Bombshell Revelation Makes Collusion Look More Likely
In the very early weeks of the Trump administration top White House officials tried to rescind the sanctions President Barack Obama established to punish Russia for meddling in the U.S. election. Yahoo News Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff, who appeared on MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes” (video above), reports, “former Obama administration officials and State Department staffers fought an intense, behind-the-scenes battle to head off efforts by incoming officials to normalize relations with Russia.”Â
Those efforts also included an attempt to “possibly arrange a summit between Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin — as part of an effort to achieve a ‘grand bargain’ with Moscow.”
“It would have been a win-win for Moscow,†according to Tom Malinowski, Obama’s former assistant secretary of state for human rights.Â
“There was serious consideration by the White House to unilaterally rescind the sanctions,†said Dan Fried, a veteran State Department official who served as chief U.S. coordinator for sanctions policy until he retired in late February. He said in the first few weeks of the administration, he received several “panicky†calls from U.S. government officials who told him they had been directed to develop a sanctions-lifting package and imploring him, “Please, my God, can’t you stop this?â€
Fried said he grew so concerned that he contacted Capitol Hill allies — including Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., the ranking minority member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — to urge them to move quickly to pass legislation that would “codify†the sanctions in place, making it difficult for President Trump to remove them.
These revelations put the theory there was collusion between the Trump operations – the campaign, transition team, and the Trump administration – in a new light, making it seem much more likely there was.
To comment on this article and other NCRM content, visit our Facebook page.
Image by МИД РоÑÑии via Flickr and a CC license