Proof of Collusion

by Seth Abramson

  43. Ward, “Read: Mueller Indictment.”

  44. Pete Williams, “Attorney Alex van der Zwaan, first person sentenced in Mueller probe, gets 30 days in prison,” NBC News, April 3, 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/attorney-alex-van-der-zwaan-first-person-sentenced-mueller-probe-n862186.

  45. Mark Mazzetti, “Trump Aide Spoke During Campaign to Associate Tied to Russian Intelligence,” New York Times, March 28, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/us/politics/rick-gates-trump-campaign-russian-intelligence.html.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Williams, “Attorney Alex van der Zwaan.”

  48. Sharon LaFraniere, “Paul Manafort, Trump’s Former Campaign Chairman, Guilty of 8 Counts,” New York Times, August 21, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/us/politics/paul-manafort-trial-verdict.html.

  49. Ibid.

  50. Lydia Wheeler, “Manafort Faces Maximum of 80 Years in Prison,” Hill, August 21, 2018, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/402935-manafort-faces-maximum-of-80-years-in-prison.

  51. Alex Whiting and Ryan Goodman, “Will Trump Pardon Manafort?” New York Times, August 30, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/opinion/trump-manafort-pardon-mueller.html.

  52. Katelyn Polantz, “Lobbyist pleads guilty, says he helped steer foreign money to Trump inaugural and lied to Congress,” CNN, August 31, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/31/politics/w-samuel-patten-plea-russia-ukraine/index.html.

  53. Maggie Haberman and Kenneth P. Vogel, “Trump’s Inaugural Committee Paid $26 Million to Firm of First Lady’s Adviser,” New York Times, February 15, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/us/politics/trumps-inaugural-committee-paid-26-million-to-first-ladys-friend.html.

  54. Maria Puente, “Trump ‘Apprentice’ Slur Tapes: A who’s who of people associated with alleged recording,” USA Today, August 16, 2018, https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2018/08/16/trump-apprentice-slur-tape-whos-who-people-associated/996532002/.

  55. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Trump Twitter Archive, search terms “rigged,” “witch hunt,” and “illegal,” January 1, 2018, to August 2018, http://www.trumptwitterarchive.com/.

  56. Toby Harnden, “Comey on Trump’s ‘Consciousness of Guilt,’ ” RealClearPolitics, April 25, 2018, https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2018/04/25/comey_on_trumps_consciousness_of_guilt_136899.html.

  57. Eugene Robinson, “Trump seems to be staging a cover-up. So what’s the crime?” op-ed, Washington Post, May 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-seems-to-be-staging-a-coverup-so-whats-the-crime/2017/05/11/d728c58a-3681-11e7-b4ee-434b6d506b37_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.01efd1869444.

  58. Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael D. Shear, “Trump Revokes Ex-C.I.A. Director John Brennan’s Security Clearance,” New York Times, August 15, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/us/politics/john-brennan-security-clearance.html; Jeremy Diamond and Betsy Klein, “Trump revokes ex-CIA director John Brennan’s security clearance,” CNN, August 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/15/politics/john-brennan-security-clearance/index.html.

  59. Hirschfeld Davis and Shear, “Trump Revokes.”

  60. Ibid.

  61. Josh Gerstein, “Two More Officials Cited in FBI Texts Step Down,” Politico, February 8, 2018, https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/08/fbi-texts-officials-resign-400533.

  62. Eliza Relman, “James Comey’s Former Chief of Staff Quit the FBI,” Business Insider, January 23, 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com/james-comey-former-chief-of-staff-quit-the-fbi-2018-1; Laura Jarrett and Josh Campbell, “FBI Officials Lisa Page and James Baker Resign,” CNN, May 2018, https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/04/politics/fbi-officials-lisa-page-james-baker-resign/index.html; Natasha Bertrand, “ ‘Trump fears them’: Former officials defend FBI leaders swept up in the Trump-Russia firestorm,” Business Insider, December 24, 2017, https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-general-counsel-james-baker-reassigned-amid-trump-russia-firestorm-2017-12; Samuel Chamberlain and Catherine Herridge, “Demoted FBI agent Peter Strzok had larger role in Clinton, Russia probes than previously known,” Fox News, June 2018, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/06/05/demoted-fbi-agent-peter-strzok-had-larger-role-in-clinton-russia-probes-than-previously-known.html; Carrie Johnson, “Leader of Justice Department National Security Division on theWay Out,” NPR, April 20, 2017, https://www.npr.org/2017/04/20/524905899/leader-of-justice-department-national-security-division-on-the-way-out.

  63. Kenneth P. Vogel and Matthew Rosenberg, “Agents Tried to Flip Russian Oligarchs. The Fallout Spread to Trump,” New York Times, September 1, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/01/us/politics/deripaska-ohr-steele-fbi.html.

  64. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), “Wow, Nellie Ohr, Bruce Ohr’s wife, is a Russia expert who is fluent in Russian. She worked for Fusion GPS where she was paid a lot. Collusion! Bruce was a boss at the Department of Justice and is, unbelievably, still there!” Trump Twitter Archive, August 30, 2018, 5:54 a.m., http://www.trumptwitterarchive.com/archive.

  65. Associated Press, “Trump Target in Russia Probe Questioned by Republicans,” New York Times, August 28, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/08/28/us/politics/ap-us-trump-russia-probe-congress.html.

  66. Jeremy Herb, “Ohr says Steele told him Russian intel believed they had Trump ‘over a barrel,’ ” CNN, August 31, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/31/politics/bruce-ohr-christopher-steele-donald-trump/index.html.

  67. Jonathan Swan, “Scoop: FBI director threatened to resign amid Trump, Sessions pressure,” Axios, January 23, 2018, https://www.axios.com/scoop-sessions-fbi-trump-christopher-wray-877adb3e-5f8d-44a1-8a2f-d4f0894ca6a7.html.

  68. Laura Jerrett and Pamela Brown, “Ex-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is fired—and fires back,” CNN, March 17, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/16/politics/andrew-mccabe-fired/index.html.

  69. Ibid.

  70. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), “Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI - A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!” Twitter, March 16, 2018, 9:08 p.m., https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/974859881827258369.

  71. “Trump Threatens to ‘Get Involved’ and Fire Rosenstein,” Daily Beast, April 2018, https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-threatens-to-get-involved-and-fire-rosenstein; Pamela Brown et al., “Trump considering firing Rosenstein to check Mueller,” CNN, April 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/10/politics/trump-rod-rosenstein-robert-mueller/index.html.

  72. Ibid.

  73. Jeremy Herb, “GOP Senators Send Criminal Referral to Justice Department for Dossier Author,” CNN, January 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/05/politics/dossier-judiciary-committee-investigations/index.html.

  74. Jonathan Martin et al., “Trump Pressed Top Republicans to End Senate Russian Inquiry,” New York Times, November 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/us/politics/trump-russia-senate-intel.html.

  75. 18 U.S.C. § 1512. 1729. Protection of Government Processes—Tampering With Victims, Witnesses, or Informants—18 U.S.C. 1512, United States Department of Justice, https://www.justice.gov/usam/criminal-resource-manual-1729-protection-government-processes-tampering-victims-witnesses-or.

  76. Jacqueline Thomsen, “Trump Officials Pushing Hope Hicks to Join 2020 Campaign: Report,” Hill, August 9, 2018, http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/401130-trump-officials-pushing-hope-hicks-to-join-2020-campaign-report.

  77. Ibid.

  78. Josh Dawsey and Ashley Parker, “ ‘Everyone signed one’: Trump is aggressive in his use of nondisclosure agreements, even in government,” Washington Post, August 13, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/everyone-signed-one-trump-is-aggressive-in-his-use-of-nondisclosure-agreements-even-in-government/2018/08/13/9d0315ba-9f15-11e8-93e3-24d1703d2a7a_story.html?utm_term=.b782c8ee0284.

  79. Michelle Ye Hee Lee and Anu Narayanswamy, “RNC
paid nearly half a million dollars to law firm representing Hope Hicks and others in Russia probes,” Washington Post, May 20, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2018/05/20/rnc-paid-nearly-half-a-million-dollars-to-law-firm-representing-hope-hicks-and-others-in-russia-probes/?utm_term=.cfee1d0661e3.

  80. Justin Wise, “Roger Stone: Trump Pardon of D’Souza Was a Signal to Mueller,” Hill, June 1, 2018, http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/390220-stone-calls-pardon-of-dsouza-a-sign-for-mueller-trump-has-awesome.

  81. Ken Dilanian, “Ex-Trump adviser Roger Stone says he expects Mueller to charge him with a crime,” NBC News, August 30, 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/ex-trump-adviser-roger-stone-says-he-expects-mueller-charge-n905091.

  82. Joshua Caplan, “Roger Stone Predicts Mueller Will Indict Donald Trump Jr. on Process Crime,” Breitbart, August 24, 2018, https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/08/24/roger-stone-donald-trump-jr-mueller-indict-process-crime/.

  83. Noah Feldman, “Giuliani the Prosecutor Would’ve Called This Obstruction,” Bloomberg News, August 24, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-08-24/rudy-giuliani-is-on-thin-ice-with-paul-manafort-pardon-quote.

  84. Jonathan Chait, “Trump, Obstructing Justice Again, Asked Lawyers About Manafort Pardon,” New York, August 23, 2018, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/trump-obstructing-justice-manafort-pardon.html; Joe Lockhart, “President Donald Trump issuing pardons during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation could be considered obstruction of justice,” CNN, June 1, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/06/01/joe-lockhart-trump-pardons-obstruction-of-justice-newday.cnn; Steven T. Dennis, “Republican Senators Warn Trump Not to Obstruct Justice or Pardon Himself,” Bloomberg, June 5, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-05/key-senate-republicans-warn-trump-on-obstruction-pardon-powers; “Former FederalProsecutor: A Pardon Can Equal Obstruction of Justice,” Hardball with Chris Matthews, “MSNBC, August 21, 2018, https://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/fmr-federal-prosecutor-a-pardon-can-equal-obstruction-of-justice-1303730755624?v=railb; Abigail Tracy, “ ‘That’s Obstruction of Justice’: What Pardoning Manafort Would Mean for Trump,” Vanity Fair, August 24, 2018, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/08/donald-trump-paul-manafort-pardon; Sean Illing, “10 legal experts on why Trump can’t pardon his way out of the Russia investigation,” Vox, August 21, 2017, https://www.vox.com/2017/8/29/16211784/paul-manafort-charged-guilty-trial-trump-pardon-power.

  85. Randall D. Eliason, “Trump Won’t Talk to Mueller. Here’s Why,” Opinion, Washington Post, February 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-shouldnt-talk-to-mueller-heres-why/2018/02/14/0be8a8c2-11a5-11e8-9570-29c9830535e5_story.html?utm_term=.4a6b47b294fe; Kellan Howell, “Legal Experts: Almost No Upside for Trump to Speak to Mueller,” NewsChannel5, August 2018, https://www.newschannel5.com/newsy/legal-experts-almost-no-upside-for-trump-to-speak-to-mueller.

  86. Dan Merica and Pamela Brown, “Trump says he wants to talk to Mueller, would do so under oath,” CNN, January 25, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/24/politics/robert-mueller-donald-trump/index.html.

  87. Jonathan Chait, “Trump’s Lawyers Can’t Talk Him Out of Talking to Mueller,” New York, August 6, 2018, http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/trumps-lawyers-cant-stop-mueller-interview.html.

  88. Laura King, “Giuliani: Trump wouldn’t ‘have to’ obey a Mueller subpoena, could take the 5th,” Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2018, http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-giuliani-trump-20180506-story.html.

  89. Ishaan Tharoor, “What happened in Helsinki? We Still Don’t Know,” Washington Post, July 23, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/07/23/what-happened-in-helsinki-we-still-dont-know/?utm_term=.21cb8dba2893.

  90. Ibid.

  91. Zachary Cohen, “Trump’s intel chief still doesn’t ‘fully understand’ what happened in Putin meeting,” CNN, August 2, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/02/politics/dni-coats-trump-putin-helsinki-meeting/index.html.

  92. Ibid.

  93. Del Quentin Wilbur, “Paul Manafort pleads guilty to reduced charges and agrees to cooperate with special counsel’s probe,” September 14, 2018, Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-manafort-plea-20180914-story.html; Paul J. Manafort, Jr. “Complete Plea Offer,” Case 1:17-cr-00201, U.S. v. Paul J. Manafort, Crim. No. 17-201-1, U.S. Department of Justice, The Special Counsel’s Office, September 14, 2018, https://www.justice.gov/file/1094151/download.

  94. Howard Fineman, “The ‘state’ of Donald Trump? He thinks it couldn’t be better,” NBC News, News analysis, January 30, 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/2018-state-of-the-union-address/state-donald-trump-he-thinks-it-couldn-t-be-better-n842501.

  95. “Robert Mueller coolly reminds everyone that the Trump-Russia investigation is still happening, with ‘multiple lines of non-public inquiry,’ ” Week, May 23, 2018, http://theweek.com/speedreads/774925/robert-mueller-coolly-reminds-everyone-that-trumprussia-investigation-still-happening-multiple-lines-nonpublic-inquiry.

  96. Richard C. Paddock, “Seeking Asylum, an Escort Has a Tale of Trump and Russia to Offer,” New York Times, March 2, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/02/world/asia/nastya-rybka-trump-putin.html.

  97. Ibid.

  98. Aleksei Navalny, YouTube, February 8, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQZr2NgKPiU.

  99. Ibid.

  100. Ibid.

  101. Ibid.

  102. Ibid.

  103. Ibid.

  104. Lincoln Pigman, “Aleksei Navalny, Kremlin Critic, Is Jailed Ahead of Russian Pension Protests,” New York Times, August 27, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/27/world/europe/russia-navalny.html.

  105. Paddock, “Seeking Asylum, an Escort Has a Tale.”

  106. Richard C. Paddock, “She Gambled on Her Claim to Link Russians and Trump. She Is Losing,” New York Times, August 31, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/31/world/asia/escort-anastasia-vashukevich-nastya-rybka-trump.html.

  107. Ibid.

  108. Kaweewit Kaewjinda, “Escort Says Oligarch Now Has Tapes on Russia Interference,” Associated Press, August 20, 2018, https://apnews.com/78eef0ecec49412b816ac5169d63279a.

  109. Ibid.

  110. Marc Bennetts, “Russian watchdog orders YouTube to remove Navalny luxury yacht video,” Guardian, February 13, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/13/russian-watchdog-orders-youtube-to-remove-navalny-video.

  111. “Defendants Sentencing Memorandum,” United States of America v. George Papadopoulos, pp. 5–12, filed August 31, 2018, https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4807546-Papadopoulos-defense-sentencing-memo.html.

  112. Quint Forgey and Kyle Cheney, “Mueller Recommends Sentence Up to 6 Months for Papadopoulos,” Politico, August 17, 2018, https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/17/papadopoulous-mueller-sentencing-trump-campaign-russia-787835.

  113. Ibid.

  114. Franklin Foer, “Was a Trump Server Communicating with Russia?” Slate, October 31, 2016, http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/10/was_a_server_registered_to_the_trump_organization_communicating_with_russia.html.

  115. Sam Biddle, “Russian Bank Accused of Trump Connection Tries to Clear Name by Pressuring U.S. Computer Researcher,” Intercept, October 26, 2017, https://theintercept.com/2017/10/26/russian-bank-accused-of-trump-connection-tries-to-clear-name-by-pressuring-u-s-computer-researcher/.

  116. Foer, “Was a Trump Server.”

  117. Natasha Bertrand, “The FBI is reportedly examining why a Russian bank with ties to Putin wanted to reach the Trump Organization during the campaign,” Business Insider, March 10, 2017, https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-alfa-bank-trump-organization-servers-2017-3.

  118. Tina Nguyen, “The Spy Story of Maria Butina Keeps Getting Stranger,” Vanity Fair, August 1, 2018, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/08/maria-butina-russia-spy-financial-investigation.

  119. Sara Salinas, “Cambridge Analytica is
shutting down, says the ‘siege of media coverage’ drove away clients,” CNBC, May 2018, https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/02/cambridge-analytica-is-shutting-down-wsj.html; James Vincent, “Academic who collected 50 million Facebook profiles: ‘We thought we were doing something normal,’ ” Verge, March 21, 2018, https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/21/17146342/facebook-data-scandal-cambridge-analytica-aleksandr-kogan-scapegoat; Channel 4 News, six-part YouTube video, Channel “Cambridge Analytica: Undercover Secrets of Trump’s Data Firm,” published March 20, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy-9iciNF1A; “Cambridge Analytica Uncovered: Secret filming reveals election tricks,” YouTube, published March 19, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpbeOCKZFfQ&t=2s; “Cambridge Analytica finally speak to Channel 4 News (interview),” YouTube, published April 26, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRuUX6fsPVg; “Cambridge Analytica boss under fire from MPs,” YouTube, published March 18, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5aQgS2Uh1M; “Cambridge Analytica: Whistleblower reveals data grab of 50 million Facebook profiles,” YouTube, published March 17, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb6-xz-geH4; “Cambridge Analytica: how big data shaped the US election,” YouTube, published October 24, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgYvf3Ckdso.

  120. Jill Colvin and Catherine Lucey, “Omarosa Says She Will ‘Blow the Whistle’ on White House Corruption,” Time, August 13, 2018, http://time.com/5365352/omarosa-white-house-trump-corruption/; Esha Bhandari, “No, the President Can’t Legally Gag White House Staffers,” ACLU, March 20, 2018, https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/employee-speech-and-whistleblowers/no-president-cant-legally-gag-white-house.

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