UPDATING – ‘Game Changer’: Despite Official Denials Candidate Trump Met With Russian Ambassador Says Conservative News Site

At Least 7 Trump Team Officials Have Met With Russians Despite Official Denials

It’s being called a “game changer” by the DNC’s Trump War Room Director. Despite multiple repeated denials by the Trump White House that anyone from the Trump team met with any Russian officials, last week the list of Trump associates who did meet with Russians stood at six, with the addition of then-Senator Jeff Sessions. Now, that list stands at seven.

The president’s longtime friend, Newsmax founder and CEO Christopher Ruddy, has been touring news networks defending Trump and revealing small details, like Trump’s mood over the weekend. But as John Aravosis at AMERICAblog reports, a Newsmax article from 2016 details that Trump met with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak back in April of last year. 

(Editor’s note: See update below.)

After calling for “an easing of tensions, and improved relations with Russia,” during his his first foreign policy speech, “that same day, Trump met with Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, at a VIP reception along with three other foreign ambassadors,” Newsmax reported May 14, 2016.

Here’s how the DNC’s Zac Petkanas views this news:

Aravosis notes multiple times the Trump campaign and Trump White House have denied that any campaign official including Trump met with the Russians:

Nov. 11, 2016: Spokesperson Hope Hicks says “There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.”

 

Feb. 15, 2017: White House spokesman Sean Spicer says no one on the campaign had any contacts with Russia.

 

Feb. 16, 2017: Trump denies any contacts with Russia.

 

Feb. 19, 2017: White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus denies any connections between Trump team and the Russians.

  

Feb. 20, 2017: White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issues a blanket denial — no contacts between Team Trump and the Russians.

 

So, here’s the list:

• Donald Trump
• Jeff Sessions
• Michael Flynn
• Jared Kushner
• Paul Manafort
• Carter Page
• J.D. Gordon

Also, according to Vice, there is a possibility that Roger Stone, longtime friend and former Trump advisor, and Michael Stone, Trump’s attorney, may have some “connections to Russia.”

One last but important note: There’s nothing wrong with having conversations with the Russian ambassador, depending on the content of the conversations, and while the frequency of conversations and number of people associated with Trump who have met with or communicated with Russian officials is alarming, more alarming are the repeated official lies from the Trump campaign and Trump White House that deny communications.

UPDATE: 12:58 PM EST –
Aravosis posts this tweet: Now we have two conservative new organizations reporting that Trump met with the Russian Ambassador:

 

 

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Image of Sergey Kislyak by OEA – OAS via Flickr and a CC license
Image of Donald Trump by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license