Saturday, June 3, 2017

Trump administration wanted to quickly and unilaterally lift Russian sanctions

Yahoo News is reporting that in the early weeks of conservative Donald Trump's presidency, that his administration wanted to lift Russian sanctions. These were to be done unilaterally. The sanctions were for Russia's incursion in Ukraine and meddling of the 2016 American election. Yahoo News.

It took intense lobbying by State Department officials and congress to put a stop to Trump's plans. Congress moved to codify the sanctions. Then in February, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigned for failing to disclose that during the transition he had spoken to the Russians about the sanctions and telling the Russians to hold off retaliating. The 11th Hour with Brian Williams has an excellent piece which features one of the State Department officials who wanted to stop Trump. See video below.

The problem with Trump attempting to unilaterally lifting of the sanctions is that United States would get nothing. Russian aggression would be rewarded. The people of Ukraine would be jeopardy. The Russians would get away with hacking Americans to tilt the election.

This move also is another clue in the Trump-Russia scandal. It now makes sense. While this is speculation, it is not a far stretch to see this is as payback or quid pro quo by Trump for possibly the following:

1. Payback for hacking of the Democratic National Committee, releasing the information to Wikileaks, and using the Internet to spread false narratives about Hillary Clinton.

2. Payback for Russian investment and loans to Trump's business.

3. Getting a loan for Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and adviser, from a sanctioned Russian bank once that bank had its sanctions lifted.

4. Agreeing not to release the Trump Pee Tape.

4. All of the above.

Conservative Republicans are very quiet about the daily news of the Trump-Russian connection. They are not putting America first. Where is conservative outrage of Trump's plans to give the Russians back tw compounds? To the Republicans, it's the party first. We must resist and defeat them in future elections.

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