Lindsey Graham: ‘Russians Were Behind Org That Tried to Get Dirt on Trump’
“The Russians were involved on both sides.”
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News and CNN that the Senate Judiciary Committee learned from Bill Browder, the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital, that Fusion GPS, the firm behind the dossier that contained false information about President Donald Trump, also worked for the Russians. He said:
“What we learned today is that the Russians were behind the organization that tried to get dirt on Trump. The dossier against Donald Trump was created by Fusion GPS and their organization and, guess what, the Russians were helping them. This man said the Russians were behind Fusion GPS.
We all know that the Russians hacked into the DNC and John Podesta’s email. And we now know that the Russian lawyer that met with Donald Trump, Jr., Manafort, and others was actually working for the Russians, too.
So they’re trying to play both sides against the middle and I hope the country wakes up to the threat Russia presents to us all.”
Graham Questions Browder
GRAHAM: You believe that Fusion GPS should have registered under FARA because they were acting on behalf of the Russians?
BROWDER: That’s correct.
GRAHAM: I want to absorb that for a moment. The group that did the dossier on President Trump hired this British spy, wound up getting it to the FBI. You believe they were working for the Russians.
BROWDER: And in the spring and summer of 2016, they [Fusion GPS] were receiving money indirectly from a senior Russian government official.
GRAHAM: Okay. So these are the people that were trying to undermine Donald Trump by showing he had nefarious ties to Russia. Is that what you’re saying?
BROWDER: Well, what I’m saying with 100% certainty is that they were working to undermine the Magnitsky Act.
Then Graham brings up lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya:
GRAHAM: Is she working for the Russians?
BROWDER: She is definitely working for the Russians. No question about it.
GRAHAM: So here’s the deal in June of last year. Allegedly she is meeting with Donald Trump, Jr., and the premise of the meeting was the Russian government’s behind Trump and you need to meet with these people. They can help your campaign and Trump says I love it and they met with this lady. Is that the general idea what happened last June?
BROWDER: That’s apparently what was reported happened in June.
GRAHAM: So she’s working for the Russians and she’s trying to communicate with her oligarch friends that the Russians are on Trump’s side. Got an email to that effect.
BROWDER: Right. Yes.
GRAHAM: Is it common for Russia to play both sides against the middle?
BROWDER: Yes. What you need to understand about the Russians is there is no ideology at all. They’re just in the business, Vladimir Putin, is in the business of trying to create chaos.
GRAHAM: You’ve looked at this closer than anybody I know. You believe Fusion GPS is actually backed by the Russians. They’re trying to find dirt on Trump. You believe this Russian lawyer Natalia is working for the Russians, she has been introduced to Don, Jr., by a business partner of the Trumps, saying the Russian government’s behind you, they want to help you, you need to meet with this lady. That’s kind of interesting.
Graham then asked Browder if he thinks the Russians hacked into the DNC and Podesta’s emails. Browder said he trusted the American intelligence emails, but admitted that he thinks that’s something the Russians would do.
Browder also expressed that he is 100% certain that the meeting was to persuade Trump to either eliminate the Magnitsky Act or to take people off the list.
Graham Also Relayed the Findings to CNN
Graham reiterated these points to CNN. From Mediaite:
In a conversation with CNN’s Manu Raju, Graham said the Russians were “clearly working both sides” since they set up an a research body to find dirt on Trump while simultaneously offering assistance through lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya. Graham made his point while noting Paul Manafort‘s connections to Russia, as well as the indication Donald Trump Jr. put forward about how his father’s campaign was willing to accept assistance from foreign actors.
“The likelihood that, that was the last contact needs to be looked into, because the Trump Campaign expressed the desire to be helped,” said Graham. In terms of Veselnitskaya’s connection to Fusion GPS, Graham said it was important to investigate whether they came across any information that could compromise the president.
“The Russians were involved on both sides. They definitely tried to tip the scale against Clinton and for Trump, but the Fusion GPS organization that was trying to get the goods on Donald Trump was backed by the Russians. To me, this just shows you how deep the Russians are into our democracy and if you are Republican and you are Democrat, if you don’t get…the point I was trying to make, it’s a dangerous mistake because they are trying to screw up our elections and our democracy on both sides of the aisle.”
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Comments
Working both sides? The female Russian attorney admitted she had nothing on Hillary at the meeting; it was a ruse to discuss another subject, and probably a ruse to make Don Jr. look bad in the long run.
Miss Lindsay misses again!
Haven’t you heard the latest tinfoil-hat theory?
Someone has said that at the meeting the lawyer handed Jr. a packet or document of some kind.
Now, you could be a Trump apologist and suggest that if there was such a document it was probably a handout on the Magnitsky thing she was lobbying about…
… but if you believe there was a document… and then you speculate that the document was something illegal… then you’re really starting to blow the lid off this thing!!
If you read some background on this group and whom they work for, you wouldn’t believe a word that comes out of their mouths. They are professional liars on the order of the CIA.
Like I’ve been saying for the longest…
embrace the power of AND.
KGB guys are partisan…for the interests they seek. They have ALWAYS been trained to play ALLLLLLL ends against their middle.
Is this really news to anyone…????
The notion that Putin’s goal was to get Trump elected is daffy.
His goal was to destabilize the U.S. whoever was elected.
Thanks, Democrats, for giving him greater success than he could ever have dreamed possible.
^^^ this ^^^
You don’t say, Lindsey!
They way to sow discord is to have your hands up the butts of both sides.
If…BIG IF…the Russians cared, they weren’t “pro”-Trump or “anti”-Hillary, they were “Spread Fear and Loathing then take advantages as they present themselves”.
What good old Lindsay left out was his buddy John McCain was part of the effort to push the phony dossier and destroy Trump. McCain needs to be nvestigated for his critical role in this fraud on the American people and if it is found that he sent an agent to Europe to get his hands on the phony dossier he should be impeached and tried for treason.
You’re nuts.
1. How can a senator be impeached?
2. Treason?! How in the world could you possibly imagine treason here? Treason against whom? Did he bear arms against the USA?! Did he adhere to an enemy of the USA?! No, and no. So where’s the treason? I think you should be convicted of treason, just for using that term as if it meant “something I don’t like”. You’re estopped from protesting, because you promoted that meaning.
Everyone continues to couch the whole affair in terms of “Russia vs. United States” and overlooks the conflicts between the personalities involved. The media phrases everything in terms of Putin favoring Trump and trying to help him, instead of the more obvious likelihood of retaliation against Clinton and Obama.
Clinton pissed Putin off badly while Sec of State by questioning the legitimacy of the election in Russia in December 2011. Putin had a problem with protesters in the streets questioning his legitimacy and contending that he rigged the elections.
Then there was the affair in Ukraine with an attempted coup, and the wikileaks of Victoria Nuland’s communications implicate Obama and the US in meddling with elections in the near abroad.
Then there is Syria and the US arming rebels against a Russian client state that houses Russia’s only naval base in the region.
Then there was a series of sanctions by Obama.
So, at bottom, Putin was motivated to take shots at Clinton.
Even Politico has recognized that Putin had a motive to retaliate against Clinton.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/clinton-putin-226153
What about McCain meeting with Ukrainian embassy officials for the express purpose of collecting opposition dirt – to help Clinton defeat Trump? Lindsey? Hello?
I agree. It’s becoming obvious that McCain was involved in an anti Trump plot, which may go as far as treason. Being a dupe for the Russians doesn’t excuse McCain’s actions. Instead of getting personally involved he should have notified the FBI. Instead McCain was involved in a fraud.
Again with “treason”. It has a meaning, you know.
We all know that the Russians hacked into the DNC and John Podesta’s email.
We all know that Graham is as silly as anyone in Washington.
Shut up Graham. We have had enough of you and McCain.
Sadly it was just discovered during a routine colonoscopy that Lindsey Graham also has brain cancer.
“We all know the Russians were behind the hacking of the DNC computers”. No we don’t. We have heard this lie long enough that now many are proclaiming it to be fact.
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The real truth is that the DNC computer was analyzed by CrowdStrike and no one else. We also know that CrowdStrike was employed by the Clintons and the DNC, and even stated later that their analysis/results of the DNC computer was likely flawed.
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This claim of the Russians being so deeply involved also requires a suspension of belief. Prior to this debacle, we were constantly told of the world class prowess of the Russians such that they are second to none. It was routinely claimed that the Russians could hack into a computer, search all they wanted, take all that they wanted, and then leave without a trace ever being found. In this new paradigm brought about by this hacking “adventure”, we are now to believe that the Russian hackers are a bunch of bungling incompetents that leave their mark on everything they touch.
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How have we gotten to the point where these lies and unknowns are described by incredibly explanations that are without any proof and yet most everyone accepts them as fact?