Not just Trumpstain: GOP has Russia Problem

[Kid Berwyn]

Gosh, no wonder Mitch McConnell and Co. are loath to look into Putin and GRU. Turns out a whole bloody lot of them wet their beaks.

Why Marsha Blackburn fell on a grenade for Donald Trump

Tennessee senator blocks a bill to mandate reporting foreign election aid, Because the GOP has a Russia problem.

Sophia Tesfaye
Salon, June 14, 2019

At least a dozen Republican congressional campaigns used materials stolen from Democrats by Russian hackers during the 2016 election. Several other Republican campaigns received millions in contributions from an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2018, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called on the National Republican Congressional Committee to make a bipartisan pledge not to utilize stolen or hacked information in House elections. After months of negotiations, in September of 2018, House Republicans backed out and refused to sign the pledge. These are just some of the often-overlooked reasons why Republicans have been so reluctant to criticize President Trump’s willingness to accept “dirt” on an opposing candidate from a foreign government.

One day after Trump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he wouldn’t necessarily go to the FBI in the event his re-election campaign is contacted by foreign groups, Senate Republicans killed legislation to safeguard American democracy from foreign interference.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., failed in his attempt to unanimously pass a bill that would require candidates to report election assistance offered by foreign governments to federal officials. Under Warner’s Foreign Influence Reporting in Elections (FIRE) Act, campaigns would have to report contacts with foreign nationals who are trying to make campaign donations or coordinate with the campaign to the Federal Election Commission, which would then notify the FBI. It’s already illegal for electoral campaigns to knowingly accept help from a foreign entity or power.

“This legislation is pretty simple, even for this body. It would require that any presidential campaign that receives offers of assistance from an agent of a foreign government has an obligation to report that offer of assistance to law enforcement, specifically the FBI,” Warner said on Thursday. “We ought to make clear that if any foreign power tries to intervene again in an election, the least we can do is ask for a requirement to report it to law enforcement.”

Continues...

https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/why-marsha-blackburn-fell-on-a-grenade-for-donald-trump/

Imagine that, the Kremlin successfully subverting the USA through the hypocrites on the right wing

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Everyone of the republicans should register as foreign agents...nt

[Kid Berwyn]

3. Absolutely. Starting with this chinless GOP guy...

Mitch McConnell’s Ties to Russian Oil Money

The Democratic Coalition

The Democratic Coalition’s ongoing investigation just uncovered the following evidence linking GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to Russian oil money, some of which we first revealed in February 2017.

McConnell recently voted to drop sanctions against Russian aluminum company RusAl which is still owned by one of Vladimir Putin’s sanctioned oligarchs, Oleg Deripaska. His action directly benefits one of the GOP leader’s major donors, whose fortune comes from Russian oil.

The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC run by Sen. McConnell’s former Chief of Staff, received a total of $3,500,000 ($2,500,000 in 2016 and $1,000,000 in 2017) via Access Industries and a subsidiary. Len Blavatnik is a Russian oligarch with US and UK citizenship who owns Access Industries and donated to Sen. McConnell’s 2016 Senate campaign vehicles.

Blavatnik’s Access Industries made many of its billions from Putin’s decisions about its Russian oil partnership. He is also a long-term business partner of Kremlin-linked Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska at RuSal, in which he is a major investor, as well as Viktor Vekselberg, who is entangled with Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen through his U.S. family office Columbus Nova.
Last week, Sen. McConnell led 42 Republicans in voting against a resolution to maintain sanctions on Blavatnik’s business partner Deripaska.

Snip...

Blavatnik gave a total of $7.35 million to PACs working for high-ranking Republicans including organizations linked to both the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader during the 2015–16 federal campaign cycle. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is probing donor Blavatnik for his ties to Donald Trump and specifically a million dollar inaugural donation.

Source:

https://medium.com/@TheDemCoalition/mitch-mcconnells-ties-to-russian-oil-money-db56f16a4824

[stillcool]

2. lots of crud under...

the Russia rock...

Republicans downplay election interference after visit to Russia
"We've blown it way out of proportion."
FRANK DALE JUL 10, 2018, 4:31 PM
https://thinkprogress.org/republican-senators-weird-trip-russia-election-interference-8d64b4a8abc9/

[Kid Berwyn]

4. Most patriotic Julie 4, da!

The Congresspeople who visited Moscow on 07/04/2018? All Republican.

Sen Steve Daines (R-MT)
Rep Kay Granger (R-TX, 12th Dist)
Sen John Hoeven (R-ND)
Sen Ron Johnson (R-WI)
Sen John Kennedy (R-LA)
Sen Jerry Moran (R-KS)
Sen Richard Shelby (R-AL)
Sen John Thune (R-SD)

#PutinsGOP

[stillcool]

5. The things Republicans do...

there is always a there, there.

[Kid Berwyn]

6. Kremlin, The NRA Cash Cow

McClatchy reported in January that the FBI was investigating whether Torshin, a deputy governor of Russia’s central bank, sent money to the NRA in an effort to secretly boost Trump’s presidential campaign. Campaign records show that the NRA was Trump’s biggest supporter, spending about $30 million on him during the campaign, a much larger amount than it has spent on previous presidential candidates.

Source: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/04/11/nra-russia-money-guns-516804


Since the arrival of Barr, it’s impressive to see how fast all the various threads disappear into a dark corner, never to be seen again.

[Kid Berwyn]

9. Lindsey Graham, Russian Oil Money & A Campaign Finance Scandal

The Democratic CoalitionFollow
May 17

The Democratic Coalition’s ongoing investigation just uncovered the following evidence linking Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to Russian oil money and a campaign finance scandal.

Len Blavatnik is a Russian oligarch with US and UK citizenship who donated to Sen. Graham’s 2016 presidential campaign. Blavatnik made many of his billions off Russian oil. He is also long-term business partner of Kremlin-linked Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska at RuSal, the aluminum giant in which he is a major investor, as well as Viktor Vekselberg, who is entangled with Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen through his U.S. family office Columbus Nova.

Sen. Graham’s political action committee received a total of $800,000 from Blavatnik via his company, Access Industries. He received $500,000 in May 2015 just before Donald Trump declared and another $300,000 in October 2015, long after it was publicly apparent Graham’s campaign had no traction in the polls. The Blavatnik family, including Len, donated another $57,000 to Graham’s campaign directly, but the Senator’s campaign later returned $13,500.

Senator Graham abandoned his 2016 campaign for president on December 21, 2015. Blavatnik gave $7.35 million to PACs working for high-ranking Republicans, including both the Speaker of the House and Senate Majority Leader, during the 2015–16 federal campaign cycle. Special Counsel Robert Mueller was probing donor Blavatnik for his ties to Donald Trump and specifically a million dollar inaugural donation.

Forbes amply documented Blavatnik’s source funds from the Kremlin in 2013 by exhibiting a copy of the wire transfer itself in a story entitled “The Four Horsemen of Russia’s Economic Collapse.” It described his sale of a private Russian oil company to state-controlled Rosneft.

Continues...

https://medium.com/@TheDemCoalition/lindsey-graham-russian-oil-money-a-campaign-finance-scandal-f0ef9442ef2a

[myohmy2]

7. from Wikipedia

" Under current United States law, set forth in the USA PATRIOT Act, acts of domestic terrorism are those which: &quot A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; (B) appear to be intended – (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States."[2] [3] [4] "

...shouldn't the GOP be declared a domestic terrorist organization?

...they seem to quality...

[Kid Berwyn]

8. USA PATRIOT Act makes clear: GOP is a Terrorist Organization.

...Along with betraying the Constitution.

On top of all that, after we’d told the world it was the Russians who’d hacked us, after we made it clear that this wasn’t an act of political retribution but one of international espionage, Republicans desperate to protect their majority played right into the Russians’ hand. The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and Congressional Leadership Fund (the House GOP leadership’s super PAC) used that stolen material in their paid advertising. The two most important national organizations in GOP House campaigns were brazenly complicit in using Russian hacked materials, and they knew exactly what they were doing.

Source: https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/440047-russias-election-interference-is-a-problem-for-the-gop

Thanks, myohmy2. Bill Barr may be working to protect his Party more than just the Traitor Don Trumpstain.

[Kid Berwyn]

10. From Kevin McCarthy, witness to Putin's congressional payroll

More we learn about Russia connections, worse it looks for all Republicans

By Jennifer Rubin

The Russia scandal enveloping the White House poses an existential threat to the White House and more broadly to the GOP. The Post’s latest bombshell shows just how cavalier Republicans were about handing the party and the country over to someone with inexplicable affection for an enemy of the United States.

The Washington Post reports:

A month before Donald Trump clinched the Republican nomination, one of his closest allies in Congress – House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy – made a politically explosive assertion in a private conversation on Capitol Hill with his fellow GOP leaders: that Trump could be the beneficiary of payments from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said, according to a recording of the June 15, 2016, exchange, which was listened to and verified by The Washington Post. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher is a Californian Republican known in Congress as a fervent defender of Putin and Russia.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., immediately interjected, stopping the conversation from further exploring McCarthy’s assertion, and swore the Republicans present to secrecy.

Continues...

https://www.dailyrepublic.com/all-dr-news/opinion/state-national-columnists/more-we-learn-about-russia-connections-worse-it-looks-for-all-republicans/

This is from 2017. Where are the media?