Donald Trump tries to turn spotlight on to Clinton links to Russia after criminal charges laid
DONALD Trump insists the real story about Russia’s election interference has nothing to do with him - and everything to do with his opponent Hillary Clinton.
CRIMINAL charges laid against former advisers to Donald Trump have reignited questions about Russian interference with the United States presidential election.
But Trump has been quick to try and turn the spotlight on to rival Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
In a series of tweets, the president pointed to recent reports the Clinton campaign helped fund research that ended up in a dossier containing allegations about his ties to Russia.
“Why aren’t Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????” Trump tweeted.
Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS. The firm also got $12,400,000 (really?) from DNC. Nobody knows who OK'd!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017
Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017
When asked about the tweets, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said: “There’s clear evidence of the Clinton campaign colluding with Russian intelligence to spread disinformation and smear the president to influence the election.
“We’ve been saying from day one there has been no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, and nothing in the indictment today changes that at all.”
Is this true? This is what we know.
CLINTON’S CAMPAIGN WAS FUNDING RESEARCH ON TRUMP
The claims about the Clinton’s campaign “colluding” with Russian intelligence appears to come from reports that lawyers connected to her campaign and the Democratic National Committee were paying a research firm, Fusion GPS, to investigate Mr Trump’s background.
The research was actually kicked off by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website with strong ties to the Republican establishment.
The Beacon’s editor-in-chief Matthew Continetti and chairman Michael Goldfarb released a statement that said it had “retained Fusion GPS to provide research on multiple candidates in the Republican presidential primary, just as we retained other firms to assist in our research into Hillary Clinton”.
The Free Beacon first retained Fusion to investigate Mr Trump in the fall of 2015 and ended its relationship after he secured the Republican presidential nomination in late spring of 2016, according to a source close to Goldfarb who spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
Scouring candidates for negative information is a common practice known as “opposition research” in politics.
IS IT EVIDENCE OF A RUSSIAN LINK?
The more controversial aspect of this arrangement was that Fusion GPS was then funding what’s become known as the “Steele dossier”, compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.
The dossier contained some sensational claims about Trump’s connections to Russia and law enforcement officials have been trying to verify if any of those were true.
Mr Steele apparently got his information from unnamed Russian sources and this link was now being used to suggest “collusion” with the Russian government.
Mr Trump last week called it a “disgrace” that Democrats had helped pay for research that produced the dossier, which suggested possible co-ordination between his campaign and the Kremlin.
But the Free Beacon has already said it had no knowledge or connection with the Steele dossier.
And the connection between the Clinton campaign and the Russian Government via the Steele dossier is already being described as a “massive exaggeration” by analysts.
SO WHAT NOW?
The US intelligence community has determined that Russia meddled in the 2016 US election, but even with the charges laid against Trump advisers, there was still no firm evidence of collusion.
Special counsel Robert Mueller is continuing an investigation into the alleged Russian interference and whether it was tied to Trump’s campaign.
His investigation ramped up on Monday, with charges against Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and one of his associates Rick Gates.
They were indicted on felony charges and pleaded not guilty. Authorities believe they acted as unregistered foreign agents for Ukrainian interests.
Manafort’s indictment doesn’t reference the Trump campaign or make any allegations about co-ordination between the Kremlin and the president’s aides to influence the outcome of the election in Trump’s favour.
The indictment does allege a criminal conspiracy was continuing through February of this year, after Trump had taken office.
Separately, former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his dealings with several Russians who were offering “dirt” on Mr Trump’s political rival, Mrs Clinton.
Trump aides have said he played a limited role in the campaign and had no access to Mr Trump.
The guilty plea by Mr Papadopoulos marked the first criminal count that cites interactions between Trump campaign associates and Russian intermediaries during the campaign.
The president quickly tweeted about the charges against Manafort, saying the alleged crimes were “years ago,” and insisting there was “NO COLLUSION” between his campaign and Russia.
RELATED: ‘Bombshell’ footnote shows Trump campaign was open to meeting with Russians
But more evidence about Russian interference in the US election is expected to be revealed this week.
Internet giants are expected to tell Congress this week that Russian-backed content aimed at manipulating US politics during last year’s election was more extensive than first thought.
Facebook, Google and Twitter were slated to share what they have learned so far from digging into possible connections between Russian entities and posts, ads, and even videos shared on YouTube.
Facebook will tell Congress that some 126 million users in the US, potentially a large portion of the voting public, may have seen stories, posts or other content from Russian sources, according to tech news site Recode, The Wall Street Journal and other American media outlets.
The reach is far broader than had originally been estimated by the world’s leading social network.
Moscow has denied any attempt to manipulate the US election. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said allegations of interference in the US and Europe are “fantasies”.
“Without a single piece of proof, we are as you know being accused of meddling not only in the US election, but also in those in European states,” the Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as telling a briefing at the Association of European Businesses in Russia on Tuesday.
“Recently, there was an allegation that Moscow decided what minister to appoint in South Africa. In general, there is no limit to fantasy.” Lavrov also said that the “sometimes unpredictable” actions of the current US administration had caused “serious fears”.
— with wires
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