Second Steele memo alleges Kremlin blocked Romney from becoming Secretary of State

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/03/05/second-steele-memo-alleges-kre.html

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More smoke, but still no fire.

At some point, though, reasonable Trump supporters (yes there are some) will have to admit that this Trump-Russia story is not fake news.

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Apparently someone’s not happy with Tillerson either:

“Major Trump fundraiser and UAE-linked businessman Elliott Broidy met US President Donald Trump in October 2017 and urged him to sack Mr Tillerson”

"The Times reported that (George) Nader, who has been working as an adviser to Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the de facto rule of the UAE, has also worked closely with a top Trump fundraiser, a businessman named Elliott Broidy. Broidy has had significant access to Trump, according to the report.

In one example of Mr. Nader’s influential connections, which has not been previously reported, last fall he received a detailed report from a top Trump fund-raiser, Elliott Broidy, about a private meeting with the president in the Oval Office.

Mr. Broidy owns a private security company with hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts with the United Arab Emirates, and he extolled to Mr. Trump a paramilitary force that his company was developing for the country. He also lobbied the president to meet privately “in an informal setting” with the Emirates’ military commander and de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan; to back the UAE’s hawkish policies in the region; and to fire Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson.

Nader also reportedly made numerous trips to the White House himself, and met with former Trump senior adviser Stephen Bannon and Jared Kushner. "

Nobody really knows who George Nader is BTW. “A number of well-connected and experienced Middle East hands in Washington told me they’d never heard of Nader. I could only find a few people who have met him. Nobody was quite clear about what he does for a living.” -Axios

Bet you a tin foil hat he’s working for Putin. :grin:

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is fake news!

Mooseprints all over this story

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“All the moose that’s fitted to print!”

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Of course, even if we never found evidence that Trump actively colluded with the Russians in 2016…

  • We know he sought to get Flynn off the hook for his Russian shenanigans (because he admitted so on national TV)
  • We know he has refused to enforce the sanctions that were overwhelmingly approved by a bipartisan congress to punish Russia for interfering in our election
  • We know he hasn’t authorized US Cyber Command to take the necessary active steps to stop current and future election meddling by Russia
  • We know that Trump hasn’t publicly voiced a single harsh word about Putin, even though “talking smack about people” is pretty much Trump’s main vocation

So it barely even matters whether Trump was secretly conspiring with Russia in 2016 because he’s openly doing their dirty work NOW.

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I don’t think Trump really understands any of what’s going on. I think he is the very definition of the “useful idiot” that intelligence services look for, a dupe. He could very well think that nixing Romney was his idea, even if someone in the Kremlin suggested it to him.

Example: Trump’s trade war talk could drive a wedge between the US and EU-- something Russia has wanted for more than a decade.

The problem is the shear amount of smoke means there is a fire somewhere. If you take all the stuff that’s documented, with the stuff that’s alleged, it paints a pretty horrifying picture.

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Exactly what I’m musing about. I’m pretty convinced that most of Trump’s campaign, cabinet and a good chunk of the GOP are guilty enough to go down for this. I just wonder at what point there’s enough smoke that Trump supporters can be convinced that there’s a fire burning in the white house?

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all those who would prefera a Romney administration for the next 3 years, please raise your right mitten.

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Unfortunately, I think it does. What we know is that he is an idiot and is doing questionable things to help Russia. What we don’t know yet is if these questionable things are, in fact, illegal.

ETA: I mean it seems pretty likely to me, but legally, there is (and should be) a higher bar.

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All those who would prefer to have scalding coffee thrown on their groin rather than having molten lead administered by enema, raise your right mitten.

(not a criticism of your observation by the way, because I would much prefer Mitt to Trump; just an observation of how depressing it is that Mitt damn Romney would be that much better compared to what we have)

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The reason I say it barely matters is because anyone who is OK with Trump’s current approach to Russia is unlikely to care if he colluded in 2016. Either way, his actions are indistinguishable from those of a person doing Russia’s bidding at the expense of American interests.

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This whole thread reads like Joe McCarthy’s wettest dreams.

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it was good fun watching him be governor of a state with a noted shortage of D legislators. he ran into new traps daily.

what he might do as presidemt is only slightly less scary than what we have.

would you prefer a Trapper Keeper or a 3-ring binder, full of women?

focus on House Members. they have the boy scout water.

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Anybody curious about why it is that Mr Steele is the only one coming up with this information?

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Putin’s completely owning Trump. In all senses of the word.

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I imagine he’s not. The FBI was informed - so the intell services had to take a look. And Mueller likely - though he’s a very tight lipped guy.

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Except of course there is proof that Trump’s entire inner circle and transitional committee has links to Russia, has been paid by Russia, that the Trump administration has done things which can only be explained as beneficial to
Russia (changing the RNC platform re. Ukraine, not enforcing sanctions advocated by more than 99% of the House and Senate), that certain members of that inner circle have been indicted in connection to this Russia connection, that information has come out that people were bribed (some to the tune of 80 million!) …

Oh, and that Putin is almost the only world leader who Trump has never said a bad word against … even after Putin was bragging about nukes he could send to Florida! Not a peep!

But despite that evidence it’s a witchhunt. Sure.

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