The explosive, but unverified, new allegations about Trump and Russia
- Democrats (including, most recently, Sen. Ron Wyden
(D-OR)) have hinted that the public doesn't know the whole story about
the extent of Donald Trump's relationship with the Russian government. [Mother Jones / David Corn]
- Now we might know. On Tuesday, CNN reported that both
Obama and Trump had been briefed by intelligence officials on an
explosive allegation: Russia has some sort of compromising information
("kompromat") about Trump, and it's holding it over him. [CNN / Evan Perez, Jim Sciutto, Jake Tapper, and Carl Bernstein]
- This rumor has been swirling for a while (a person who
has claimed to be a former British intelligence official is the source
for the kompromat claim and talked to Mother Jones's David Corn before
the election), but the fact that Obama and Trump were briefed on the
claim indicates that the intelligence community thinks it might be
legitimate. [Mother Jones / David Corn]
- CNN didn't speculate about what the kompromat was, but
the British officer's memo, posted by BuzzFeed, offers a jaw-dropping
(and otherwise still unverified) allegation: The Russian government has
explicit tapes of Trump engaging in perverse activities with
prostitutes. [BuzzFeed News / Ken Basinger, Miriam Elder, and Mark Schoofs]
- It is extremely difficult to overstate the security
implications of one country having blackmail material on a top official
of another country. If you haven't heard about Britain's Profumo scandal
of the 1960s, you should read up. [The Telegraph / Patrick Sawer]
- However. This is unverified information. And it's
extremely important not to treat unverified information from the
intelligence community as gospel — as we learned in the runup to the
Iraq War. [New Yorker / Seymour M. Hersh]
- It's worth noting that journalists around America have
seen the claims about the Trump sex tape, and none of them have been
able to verify those claims. [Yair Rosenberg via Twitter]
- (It's also worth noting that Trump's professed desire
for a closer US/Russia relationship is going to have an important effect
on US foreign policy, no matter what the underlying motive is for the
detente.) [Vox / Matt Yglesias]
- Trump's first press conference since winning the
election is scheduled for tomorrow. Under the circumstances, he might
cancel. But if he doesn't, it seems likely that reporters will spend the
presser trying to ask Trump if he's a victim of Russian blackmail.
http://www.vox.com/2017/1/10/1423225...-intelligence?
Founding Member, Ministry of Truth
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