Trump had a real hostility towards the idea that Ukraine was independent from Russia. "It's not a real country", he said, and complained about Ukraine colluding with the Democrats.
Either Donald Trump is a student of European history and the relationship of Ukraine with Imperial Russia prior to the Soviet Union's formation, or he's parroting a talking point pushed by people like Vladimir Putin.
paulsurovell said:
Trump isn't trying to prove that Russia didn't interfere in the election. ...
"are you serious? He's trying to prove that it was Ukraine, not Russia."
cramer said:
"President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, suggested as early as the summer of 2016 that Ukrainians might have been responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the presidential campaign rather than Russians, a key witness told federal investigators last year.
Newly released documents show that Manafort’s protege, deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, told the FBI of Manafort’s theory during interviews conducted as part of former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Gates told the FBI that Manafort had shared his theory of Ukrainian culpability with him and other campaign aides before the election.
The new information shows how early people in Trump’s orbit were pushing the unsubstantiated theory about Ukraine’s role. And it illustrates a link between Mueller’s investigation, which concluded in March, and the current House impeachment investigation of Trump. The president had pushed Ukrainians to open a probe into whether their country interfered in the election — an assertion his allies have made in an effort to discredit Mueller’s findings about Russia’s role."
Not much of a "push".
Gates told the FBI that Manafort had shared his theory of Ukrainian culpability with him and other campaign aides before the election.
cramer said:
drummerboy
paulsurovell said:
Trump isn't trying to prove that Russia didn't interfere in the election. ...
"are you serious? He's trying to prove that it was Ukraine, not Russia."
He's trying to prove that Hillary colluded with Ukraine (Chalupa, Black Ledger) and with Russia (Steele Dossier). Yes, he mentioned "the server" in the phone call, but that appears to be a one-off. Unless you've got more information about that.
nohero said:
Trump had a real hostility towards the idea that Ukraine was independent from Russia. "It's not a real country", he said, and complained about Ukraine colluding with the Democrats.
That's been confirmed.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/ukraine-sabotage-trump-backfire-233446
https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-court-ruling-election-interference/29652728.html
nohero said:
Either Donald Trump is a student of European history and the relationship of Ukraine with Imperial Russia prior to the Soviet Union's formation, or he's parroting a talking point pushed by people like Vladimir Putin.
Trump is an ignoramus.
Putin's alleged statement that Ukraine is not a country is a myth:ridski said:
Lol, I just posted this in the Russia collusion thread.
I try to stay away from that thread.
"The idea that Ukraine, and not Russia, was involved in stealing emails from the DNC that were released by WikiLeaks in 2016 has long percolated in conservative circles and been pushed by Russian news outlets. It contradicts the US Intelligence Community’s own findings that Russia was involved in hacking the DNC and orchestrating the release of documents through WikiLeaks.
In a written memorandum of the July 2019 call released by the White House, Trump at one point says to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, “I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say CrowdStrike… I guess you have one of your wealthy people… The server, they say Ukraine has it.”
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetillman/trump-paul-manafort-ukraine-dnc-hack
BuzzFeed News sued the US government to see all the work that Mueller’s team kept secret. We have published the first installment, with revelations about the Ukraine conspiracy theory, Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, and more.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/mueller-report-secret-memos-1
eta - The documents:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6537542-LEOPOLD-BUZZFEED-NEWS-FBI-Mueller-302s-FOIA
"President Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, suggested as early as the summer of 2016 that Ukrainians might have been responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the presidential campaign rather than Russians, a key witness told federal investigators last year.
Newly released documents show that Manafort’s protege, deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, told the FBI of Manafort’s theory during interviews conducted as part of former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Gates told the FBI that Manafort had shared his theory of Ukrainian culpability with him and other campaign aides before the election.
The new information shows how early people in Trump’s orbit were pushing the unsubstantiated theory about Ukraine’s role. And it illustrates a link between Mueller’s investigation, which concluded in March, and the current House impeachment investigation of Trump. The president had pushed Ukrainians to open a probe into whether their country interfered in the election — an assertion his allies have made in an effort to discredit Mueller’s findings about Russia’s role."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/internal-mueller-documents-show-trump-campaign-chief-suggested-ukraine-hacked-democrats-during-2016-campaign/2019/11/02/cc8e461c-fd90-11e9-ac8c-8eced29ca6ef_story.html