1. Trump’s team allegedly traded intelligence about the activities of Russian oligarchs living in the U.S. in exchange for hacked data that was then dumped online by WikiLeaks. The stolen data came from moles in the Democratic National Committee and Russian hackers, who were allegedly paid by the Kremlin and Trump associates. The company XBT/Webzilla allegedly used botnets and pornography websites to “transmit viruses, plant bugs, steal data and conduct ‘altering operations’ against Democratic Party leadership.”
2. Trump happily allowed the media to cultivate Russia as a “bogeyman” to draw attention away from his “substantial” business dealings in China and other developing countries, which allegedly involved “payment of large bribes and kickbacks.”
3. Carter Page, a Trump advisor who left the campaign in September over his ties to Russia, allegedly met secretly over the summer with Kremlin officials — who threatened to blackmail the Republican candidate — to discuss cooperation on oil exploration and the possibility of lifting U.S. sanctions. “Russians apparently have promised not to use ‘kompromat’ they hold on Trump as leverage, given high levels of voluntary co-operation coming from his team,” the former British spy wrote.
4. The Kremlin indirectly paid for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president, to visit Moscow in December 2015 as part of an effort to split Democratic voters to weaken Hillary Clinton whether or not she won the election.
5. Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, secretly met with Kremlin officials in Prague during August to “clean up the mess” over former campaign chair Paul Manafort’s ties to the pro-Russia regime in Ukraine. While there, Cohen helped set up plans to pay off hackers and others involved in the operation and quickly move them underground in case Clinton won. Cohen has denied the claims, saying his passport shows he was not in Prague and was instead in California visiting a college with his son. The Kremlin, according to the report, believed Cohen was crucial to their covert operation because his wife was of Russian descent and her father is a leading property developer in Moscow. Cohen says his wife is Ukrainian, and he doesn’t believe his father-in-law had ever traveled to Russia.
6. Viktor Yanukovych, the exiled former Ukraine president removed from power over his ties to Russia, allegedly told Putin in August that he’d authorized “substantial kick-back payments” to Manafort but was confident no paper trail had been left behind.
7. Putin fired his chief of staff, who argued there was little risk in interfering in the U.S., as part of a power struggle within the Kremlin after the operation was exposed, and also recalled from Washington a diplomat allegedly involved in transferring intelligence between the Kremlin and Trump. He threatened to fire other senior officials because he was angry the WikiLeaks dumps had not hurt Clinton as much as they’d promised.
8. Interference in the U.S. election was directed first by the foreign ministry, then moved to the Foreign Security Service and finally to the presidential administration. Putin backed Trump as “a divisive, anti-establishment candidate who would shake up current international status quo in Russia’s favor.” The Kremlin also believed Trump would disrupt and weaken the U.S.political system.
9. Trump allegedly participated in “sex parties” in St. Petersburg while trying to set up real estate ventures, but all the direct witnesses had been “silenced” through bribes or “coerced to disappear.”
2. Trump happily allowed the media to cultivate Russia as a “bogeyman” to draw attention away from his “substantial” business dealings in China and other developing countries, which allegedly involved “payment of large bribes and kickbacks.”
3. Carter Page, a Trump advisor who left the campaign in September over his ties to Russia, allegedly met secretly over the summer with Kremlin officials — who threatened to blackmail the Republican candidate — to discuss cooperation on oil exploration and the possibility of lifting U.S. sanctions. “Russians apparently have promised not to use ‘kompromat’ they hold on Trump as leverage, given high levels of voluntary co-operation coming from his team,” the former British spy wrote.
4. The Kremlin indirectly paid for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president, to visit Moscow in December 2015 as part of an effort to split Democratic voters to weaken Hillary Clinton whether or not she won the election.
5. Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, secretly met with Kremlin officials in Prague during August to “clean up the mess” over former campaign chair Paul Manafort’s ties to the pro-Russia regime in Ukraine. While there, Cohen helped set up plans to pay off hackers and others involved in the operation and quickly move them underground in case Clinton won. Cohen has denied the claims, saying his passport shows he was not in Prague and was instead in California visiting a college with his son. The Kremlin, according to the report, believed Cohen was crucial to their covert operation because his wife was of Russian descent and her father is a leading property developer in Moscow. Cohen says his wife is Ukrainian, and he doesn’t believe his father-in-law had ever traveled to Russia.
6. Viktor Yanukovych, the exiled former Ukraine president removed from power over his ties to Russia, allegedly told Putin in August that he’d authorized “substantial kick-back payments” to Manafort but was confident no paper trail had been left behind.
7. Putin fired his chief of staff, who argued there was little risk in interfering in the U.S., as part of a power struggle within the Kremlin after the operation was exposed, and also recalled from Washington a diplomat allegedly involved in transferring intelligence between the Kremlin and Trump. He threatened to fire other senior officials because he was angry the WikiLeaks dumps had not hurt Clinton as much as they’d promised.
8. Interference in the U.S. election was directed first by the foreign ministry, then moved to the Foreign Security Service and finally to the presidential administration. Putin backed Trump as “a divisive, anti-establishment candidate who would shake up current international status quo in Russia’s favor.” The Kremlin also believed Trump would disrupt and weaken the U.S.political system.
9. Trump allegedly participated in “sex parties” in St. Petersburg while trying to set up real estate ventures, but all the direct witnesses had been “silenced” through bribes or “coerced to disappear.”
