Translated material
"Trying for conspiracy"
The White House said that he was ready to impose new sanctions against Russia. "The United States and its G7 allies retain the willingness to introduce serious additional restrictive measures in response to Russia's actions, if necessary," the White House official statement said. Meanwhile, in the United States, a scandal continues around the presidential connections and his family members regarding the ties of the Trump election campaign with Moscow.
Donald Trump - the youngest, the son of US President Donald Trump, has turned into the main object of attention of the American press in connection with the investigation of Russian presidential election in the United States in 2016.
This episode may have an unpleasant continuation for President Trump
On Saturday, the New York Times reported that the president’s son met last summer with Russian lawyer Natalya Veselnitskaya, who allegedly had information about the illegal actions of the headquarters of Hillary Clinton. The newspaper called this episode the first known case of the contact of Trump’s environment with Russian representatives shortly before the presidential election. Trump Jr. said it was a very short meeting that ended in nothing. However, critics of President Trump, and not only them, believe that this episode may have an unpleasant continuation for President Trump.
Donald Trump is the youngest, eldest son of President Trump
The story in which the president’s son, who acted as an informal adviser to his father during the presidential campaign, is involved in the presentation of the American press quite simple. On June 9, 2016, two weeks after Donald Trump secured the voices of the delegates of the party congress necessary for the Presidential President nomination, Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, at that moment the head of the Trump election headquarters, and Jared Kushner, adviser and son-in-law Donald Trump, met with Russian lawyer Natalya Verelnitsky. She through a common acquaintance let Trump Jr. know that she could convey to him an unpleasant information collected by Russia for Clinton.
Trump Jr. immediately became clear that Veselnitskaya did not have any compromising evidence regarding Clinton
Veselnitskaya, as it is believed, has connections in the Russian leadership. The meeting was short -lived. According to Trump Jr., it immediately became clear to him that Veselnitskaya had no compromising evidence regarding Clinton, only general phrases, and they moved to discussing the issue of adopting Russian children by Americans. By this, all his contacts with Veselnitskaya are exhausted. Nothing followed this meeting.
However, there are several strokes that obscure this picture. When the New York Times turned to the president’s son for the first time with a request to comment on information about this meeting in her hands, Trump Jr. said that they discussed with Veselnitskaya only the fate of the ban on the adoption of Russian orphans by the Americans.
Only a day later, he admitted that the conversation also went on compromising on Clinton. And on Monday , New York Times came out with another revelation: one of the organizers of the meeting, the former British journalist Rob Goldstone informed Trump Jr. that the materials that he intended to transfer Veselnitskaya were collected by the Russian authorities at the meeting. If this is true, then, in the opinion of Washington Post , there was at least a “attempt to conspire”. Donald Trump’s gunpowder adds that neither Paul Manafort, nor Jared Kushner mentioned the conversation with Veselnitskaya about the materials discrediting Clinton in the process of registering them with admission to secret information, which is potentially punishable.
For the first time, the public received a clear certificate at least attempts to receive information from a foreign agent
Senator-Democrat Mark Warner, one of the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, determines the potential significance of this story: “For the first time, the public received a clear certificate at least attempts to receive information from a foreign agent who could influence the Hillary Clinton campaign ... As for the question of whether this is an outright conspiracy or potential violation of the rules, a special prosecutor should answer him Robert Müller ". Warner and other legislators called on Trump Jr. to report on his meeting before the senators, to which he agreed .
The representative of the White House Sarah Sanders said that in such a meeting of the president’s son there is nothing out of the ordinary. Presidential candidates, she said, often resort to different sources to find information unpleasant for the opponent. Moreover, no one surrounded by Trump attached importance to this conversation. Information about him did not reach the senior Trump. Republican Senator James Lancord, a member of the intelligence committee, urged not to rush with conclusions. The very fact of this meeting "does not mean that Trump's headquarters collaborated" with representatives of Russia, Lancer believes.
The opinions of experts regarding the consequences of these revelations diverge. Someone sees a serious danger to the Trump administration if the independent prosecutor concludes that the surroundings of the candidate Trump tried to use the services of an agent of a foreign state for a pre-election struggle with the opponent. Others say that this is a routine in political practice, a case bloated by the press.
Lawyer David Koppel , an employee of the Independence Institute in Colorado, said in an interview with Radio Liberty that everything will depend on the results of the investigation:
The most unpleasant for Trump will happen if it turns out that the members of his election headquarters collaborated with the government of Putin
- It is still impossible to say how this story will end. If nothing new appears about this meeting, then this story is nothing serious. But it is impossible now to exclude that she will have a continuation. And, of course, the most unpleasant for Trump will happen if it turns out that the members of his election headquarters collaborated with the Putin government. Other results unpleasant for the Trump administration are possible. For example, his adviser Jared Kushner or other officials will be convicted that they provided incorrect information from the FBI while receiving admission to secrets. In the past, a lot of American civil servants were held accountable not for committing serious crimes, but for a giving false testimony during the test of their past.
- How do you feel about the complaints of Trump's supporters that the press and democrats lead a political campaign against the president?
- It seems to me that the Watergate business began very similarly. Then a group of democrats began an attack on President Nixon, trying to find at least some compromising evidence on him. Many Republicans insisted that there was nothing serious for Watergate hacking. In the end, it turned out that something serious was hiding behind him, and Nixon was forced to resign under the threat of impeachment, says Coppel.
Professor Jonathan Aidelman , political scientist from the University of Denver, doubts that a certain conspiracy between Trump and Russia will be discovered:
Of these results, it is impossible to construct anything serious with all the desire
- For the right in this story, there is nothing but the attempts of the left to undermine President Trump. For the left - this is the opportunity to recoup on Donald Trump. This game has been going on for a whole year. And the results that we know about today will not be able to become the basis for judicial persecution, from them it is impossible to construct anything serious with all the desire.
-But at the same time, the unpleasant smell comes from this story, as the critics of President Trump will tell you: for some reason, officials forget about meetings with representatives of Russia or provide incorrect information about them.
- It seems to me that the smell indicates the quality of Trump's environment. Let's not forget that we are dealing with the developer, who acted as a candidate in the usual business manner. He gave significant powers to his children, who acted, not understanding the conditions in which they found themselves, ”says Professor Aidelman. - This investigation can delay for years, if only because a significant part of the Americans believes that a conspiracy could have been present. According to the latest survey, 47% of respondents say that Donald Trump may be imperative. But it must be understood that this development of the situation requires much more than the conversations of the members of Trump's election headquarters.