Well, it looks like Jared Kushner might have committed some treason.
If you’ve turned on your television or worse, perused your Twitter feed, since Friday afternoon you’ve heard the story.
Much like a starry-eyed, groom-to-be who’s $13,000 short on that $14,000 Tiffany Soleste engagement ring, when Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak wanted to set up a secret back channel to communicate with Donald Trump, “he went to Jared.”
Or actually, Jared went to him. “Kushner and Russia’s ambassador to Washington discussed the possibility of setting up a secret and secure communications channel between Trump’s transition team and the Kremlin, using Russian diplomatic facilities in an apparent move to shield their pre-inauguration discussions from monitoring,” WaPo reported last night, adding that “Kislyak reported to his superiors in Moscow that Kushner made the proposal during a meeting on Dec. 1 or 2 at Trump Tower.”
So that’s bad but, as with all things that involve Trump and Russia, it quickly got worse because about two hours later, Reuters reported that Kushner “had at least three previously undisclosed contacts with the Russian ambassador during and after the 2016 presidential campaign … includ[ing] two phone calls between April and November last year.” That according to no fewer than seven current and former U.S. officials.
As for Kushner, he called a lot of Russians between April and November of last year, so he’s not entirely sure how anyone expects him to keep track of each and every individual treasonous act.
“Kushner participated in thousands of calls and has no recollection of calls with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. between April and November of last year,” Kushner’s attorney Jamie Gorelick said.
Jamie has asked Reuters for the dates of the alleged calls so she can let Kushner try to use that information to decide who needs to get some polonium in their cup of tea “look into it and respond”, but she says she hasn’t received such information yet. She’ll get back to you on that.
On the bright side, you can now bet on whether Kushner will face federal criminal charges in the near future on Predicit:
It looks like this may be an opportunity to buy a dollar for 26 cents…
This seems like a good time to remind you of what Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro told CNN last month…
So what is the treasonous act? I’m simply asking out of my own ignorance. It sounds like Jared set-up back-channel communication channels between the Russian government and Trump. But given Trump was on the path to the presidency, is this really unexpected or treasonous? I’m guessing that there is an implied connection between Russia’s “influence” on the election and Jared?
I think it’s a far stretch though to play the treason card, unless I’m missing something. …although I’m not shedding any tears for Trump either with his questions on Obama’s birth certificate. This just seems like the same shit pot being stirred, but with a new administration.
Security clearance. If you can’t explain who you talked to and why they will deny it. To lie and not disclose is a crime. To lie about contacts with our most active enemy could be treason.
There are a couple of significant revelations in the recent Kushner stories. The first is that he didn’t reveal these contacts on his SF-86 form when applying for a security clearance which is a criminal act in and of itself.
More importantly however, he allegedly asked the Russian ambassador for access to Russian embassy facilities to use their communication equipment to speak directly with the Russian government rather than using the normal diplomatic channels. He essentially asked to use the same communication systems that Russian spies and diplomats use to speak with their governments in order to keep the contents of those communications from the US government and the intelligence agencies. To have a private citizen to request access to secured Russian facilities to send covert communications to a hostile foreign power is strange behavior that is certainly suggestive of espionage.
This is not normal behavior. There are appropriate ways to communicate with foreign governments and this clearly wasn’t it. Besides, the trump team seems to have no trouble getting ahold of the Russians without access to secured Russian facilities.
Quite clearly all of the Trump administration (including Jeff Sessions) – including Trump himself have repeatedly violated the Logan Act. While only one person has been indicted and no one has ever been prosecuted under the Logan Act of 1799 – there has to be a first time for everything. What makes this more serious than just the Logan Act violations is that the Trump’s administration is with a government that was already sanctioned by the previous administration making Trump’s clandestine contacts – essentially with enemy state and that could well be treasonous.
Personally, I don’t understand (my patients wearing thin regarding the allegiances to US citizens of both the Congress, intelligence community and the DOJ) why the current indictment and prosecution of the Trump is being so drawn out and delayed in an investigation that has apparently been going on for more than a year being dragged along, kicking, screaming and delaying through a continuous deluge of information leaks of criminal acts. Apparently, the US is so embarrassed by the duping of its democratic gov. and political party vetting processes by the Trump-Russia election skewing efforts and continuing contacts – that it is reluctant to make the admission that our political parties and gov. leadership allowed a candidates collusion with an enemy foreign state to effect our democratic election process outcomes. This is both self-indicting of our election process incompetence and most especially the leaderships in both political parties, the associated intelligence agencies and the DOJ.
Get over it, every thinking person knows you all have failed us repeatedly. Don’t continue to fail us by dragging your feet on removing this treasonous administration. Get their prosecution over with and let’s adapt to this new reality that foreign and domestic enemies can easily have their way with our current electoral processes – which in hindsight now have clearly been dubious for decades. This isn’t about saving political and professional leadership face – that ship has clearly sailed. It’s about salvaging the competence and security of the nation and it’s political system and governmental leadership.
The Logan act LOL’s. You mean that act that the democrats completely ignored during there 8 years. FM, no one ever gets charged under the logan act, stop with the bS. Funny how your so frustrated after a few months with trump, you call for an outdated act to be enforced, but didn’t gAF for the 8 years before that. Idiot.
Andrew, I had a lot of problems with Obama (his mental competency was not one) – most his especially the Unaffordable Care Act and his sell out to big healthcare to finance his election. The difference is big healthcare isn’t an enemy state and doesn’t fall under the Logan Act – so not an issue for Obama haters. Additionally, the Logan Act is no older than the Constitution. Which other parts will you chose to ignore? FM, Obama, Clinton or any other candidate are not in an electoral race with Trump now. The constant deflection by Trump trolls to irrelevant and or non-existent issues to avoid the daily Trump fiascos provides it’s own statement of their intellectual level and value.
This is no doubt ultimately all about money. Putin has his own personal 40-60billion$ slush fund to maintain power. He and his Russian Mafia gang stole from Oligarchs created during Yeltsins time in office. Poor guy tried Democracy but(alas)he was to drunk to prevent the corruption. Oligarchs in turn stole it from the people of Russia and Putin stole it from the Yeltsin Oligarchs. Now the Putin cronies pay protection money into his slush fund so every one can be kept greased. Putin has control of law enforcement, secret service, courts and of course the armed forces. This keeps the non greaseable as well as as those not worth greasing totally under his thumb(think tax fraud charges and polonium). A fascist government does very well for the rich don’t you think?
To get to my point a back channel to Russia for funnelling money,Intel etc. would work well for this.. Bannon has taught dummyTrump what fascism is and he and his minion Kushner like the idea very much. Once created they can suborn Amer. Oligarchs and steal from the American people with impunity. From here they will try to spread the rackets to other countries that aren’t in the club already. If this is to much conspiracy for you duck your head into the sand.
A simple question : What specific Flynn stresses were connected to this request?