Putin's Sparrow

Lying and Spinning:  Last night the NY Times reported that after his election victory but before the inauguration Trump was provided with detailed, highly confidential evidence, some sourced from European allies, other pieces from one or more highly placed Russian officials, definitively proving that the Russians, directed by none other than Putin, interfered in the 2016 presidential election.  The paper reports that Trump grudgingly accepted that the intelligence he was shown was true, that is he accepted it for a few minutes, before he decided to reject and discredit it, perhaps because his campaign did collude but most certainly because he couldn’t stand the idea that his election victory was at all tainted. Regardless of what he knew before that meeting, he’s clearly known since then that the investigation into election meddling is no “witch hunt.”  So this week when he stood by Putin and said that the Russians didn’t interfere in the election because Putin “strongly” said they didn’t, and his word is worth so much more than US  intelligence, and again when he tried to walk back his statement by claiming that he inadvertently left out a “not,” he was lying and he knows it.  The scope of his lies continue to grow exponentially, yesterday when asked if the Russians were still meddling in the US election process and infrastructure, a huge concern for the upcoming midterms, he said no, they are not.  That despite last week’s warning from Director of National Intelligence Coats, the one-time Republican Senator and Congressman that he appointed to the position, that red lights are flashing, the nation is liable to a large scale cyber security attack.  Lacking a suitable explanation for that denial, Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted that Trump hadn’t really said “no” to the correspondent asking that question, his “no” was related to something, anything else, a variation on the “double negative” excuse that he employed earlier in the week, the one that no one but his dedicated base and the Trump fearing members of Congress bought.  As to his two hour Helsinki private session with Putin, snippets of what was discussed and what Trump may have agreed to are starting to leak out from the Kremlin. Democrats continue to push their Republican colleagues to sign off on a subpoena of Trump’s interpreter so they can learn more about the discussion but we do know one thing, Trump is seriously  entertaining a proposal raised by Putin to interrogate Americans in exchange for assistance in the Mueller investigation into election interference. Among others, Moscow wants to “question” Michael McFaul, the Obama era US ambassador to Russia, and American-born financier Bill Browder, who is the man responsible for the passage of the Magnitsky Act sanctions that restrict Putin and his oligarch buddies from investing their ill-gained fortunes in the US and the other countries where similar laws have been passed. At least the Magnitsky Act is what most people call that legislation, Trump and Don Jr refer to it as that adoption thing.  Beyond the absurdity of thinking that Russia could or would “assist” in the investigation of its meddling in the US election, the fact that Trump would even consider turning over a former US ambassador for Russian interrogation is absurd.  As to Browder, Putin has already made his life miserable, the Russian government routinely harasses him and has tried to have him extradited back to Moscow countless times to try him for nonexistent crimes or worse and by worse think tortured to death a la Sergei Magnitsky, the man who inspired Browder’s campaign to get those sanctions passed in the first place.  Browder has said many times that he expects to be the recipient of one of Putin’s poison-tinged darts  one of these days.  The clueless Sanders, who really should know better, responded to a question about Trump’s intent by saying that Trump is “going to meet with his team and we'll let you know when we have an announcement on that." Later in the day, when asked a similar question, State Department spokesperson, another former Foxling, Heather Nauert let it be known that at the very least her bosses know that Putin’s suggestion is ridiculous.  She responded "The overall assertions that have come out of the Russian government are absolutely absurd, the fact that they want to question 11 American citizens and the assertions American citizens -- we do not stand by those assertions that the Russian government makes. The prosecutor general in Russia is well aware that the United States has rejected Russian allegations in this regard."  

More NATO Bashing:  In an interview with Fox’s Tucker Carlson Trump who last week claimed that the US maintains a strong commitment to NATO and that the organization is now in much better shape because of his efforts to push members to up their defense budgets, again slammed NATO this time by going after Article 5, NATO’s common defense provision, the one that requires all members to stand up for each other in the event that one of them is attacked, the provision that thus far has only been invoked in response to the 9-11 attack of the US.  When Carlson spoon fed him the question “Why should my son go to Montenegro to defend it from attack,”  Trump responded “I understand what you’re saying. I’ve asked the same question. Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people ... They’re very aggressive people. They may get aggressive, and congratulations, you’re in world war three.” Montenegro, formerly part of Yugoslavia is NATO’s newest member and its membership is one of those things that throws Trump’s BFF Putin into a furious lather. At last year’s NATO meeting, Trump physically pushed Montenegro’s president out of the way in what then appeared to be a crass attempt to get into a better position for the group photo shot.  Now we know, his move was far less innocent, Trump was just trying to knock the poor fellow and his countrymen out of NATO all together.  Orders from his handler?

Maria, Maria, Maria:  The newest cast member of the Americans, Russian Red Sparrow Maria Butina, will definitely be spending more quality time inside of a Federal penitentiary.  Yesterday, after US prosecutors presented evidence that she had packed her bags and given her landlord notice that she and her boyfriend were vacating their apartment, a Federal judge agreed that she was a high risk for fleeing the country or at the very least for fleeing into a Russian limo and/or consulate. As to the 29 year old Butina’s “boyfriend,” referred to in federal documents as US person 1, he is 59 year old Paul Erikson, a Republican hanger on who was helping her push Russia’s interests to his many contacts.  It looks like Butina didn’t really like him all that much but found that he was useful because of who he knew in Republican organizations and the NRA.  While living with him, Butina was also offering to trade sex for a position in another one of those conservative organizations, a position that would have helped her win red stars and a new Black Sea dacha from  her handlers back in Moscow.   If he doesn’t have one already, Erikson should probably find himself a good lawyer, one with lots of experience negotiating with counterespionage prosecutors.  As to Maria, maybe one of the reasons that Putin wants to get his hands on Ambassador McFaul is so that he’ll have someone to offer up in exchange for his red sparrow.