He’s Always Known: Trump Was Told In Jan 2017 That Putin Was Behind Attacks

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 18 : President Donald J. Trump listens as others speak during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Wednesday, July 18, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The... WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 18 : President Donald J. Trump listens as others speak during a cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Wednesday, July 18, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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Despite messaging that would suggest otherwise, President Donald Trump has known since January 2017 that Russian President Vladimir Putin orchestrated the Kremlin-backed attacks on the 2016 election, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Just before his inauguration, Trump was shown texts and email proof of Russia’s hacking efforts and disinformation campaign. During that Jan. 6, 2017 meeting, Trump was briefed by then-CIA Director John Brennan — who he now regularly criticizes and just recently called a “bad guy” — former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Director of the National Security Agency Michael Rogers, former FBI Director James Comey and the head of the U.S. Cyber Command.

Trump was shown evidence of the hacked Democratic National Committee emails on Russian intelligence networks and was told about several sources close to Putin who corroborated his role in the hacking, according to several people who attended or were briefed on the meeting, who spoke with the Times.

According to three people who were in attendance, Trump was “grudgingly convinced” of the meddling, in the Times’ words.

Those findings have all been corroborated by his own intelligence officials.

Read the Times’ full story here.

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Notable Replies

  1. “He’s Always Known: Trump Was Told In Jan 2017 That Putin Was Behind Attacks”

    Trump's knowledge of Putin's actions depends on what the definition of "told" is.
  2. Well, of course he’s always known. You can’t engage in a criminal conspiracy with Putin to influence, hack, and rig election results in your favor without being aware if it. The January 2017 briefing was simply Trump learning that the entire Intelligence Community knew about it too,

  3. The failing New York Times prints fake news again.

    Trump will tweet his response as soon as Fox and Friends tells him what to say.

  4. Yeah, it’s only a matter of time before Princess Hamhocks or Kellyanne ConJob come up with the tired old "said is not heard " waffle.

    I can imagine, along the line of, perhaps it was mentioned in passing or the Laura Ingraham favorite well, he’s new at the job or the Obama-blame-game Obama should have told him personally and if all else fails, there’s the classic sez who??

  5. Avatar for docd docd says:

    Am I right in remembering that Kavanaugh has written that lying to the American People is grounds for impeachment? I realize that this was really only meant to apply to President Clinton, but it could make for really interesting hearings.

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