NYT: Russians Talked Last Year About Using Manafort, Flynn To Sway Trump

Paul Manafort appears on stage ahead of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
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U.S. intelligence agents intercepted conversations between top Russian operatives and political officials discussing how they could use top campaign advisers to influence Donald Trump as early as summer 2016, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

The Times report appeared to be the first indication that the U.S. intelligence community had evidence showing Russian operatives thought they could manipulate former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a subject of federal investigation, to sway Trump.

The other target mentioned in the Russians’ conversations, according to three current and former U.S. officials who spoke to the Times, was ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn.

According to the Times, some of the monitored Russians boasted about their intimate acquaintance with Flynn, while others floated leveraging their relationships with deposed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who employed Manafort as a campaign adviser.

Combined with documented contacts between Trump advisers and Russian officials, these intercepted communications helped spur the U.S. intelligence community to investigate whether Trump’s team was assisting Russia’s efforts to interfere with the election.

Both Manafort and Flynn have denied allegations of collusion.

Former CIA Director James Brennan testified before Congress on Tuesday about his growing concern last summer that Russia was “able to gain the cooperation” of Trump associates who he declined to name and who he noted may not have even realized what they were getting into.

“Frequently, individuals who go along the treasonous path do not even realize they’re along that path until it gets to be a bit too late,” Brennan told the House Intelligence Committee.

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Notable Replies

  1. It was awfully tough for the NYT to catch a whiff of this last year with all the clouds and shadows over the Clinton campaign, wasn’t it?

  2. So this sounds like pretty good proof that at least as of summer 2016 there was no collusion between Flynn and Russia. They would not be boasting about having a good relationship with him and through that exert influence if he was in some sense an agent of theirs.

    The house of cards that has been built around trump and Russia is looking increasingly precarious

  3. Except that the Trump people received strenuous warnings about Flynn, and hired him anyway. That’s a matter of public record.

  4. Interesting defense for Flynn: “I wasn’t colluding with the Russians. I was too stupid to realize I was being played.”

    Frank Costanza: “My George isn’t smart enough to hatch a scheme like this.”

  5. As far back as I can remember Republicans were very anti Russia.
    Now it appears to be a Republican you have to be a Russian lap dog and Trump’s base just shrugs.
    Is there any one in the GOP willing to state they are anti Russian or are you all cowards?

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