Trump’s Sordid History of Accepting, Requesting, and Encouraging Foreign Interference in US Elections – Mother Jones

One of the key lines in the House Democrats impeachment report distills the Trump-Ukraine scandal to a simple idea: [T]he impeachment inquiry has found that President Trump, personally and acting through agents within and outside of the U.S. government, solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, to benefit his reelection.

And in the reports preface, the Democrats place Trumps Ukrainian caper within the larger context of foreign intervention in US elections, namely Russias covert attack on the 2016 contest, which was mounted in part to help Trump win the White House: we were struck by the fact that the Presidents misconduct was not an isolated occurrence, nor was it the product of a nave president. Instead, the efforts to involve Ukraine in our 2020 presidential election were undertaken by a President who himself was elected in 2016 with the benefit of an unprecedented and sweeping campaign of election interference undertaken by Russia in his favor, and which the President welcomed and utilized.

The point was clear. Trump muscling Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to produce political dirt that could influence the 2020 election for Trumps personal advantage was a continuation of Trumps behavior in 2016. This contextualization brings back into the spotlight Vladimir Putins clandestine assault on American democracyand how Trump encouraged and exploited that attack. So now, as Trump is under scrutiny for pressing Ukraine to influence the 2020 race, its a good time to review all the ways that Trump aided and abetted a foreign adversarys scheme to subvert a US election the last time the nation was choosing a president.

Signaled to Moscow that its intervention in the election was desirable: On June 9, three top Trump advisersDonald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafortheld a secret meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian emissary whom they were informed would provide them dirt on Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr., who arranged this get-together, much later claimed that this Russian lawyer, who had ties to the Kremlin and a Russian security service, provided them no useful information. But this meeting had more significance than what was actually discussed. During the preparation for this event, Trump Jr. had received an email from the middle-man who set it up saying the meeting came out of an offer from Russias top prosecutor and was part of Russia and its government support for Mr. Trump. This means Trumps son was informed that Russia was angling to secretly help Trumpand that Trump Jr., Kushner, and Manafort were fine with that. And by taking the meeting, Trump Jr. and the others were conveying a message to Russia that the Trump campaign didnt mindand would welcomecovert assistance from the Russian government. (Trump has claimed that he was unaware of this meeting. But Michael Cohen testified to Congress that he believed Trump was aware of the meeting before it occurred.)

Denied Russia hacked the Democratic National Committee: On June 14, 2016, the Washington Post reported that the DNC had been attacked and penetrated by Russian government hackers who gained access to all email and chat traffic. The Kremlin, naturally, denied this. Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putins top spokesman said, I completely rule out a possibility that the [Russian] government or the government bodies have been involved in this. The next day, Trumps campaign echoed Moscows line. It put out a statement declaring, We believe is was the DNC that did the hacking as a way to distract from the many issues acing their deeply flawed candidate and failed party leader. That is, there had been no hack; this was all a hoax. The Trump statement accepted and boosted Moscows disinformation and its cover-up. Putin and his covert operators must have been pleased.

Denied Russia was attacking Clintons campaign: In July, three days before the start of the Democrats presidential convention, WikiLeaks dumped tens of thousands of emails and documents the Russian hackers had stolen from the DNC. This was an attempt to disrupt the Democrats gathering. Senior Clinton campaign officials publicly contended that their camp was being targeted by Moscow. Team Trump contended that was hogwash. On CNN, Trump Jr. blasted the Democrats for suggesting Russian involvement: It just goes to show you their exact moral compass. I mean theyll say anything to be able to win this. This is time and time again, lie after lie. Its disgusting. Its so phony. And on the same network Manafort dismissed the Democrats claim, saying, Its just absurdit is crazy, Yet the previous month, they and Kushner had met with the Russian emissary whom they were told was part of a secret Kremlin effort to assist the Trump campaign. Once again, the Trump campaign was reinforcing Putins we-didnt-do-it stancewhich, no doubt, was heartening for Moscow.

Encouraged Russia to hack Clinton: The denials of Russias involvement from Trumps top advisers could well have been read by Moscows operators as a green light from the Trump campaign. But Trump made it explicit at a press conference on July 27, while the Democratic convention was still underway in Philadelphia. He repeated his campaigns denialNobody knows who it isand then went further: I will tell you thisRussia, if youre listening, I hope youre able to find the thirty thousand [Clinton] emails that are missing. I think youll probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Trump was essentially encouraging another government to hack his political rival. He was openly requesting foreign intervention in the US election. And within five hours of Trumps statement, according to Special Counsel Robert Muellers final report, Russian government hackers did try to break into email accounts associated with Clinton and her personal office. This shows the Russians were paying attention to what Trump was saying.

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Trump's Sordid History of Accepting, Requesting, and Encouraging Foreign Interference in US Elections - Mother Jones