis if evidence of wrongdoing by Trump is revealed. Unfortunately, all these developments as a test of the resiliency of our system of government show just how incredibly fragile it all really is.

Questions:

If what Donald Trump says is true, and his connection to Vladimir Putin and Russia is nothing but “fake news” and a "witch hunt," then the following questions must be answered:

Why has Trump continually refused to publicly release his tax returns and business information?
Why is Trump so reluctant to criticize Russia, even in light of Russia’s interference in our election, instead consistently offering positive comments and actions?
Why have Trump’s closest aides been so secretive about their contacts with Russian agents, often confirming the contacts only after they’ve been exposed?

If Trump is indeed guilty of conspiracy with Russia, then the following questions must be answered:

Why hasn’t any evidence been found to definitively prove these charges?
What are the specific goals Trump and the Russians wish to achieve through their mutual cooperation?
How would all this affect national security and America’s leadership role in the world?

Perhaps the most important question of all is, if we know all this just based on publicly available information, how much more is there that we don't know?

The Big Picture:

The main focus of the special counsel and the various congressional investigations into the Russian interference on the 2016 United States presidential election has centered on trying to find collusion between Donald Trump and members of his campaign and Russia. The special counsel investigation has already resulted in a number of indictments and guilty pleas. However, definitive evidence that Trump colluded or conspired with Russians during his campaign for president has still not been revealed. Notwithstanding, since being elected president, Trump has clearly taken actions that could be seen as beneficial to Russia. Whether it's his repeated stinging rebukes of NATO, his trade disputes with long-time allies, his revealing of classified intelligence to Russian agents in an Oval Office meeting, his reluctance to impose sanctions on Russia that were overwhelmingly passed by Congress, his increasingly aggressive attacks on American institutions like Congress, the courts, the FBI and the Department of Justice, and even the free press, or simply his continued refusal to offer any harsh criticism of Vladimir Putin, Trump has, in many ways, been conspiring with Russia out in the open all along. Anything that happened before or during the campaign is practically insignificant compared to what Trump is doing to benefit Russia at the expense of the United States and its allies around the world now that he has the power of the presidency behind him.

Sources:

(Latest update: 01/25/2019)

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