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That's the POINT, Magnus! Epps wasn't charged...yet he's on several different videos exhorting people to enter the Capitol building. So why wasn't he indicted?
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) suggested that federal agents disguised themselves as Trump supporters on Jan. 6
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What the Mueller Report Says About Russian Contacts
By Eugene KielyPosted on April 18, 2019
What the Mueller Report Says About Russian Contacts - FactCheck.org
The special counsel investigation "established multiple links between Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government." But it "did not establish that the Campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities.”
www.factcheck.org
After the 2016 election, Vice President-elect Mike Pence was asked if there was “any contact in any way between [Donald] Trump or his associates and the Kremlin or cutouts they had.” Pence answered, “Of course not. Why would there be any contacts between the campaign?”
Of course, there were contacts.
Throughout the federal investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, court filings and news organizations revealed numerous instances of campaign contacts with Russians that were not publicly known until after the election. Reports of these contacts fueled the federal probe, even as the president dismissed it as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.”
A redacted report written by special counsel Robert Mueller’s office and released April 18 by Attorney General William Barr said there were “multiple contacts — ‘links,’ in the words of the Appointment Order — between Trump Campaign officials and individuals with ties to the Russian government.” But “the investigation did not establish such coordination” between the campaign and Russia.
“In sum, the investigation established multiple links between Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the Russian government. Those links included Russia offers of assistance to the Campaign. In some instances, the Campaign was receptive to the offer, while in other instances the Campaign officials shied away,” the Mueller report said. “Ultimately, the investigation did not establish that the Campaign coordinated or conspired with the Russian government in its election-interference activities.”
Here we look at the contacts that the Trump associates had with the Russians, according to the Mueller report and other government sources that we cite in our timeline. The events, for the most part, follow in chronological order.
Trump Tower Moscow
The Trump Organization actively pursued a real estate project in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign, but the public didn’t learn about it until the Washington Post broke the story on Aug. 27, 2017 — about seven months into the Trump presidency.Trump signed a letter of intent with a Moscow-based developer, I.C. Expert Investment Co., on Oct. 28, 2015. Michael Cohen, chief counsel for the Trump Organization, and Felix Sater, a Trump business associate, led the Trump Organization’s negotiations with Russian officials until at least June 2016. During that time, Sater repeatedly sought for Cohen and Trump to visit Russia and discuss plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow.
On Feb. 27, Cohen told the House oversight committee that Trump “knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it.”
Specifically, Cohen claimed that he was encouraged to lie in a statement in 2017, when he told two congressional committees that the company’s pursuit of the Moscow project ended in January 2016 before “the Iowa caucus and … the very first primary.” In fact, as he said in his guilty plea, the Trump Organization continued negotiations into June 2016 — a month before Trump was nominated at the Republican National Convention.
The Mueller report, citing Cohen’s statements to investigators, said Cohen and the president’s personal attorney were in “almost daily” contact during the drafting of the statement to Congress.
“While working on the congressional statement, Cohen had extensive discussions with the President’s personal counsel, who, according to Cohen, said that Cohen should not contradict the President and should keep the statement short and ‘tight,'” the report says. “Cohen recalled that the President’s personal counsel said ‘his client’ appreciated Cohen, that Cohen should stay on message and not contradict the President, that there was no need to muddy the water, and that it was time to move on. Cohen said he agreed because it was what he was expected to do.”
Trump’s Opportunities to Travel to Russia
Felix Sater, who was working with Cohen on the Moscow project, made numerous attempts to get both Cohen and Trump to visit Moscow and meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In May 2016, Sater emailed Cohen about arranging for Cohen and Trump to visit Russia.“I had a chat with Moscow. ASSUMING the trip does happen the question is before or after the convention … Obviously the pre-meeting trip (you only) can happen anytime you want but the 2 big guys where [sic] the question. I said I would confirm and revert.” In response, Cohen wrote, “My trip before Cleveland. [Trump] once he becomes the nominee after the convention.” (The existence of this email was disclosed in a criminal information filed against Cohen in federal court on Nov. 29, 2018, as part of Cohen’s plea deal. Trump is identified in the information as Individual 1 and Sater as Individual 2.)
Sater invited Cohen to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, and Cohen at first agreed, but then backed out by June. Neither Trump nor Cohen went to the economic forum.
In addition to Sater, George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, emailed Paul Manafort, then the campaign’s convention manager, on May 21, 2016, to say: “Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite sometime and have been reaching out to me to discuss.” Manafort forwarded the email to another campaign official with a note saying, “We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips,” as documented in the plea agreement between Papadopoulos and the government.
Other Russians attempted to arrange for Trump to visit Russia during the campaign, but they were also rebuffed, according to the Mueller report.
Lana Erchova, on behalf of her then-husband, Dmitry Klokov, emailed lvanka Trump on Nov. 16, 2015, offering to help the Trump campaign. “If you ask anyone who knows Russian to google my husband Dmitry Klokov, you’ll see who he is close to and that he has done Putin’s political campaigns.” The Mueller report says, “Klokov was at that time Director of External Communications for PJSC Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy System, a large Russian electricity transmission company, and had been previously employed as an aide and press secretary to Russia’s energy minister.”
Ivanka Trump forwarded the email to Cohen, who mistakenly thought Klokov was a former Olympic weightlifter. (The Washington Post reported that Ivanka Trump had been in contact during the campaign with an “Olympic weightlifter turned entrepreneur,” as first reported by Buzzfeed in June 2018.) Cohen had at least one telephone call and exchanged “several emails” with Klokov, who offered to arrange an informal meeting between Trump and Putin. Cohen sought Klokov’s help with the Moscow project, but the Mueller report said Klokov told Cohen “his outreach was not done on behalf of any business.” The two men ended their correspondence on Nov. 19, 2015, according to the Mueller report.
In addition to Sater and Klokov, the Mueller report said Mira Duma — who knew Ivanka Trump from the fashion industry — passed along invitations in December 2015 to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum from Sergei Prikhodko, a deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation, for Ivanka and Donald Trump. Trump declined.
On March 17, 2016, Prikhodko sent an email to longtime Trump aide Rhona Graff “again inviting Trump to participate in the 2016 Forum in St. Petersburg.” She again declined, citing the hectic campaign.
At around the same time, Anton Kobyakov, who is described by the Mueller report as “a Russian presidential aide involved with the Roscongress Foundation,” asked Robert Foresman, a New York banker, if Trump could speak at the St. Petersburg forum. “With no response forthcoming, Foresman twice sent reminders to Graff — first on April 26 and again on April 30, 2016,” the report said.
Graff forwarded Foresman’s emails along to then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and policy adviser Stephen Miller, but there was no evidence anyone from the campaign responded.
Papadopoulos Meets with Mifsud
On April 26, 2016, Papadopoulos, a campaign foreign policy adviser, met in London with a professor he “understood to have substantial connections to Russian government officials,” according to a plea agreement that Papadopoulos reached with the Justice Department. At the meeting, the professor — later identified as Joseph Mifsud — told Papadopoulos that the Russian government had “dirt” on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of “thousands of emails,” the plea agreement said.After the London meeting, Papadopoulos “continued to correspond with Campaign officials” and Russian intermediaries “in an effort to arrange a meeting between the Campaign and the Russian government,” according to the plea agreement. Mifsud introduced Papadopoulos to two others: a “Female Russian National,” who Papadopoulos believed had “connections to Russian government officials,” and “an individual in Moscow … who told defendant Papadopoulos he had connections to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” according to the agreement.
“Papadopoulos shared information about Russian ‘dirt’ with people outside of the Campaign, and the [Special Counsel’s] Office investigated whether he also provided it to a Campaign official,” the Mueller report says. “Papadopoulos and the Campaign officials with whom he interacted told the [Special Counsel’s] Office that they did not recall that Papadopoulos passed them the information. Throughout the relevant period of time and for several months thereafter, Papadopoulos worked with Mifsud and two Russian nationals to arrange a meeting between the Campaign and the Russian government. That meeting never came to pass.”
The report includes an image of Papadopoulos’ handwritten notes that show he spoke with Sam Clovis, Trump’s national campaign co-chairman, and Walid Phares, a campaign foreign policy adviser, about the three of them attending “potential September 2016 meetings in London with representatives of the ‘office of Putin.'” The delegation would meet “without the official backing of the Campaign (‘no official letter/no message from Trump’),” according to the notes. The report said the notes were consistent with emails and Papadopoulos’ recollection of events.
The meeting did not happen. In an Aug. 15, 2016, email to Phares and Papadopoulos, Clovis said he could not “travel before the election” but he “would encourage [Papadopoulos] and Walid to make the trips, if it is feasible.” Shortly after, Papadopoulos was dismissed from the campaign “after an interview he gave to the Russian news agency Interfax generated adverse publicity,” the report said.
The Center for National Interest Speech
On April 27, 2016, Donald Trump delivered a foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., vowing to improve relations with Russia by finding shared interests, such as combating terrorism. The event was sponsored by the magazine of the Center for National Interest, a right-leaning think tank headed by Dimitri K. Simes.At the event, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, briefly spoke to Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States. Sen. Jeff Sessions, who at the time headed the Trump campaign’s national security team, also attended, and there were media reports claiming that he spoke with Kislyak during the event at a “private meeting.” But Sessions has said he could not recall doing so.
Kislyak was one of four foreign ambassadors at the event, Kushner told congressional investigators in July 2017.
“[W]e shook hands, exchanged brief pleasantries and I thanked them for attending the event and said I hoped they would like candidate Trump’s speech and his ideas for a fresh approach to America’s foreign policy,” Kushner said. “Each exchange lasted less than a minute; some gave me their business cards and invited me to lunch at their embassies. I never took them up on any of these invitations and that was the extent of the interactions.”
Kushner’s account is consistent with the Mueller report, which also said it found no evidence that Sessions spoke with Kislyak. “It appears that, if a conversation occurred at the pre-speech reception, it was a brief one conducted in public view, similar to the exchange between Kushner and Kislyak.”
The Mueller report also says that Trump and Sessions did not meet with Kislyak after the speech. “The Office found no evidence that Kislyak conversed with either Trump or Sessions after the speech, or would have had the opportunity to do so,” the report said.
Trump, Russians at NRA Convention
Prior to the National Rifle Association annual convention in Louisville, Kentucky, in May 2016, Paul Erickson, a Republican strategist, emailed Rick Dearborn, a Trump campaign official, with the subject line “Kremlin Connection.” Erickson wrote that “President Putin’s emissary” will be at the NRA convention and would like to meet with Trump and present Mrs. Trump with a gift.“Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump,” Erickson wrote. “He wants to extend an invitation to Mr. Trump to visit him in the Kremlin before the election.” (This and other emails about the NRA meeting were disclosed in separate House intelligence reports written by the Republican staff and Democratic staff in March 2018.)
On May 16, 2016, Rick Clay, an advocate for Christian causes, emailed Dearborn with the subject line “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite.” Clay wrote that Russia would like to set up a private meeting at the NRA convention between Trump and Alexander Torshin, who at the time was the deputy governor of Russia’s central bank. (The New York Times would later write about Clay’s email, which also was included in the House intelligence committee reports.)
A day later, Dearborn forwarded Clay’s email to Kushner, Paul Manafort, then the campaign’s convention manager, and Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, calling it an “interesting request.”
Trump spoke at the NRA convention on May 20. Torshin also attended the convention and met with Donald Trump Jr., who later told the House intelligence committee that he spoke to Torshin about “stuff as it related to shooting and hunting,” and the Republican staff report said no other witnesses interviewed by the committee “provided a contrary recollection.”
There was no mention of Trump Jr.’s meeting with Torshin at the NRA convention in the Mueller report.
Trump Tower Meeting
On June 3, 2016, Donald Trump Jr. received an email about information that could be damaging to the Clinton campaign that was purportedly “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.”The email from music publicist Rob Goldstone said that Russian pop star Emin Agalarov reached out to him on behalf of his father, Aras Agalarov, a Russian real estate developer who has ties to Donald Trump Sr., including his 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.
“Emin just called and asked me to contact you with something very interesting,” Goldstone wrote. “The Crown prosecutor of Russia met with his father Aras this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father. This is obviously very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump — helped along by Aras and Emin.”
Goldstone asks if Donald Trump Jr. would speak to Emin. The younger Trump responds, saying, “f it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”
On June 9, the president’s son, son-in-law and Manafort all met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower. Goldstone, Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-American lobbyist, Ike Kaveladze, a vice president of a Russian real estate company, and Anatoli Samochornov, a translator and a former State Department contractor, also attended the meeting. In a statement to congressional investigators on July 24, 2017, Kushner said this about the meeting: “No part of the meeting I attended included anything about the campaign, there was no follow up to the meeting that I am aware of, I do not recall how many people were there (or their names), and I have no knowledge of any documents being offered or accepted.”
The president denied knowing anything about the Trump Tower meeting at the time it occurred. “I did NOT know of the meeting with my son, Don jr.,” the president tweeted on July 27, 2018. “Sounds to me like someone is trying to make up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam (Taxi cabs maybe?).” That “someone” was his former lawyer, Cohen, who told federal prosecutors and Congress that he believes that Trump knew about the meeting.
The Mueller report provides no evidence that the president knew about the meeting in advance or at the time.
“In an interview with the Senate Judiciary Committee, however, Trump Jr. stated that he did not inform his father about the emails or upcoming meeting,” the report said. “Similarly, neither Manafort nor Kushner recalled anyone informing candidate Trump of the meeting, including Trump Jr. President Trump has stated to this Office, in written answers to questions, that he has ‘no recollection of learning at the time’ that his son, Manafort, or ‘Kushner was considering participating in a meeting in June 2016 concerning potentially negative information about Hillary Clinton.'”
Manafort Offers ‘Private Briefings’ to Russian Oligarch
Two weeks after being elevated to campaign manager on June 20, 2016, Manafort offered to give “private briefings” on the 2016 campaign to Russian aluminum billionaire Oleg Deripaska, as reported by the Washington Post in a Sept. 20, 2017, story.The Post said there was no evidence that any briefings took place, and Manafort’s spokesman, Jason Maloni, said his client was offering a “routine” status update on the campaign.
“Manafort has alleged to the Office that he was willing to brief Deripaska only on public campaign matters and gave an example: why Trump selected Mike Pence as the Vice-Presidential running mate,” the Mueller report said. “Manafort said he never gave Deripaska a briefing. Manafort noted that if Trump won, Deripaska would want to use Manafort to advance whatever interests Deripaska had in the United States and elsewhere.”
Gates, Manafort’s business partner, told federal investigators that Manafort’s role in the Trump campaign “would be ‘good for business’ and increase the likelihood that Manafort would be paid the approximately $2 million he was owed for previous political consulting work in Ukraine.” The report also said that Gates “believed Manafort sent polling data to Deripaska.”
Page Meets with Russians in Moscow
On July 8, 2016, Carter Page, a Trump foreign policy adviser, spoke at the commencement ceremony of the New Economic School in Moscow. In his speech, Page was critical of U.S. policy toward Russia.Page would later tell the House intelligence committee that during his visit to Moscow he briefly met with Russian government officials, including Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. He also confirmed for the committee that on the day of his speech in Moscow he wrote an email to campaign policy aides J.D. Gordon and Tera Dahl about his trip that said: “On a related front, I’ll send you guys a readout soon regarding some incredible insights and outreach I’ve received from a few Russian legislators and senior members of the Presidential administration here.”
But, under questioning, Page said that he gained those “incredible insights” from listening to Dvorkovich’s speech and reading the Moscow newspapers — not from his meetings with Russian government officials.
The Mueller report said this of Page’s July trip to Moscow: “The Office was unable to obtain additional evidence or testimony about who Page may have met or communicated with in Moscow; thus, Page’s activities in Russia — as described in his emails with the Campaign — were not fully explained.”
The FBI had received repeated approvals from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, to monitor the communications of Page, beginning in October 2016 and extending well into 2017. But the Mueller report stated, “The investigation did not establish that Page coordinated with the Russian government in its efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.”
Sessions Meets with Kislyak
On July 20, 2016, Sessions delivered a speech during an event at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland that was sponsored by the State Department, Heritage Foundation and others. After his speech, Sessions had what he would later describe as a “brief encounter” with Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the U.S. The event was attended by somewhere between 50 ambassadors, according to the Washington Post, and 100 ambassadors, according to Heritage.Sessions met privately with Kislyak a second time in the senator’s office on Sept. 8, 2016. Sessions, after becoming Trump’s first attorney general, acknowledged when he recused himself from the Russia investigation in March 2017 that he spoke twice with Kislyak, although he failed to disclose those meetings during his confirmation hearings when asked if the Trump campaign communicated with Russia.
Magnus
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Retard. That is my question. If he was guilty, why isn't he charged? Why didn't any of the hundreds who were convicted claim that he made them do it?
Are you usually this stupid or did we catch you on a bad day?
Magnus
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Again, that is what your side needs to do. Prove that indeed he did do it.
Frankly, I am all for charging and locking up Epps. Not for exhorting people or whatever the heck you idiots have made up - nope. He needs to be charged and locked up because he chose to wear the silly red cap in public. Any idiot who wears that needs to be locked up.
So, the ball is in your court, retards. You want to see Epps go to prison. Be my guest. But, first, you idiots need to charge him. Why don't you?
Lesh
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bigrebnc1775
][][][% NC Sheepdog
Why isn't that the case? Why wasn't Ray Epps charged for giving orders during the riot? Afterall his actions are recorded or are you retardly denying what was recorded?
bigrebnc1775
][][][% NC Sheepdog
bigrebnc1775
][][][% NC Sheepdog
Years later he was charged with a misdemeanor
No one is a communist. Not even the embarrassments I've listed.
Stop throwing out terms your alt-right media masters tell you to parrot.
You have no idea what their definition is anyway.
beautress
Always Faithful
Bernie Sanders is one of the oligarchs Biden obeys. He and Hillary have influenced the DNC to ally itself with Alinsky methods of changing a free society into a communist one.No one is a communist. Not even the embarrassments I've listed.
Stop throwing out terms your alt-right media masters tell you to parrot.
You have no idea what their definition is anyway.
From the WSJ: "100 Years of Communism—and 100 Million Dead. The Bolshevik plague that began in Russia was the greatest catastrophe in human history." 100 Years of Communism—and 100 Million Dead
bigrebnc1775
][][][% NC Sheepdog
Ever heard of the communist USA?No one is a communist. Not even the embarrassments I've listed.
Stop throwing out terms your alt-right media masters tell you to parrot.
You have no idea what their definition is anyway.
No. I don't dwell in fantasy lands or a conspiracy theory island.
bigrebnc1775
][][][% NC Sheepdog
Well sonny you need to talk to your fellow democrat members who are also members of the communist party USANo. I don't dwell in fantasy lands or a conspiracy theory island.
Y-A-W-N. What's next? Better Dead Than Red protests?Well sonny you need to talk to your fellow democrat members who are also members of the communist party USA
bigrebnc1775
][][][% NC Sheepdog
Those are voting members of the democrat party. Communist party USAY-A-W-N. What's next? Better Dead Than Red protests?
So who among Democrats have listed their affiliation on this website as "communists"?
bigrebnc1775
][][][% NC Sheepdog
They aren't Republicans
Magnus
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Actually, he was. Try to keep up, retard.
Ray Epps, the Trump supporter who was swept up in one of the most persistent right-wing conspiracy theories connected to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a single misdemeanor charge for his role in the attack on the Capitol.
The 20-minute plea hearing, conducted by video in Federal District Court in Washington, came one day after the Justice Department charged Mr. Epps with disrupting the orderly conduct of government business by entering a restricted area on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6.
Prosecutors said at the hearing that aside from breaching the barricades outside the Capitol, Mr. Epps placed his hands on a giant Trump sign that the mob used as a battering ram against the police.
Mr. Epps will face a maximum of one year in prison when he is sentenced in December.
Ray Epps, Target of Conspiracy Theory, Pleads Guilty to Jan. 6 Misdemeanor (Published 2023)
Prosecutors said he had never worked as an agent of the government, again refuting a right-wing theory that he helped instigate the Capitol riot in a federal plot to discredit Trump supporters.
What else do you want to do with him? Hang him? Sentence him to a firing squad? Go for it. As I said, I would sentence him just for the crime of wearing the silly red cap in public.
bigrebnc1775
][][][% NC Sheepdog
He was charged years later and a misdemeanor.Actually, he was. Try to keep up, retard.
Ray Epps, the Trump supporter who was swept up in one of the most persistent right-wing conspiracy theories connected to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a single misdemeanor charge for his role in the attack on the Capitol.
The 20-minute plea hearing, conducted by video in Federal District Court in Washington, came one day after the Justice Department charged Mr. Epps with disrupting the orderly conduct of government business by entering a restricted area on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6.
Prosecutors said at the hearing that aside from breaching the barricades outside the Capitol, Mr. Epps placed his hands on a giant Trump sign that the mob used as a battering ram against the police.
Mr. Epps will face a maximum of one year in prison when he is sentenced in December.
Ray Epps, Target of Conspiracy Theory, Pleads Guilty to Jan. 6 Misdemeanor (Published 2023)
Prosecutors said he had never worked as an agent of the government, again refuting a right-wing theory that he helped instigate the Capitol riot in a federal plot to discredit Trump supporters.www.nytimes.com
What else do you want to do with him? Hang him? Sentence him to a firing squad? Go for it. As I said, I would sentence him just for the crime of wearing the silly red cap in public.
Magnus
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So, you agree he was charged? So, your assertion that he was never charged was a lie? Yes or No?
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