If you read the statement from Jared Kushner (Jared Kushner), which he released before testifying in Congress, you know that he would have not said anything special. But if we consider this statement from the standpoint of the Russians trying to infiltrate the campaign headquarters of the trump, it is clear that Kouchner has largely simplified the problem. When last year began to appear the data, pointing to the unprecedented scale of the campaign of the Russian government, designed to tip the scales in the presidential election of 2016 in favor of Donald trump, the trump, including Kouchner, beginning much more attentive to the proposals of senior Russian officials, seek meetings with them or promising to give them some information.
The first meeting with Kouchner, Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak seems pretty harmless. According to Kushner, they met in April 2016, the hotel Mayflower in Washington, during a reception that preceded speech trump on foreign policy. Dimitri Simes (Dimitri Simes), the owner of the publication the National Interest, and the organizer of the reception, presented Kouchner and Kislyak, and three more ambassadors. This acquaintance seemed Kouchner, not too memorable. Without naming names of the other ambassadors, he noted that some of them invited him to lunch, but he never took advantage of this invitation.
If we talk about Kislyak, for him this meeting was very important. Kislyak is a state whose intelligence service ten months earlier, hacked into the computer systems of the national Committee of the Democratic party, and also e-mail John Podestà (John Podesta), the head of the election headquarters of Hillary Clinton. During his speech, trump Kislyak received an invitation to the reception and place in the front row. His speech trump actually handed to Vladimir Putin an olive branch, calling for “better relations with Russia” and to the conclusion of the transaction, “which will be Grand for America, but is also beneficial for Russia.”
By may the Main Directorate of the General staff of the Russian armed forces, the GRU “were able to extract huge amounts of data from servers of the national Committee of the Democratic party”, as noted by the authors of the report of the us intelligence community about Russia’s intervention. In June, according to the report, Russia is already by far the favored Trump. “Starting in June in his public comments, Putin has ceased to mention the name of the elected President of the trump. This is probably due to the fact that, according to Kremlin officials, any praise coming from Putin personally, may lead to negative consequences in the United States. However, Putin has publicly stated that he likes trump’s willingness to cooperate with Russia, while Pro-Kremlin politicians and experts spoke highly of his friendly attitude to Russia’s position in Syria and Ukraine.”
In June the Russians are familiar with the family trump, contacted representatives of the election headquarters trump to offer some help. 2 Jun Rob Goldstone (Rob Goldstone), a British PR man who previously worked as a journalist, wrote an email to Donald Trump Jr., offering him “some official documents and information that expose Hillary and her relations with Russia and that can be helpful to your father,” and adding that this proposal came from Russia, whose government supports trump. The meeting was scheduled for June 9, and the eldest son of trump sent all my electronic correspondence with the Goldstone Kouchner, and the Floor of Manufactu (Paul Manafort), who at that time headed the election headquarters of the trump. In the “Subject” was written: “Russia — Clinton — strictly confidential”.
Yesterday, Kouchner said: “I did not read and did not know about this electronic correspondence as long as my lawyers showed me it.” True or not, but he still came to that meeting. If you believe the story Kouchner’s appointment, she was completely unremarkable. He missed her, some Russians, which he did before heard, discussed policy adoption, and he almost immediately wrote my assistant a message that asked me to call him so he had an excuse to leave. However, experienced intelligence officials are more skeptical. Michael Hayden (Michael Hayden), the former head of the national security Agency, told me that, in his opinion, that meeting was a classic example of a “soft approach” of the Russian intelligence. He referred to a recently published Washington Post article written by Rolf Mavattam-Larsena (Rolf Mowatt-Larssen), which States that the meeting looked like a typical attempt to establish the relationships which usually start Russian operations of influence,” and that, quite possibly, “Russia was just waiting for the green light to begin a more aggressive phase of intervention in the American elections.”
Hayden said to me: “Lord, it’s a classic trick of intelligence.” According to him, he discussed with several representatives of the intelligence community of the theory of Mowatta-Larssen, and they all agreed with her. “That’s the way it is.”
Hayden explained that this approach allowed the Russian to figure out a few things. “Whether they will agree to a meeting?— he continued. They agreed to meet. Item 2: do they report about this meeting?” According to Hayden, the Russian intelligence service had enough money to find out, did the representatives of trump about this meeting to the FBI, which they did not. Thus, although Kushner stated that this was not discussed any significant issues from the point of view of the Russian intelligence service, the meeting was a clear signal. “In the end, the Russians found that these people are ready to make contact, said Hayden, after a pause. How do I know? Because they rejected the offer to meet.”
In the report, the intelligence community also sounds this idea: “the Russian campaign of influence is multifaceted, and they are designed to be able to deny it, because they include the work of agents of influence, intermediaries, front organizations, as well as operations under foreign flags”.
June 22, 2016 on the website WikiLeaks published the first batch of emails stolen from the servers of the national Committee of the Democratic party, and the information contained in those letters remained a favorite theme of the election headquarters of the tramp during the summer and autumn. On 4 October, after much internal controversy, the Obama administration is finally publicly accused Russia of meddling in the election. “The US intelligence community is convinced that the Russian government was led by the recent disclosure of emails of citizens and institutions in the U.S., including American political organizations”, — said in a joint statement office of the Director of national intelligence and the Department of homeland security, released on 4 October. Just an hour later on the website WikiLeaks appeared emails Podestà.
Campaign headquarters trump’s much more interested in the content published on the website WikiLeaks, than the reports of the intelligence community. “WikiLeaks has published it! — said trump, speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania on 1 October 2016. I love WikiLeaks!” According to some, for the last 30 days of his election campaign trump mentioned the name of this website and the publication of stolen emails 164 times.
Eric Swalwell (Eric Swalwell), a Democrat and member of the house Committee on intelligence, told me that one of the main questions posed by Committee members Kouchner, was the question of why Kushner chose to ignore the intelligence community about Russia. “After it was publicly announced that they are interfering in our elections, and it was in June, why you continued to maintain contact with them?— according to Swalwell, this is the question asked the members of his Committee Kouchner on Tuesday, July 25. — They do not think to discuss this question: “Hey, Russia is interfering in our elections. Should we talk to them?””
According to Kouchner, he never raised the issue of Russian interference in the course of two meetings with the Russians, which took place after the election. Kislyak contacted Kouchner on November 16, and they met on 1 December. And again, the Russians have demonstrated this level of access to the team of trump, which other countries, including Western allies, could only dream of. In his testimony, Kouchner confirmed that at the meeting, which was held in trump tower, he discussed with Kislyak and Michael Flynn (as Michael Flynn), the future adviser on national security issues, the question of the use of communication equipment in the building of the Russian Embassy. According to Kushner, the goal was to transmit information from the Russian generals regarding Syria.
Kouchner did not feel the mistrust towards Russia and its actions in the past few years. But Kislyak was the representative leader who, according to former CIA Director John Brennan (John Brennan), “attacked one of the fundamental pillars of our democracy, our electoral system, which has invaded Ukraine, annexed Crimea, which suppresses and persecutes political opponents in Russia and which is responsible for the death of many of them.”
Kouchner continued to maintain relations with Kislyak. 13 December, at the request Kislyak Kouchner met with Sergey Gorkov, the Russian banker close to Putin. And again catches the eye, the ease with which the Russian managed to contact the team trump said Kushner, “I agreed to meet with Gorkov, because the Ambassador was very insistent,” and he “said Mr. Gorkov directly related to the” Putin — and how blatant was the attempt of the Russians to treat the closest advisers to trump and members of his family. Gorkov, whose Bank “Vnesheconombank” was introduced by the Obama administration in the sanctions list, gave Kouchner the picture and the bag of earth, brought from Belarus, where were born the ancestors of Kouchner. Kouchner claims that at that meeting, which lasted less than half an hour, they did not discuss any political issues.
As with all his stories about encounters with the Russians, Kushner claims that he was just a naive member of the team, which was only exchanging pleasantries. His assurances that he did not know anything about the nature of these contacts are perhaps the most disturbing part of his testimony. The Russians performed a complex and multifaceted — it is obvious, successful campaign to gain access to the orbit of trump, and the closest Advisor of the elected President now claims he had no idea about what actually happened. In the testimony of Mr. Kouchner’s no evidence of any crimes, but they indicate that the campaign staff and transition team trump have become extremely easy targets for Russian intelligence.
“Russian, of course, believed that they have reason to expect it to be a friendly meeting, said Hayden. — If you have never seen flying a curveball higher League, don’t pretend that you are a member of the League”.
