US President Donald Trump (right) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit in the central Vietnamese city of Danang on November 11, 2017 (AFP Photo/JORGE SILVA)
Seth Abramson, a professor and legal analyst, on Thursday provided what he said was "evidence of criminal collusion" between President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign and the Russian government.
In a massive Twitter thread, Abramson said that there was a "clear pattern" of actions taken by the Trump campaign before and after the election which points to a conspiracy to undermine U.S. sanctions against Russia.
Abramson came to the conclusion that there was "likely" collusion with Russia after examining the Trump campaign's activities in four European countries -- Italy, Greece, Hungary and Austria -- which wanted sanctions to be lifted.
"As it's illegal to accept anything of value from a foreign national as part of a campaign, negotiate U.S. policy if one hasn't been elected, or aid/abet crimes committed against America by other nations, there was *no reason* for Trump to be in contact with these four nations," Abramson wrote. "So if we detected a *clear pattern* of Trump aides not *only* secretly reaching out to foreign nations, but *exclusively reaching out to nations working to end sanctions on Russia*, and if we saw that pattern in *pre-election behavior*, it'd be evidence of criminal collusion."
The legal analyst went on to break down the Trump campaign's actions in each country.
"What is obvious is that *all* of Trump's top aides—not just a few of them—targeted, and not just after the election but *during the election*, making as many covert contacts and having as many covert negotiations with Russia, Italy, Hungary, and Greece as they possibly could," Abramson observed. "There's *no* doubt that Trump was negotiating U.S. sanctions policy during the election and—I must add—both before, during, and *after* the revelation of Russian crimes against the United States. This is collusion (frankly even the meetings are collusion) by *any* definition."
"Whether Trump also *coordinated* with Russian *hacking* is a separate question—and the jury is still out on that, though the Don Jr.-WikiLeaks secret messages are starting to tell that story," he concluded. "But collusion on sanctions, and thus aiding and abetting Russian crimes? *Yes*."
Read the entire Twitter thread below.
(THREAD) Tracking the in-campaign movements/ties of both Putin and Trump aides—including Trump's closest advisor, T… https://t.co/g4lrV48YLB— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530805149.0
1/ To follow this thread, there are 3 things you must understand first: 1. Tom Barrack was and is Trump's closest… https://t.co/yoU5CW5s69— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530805334.0
2/ To follow up on the first of these: Barrack—with Cohen—was Trump's first political advisor; handpicked Trump's c… https://t.co/BcDC8EjJCR— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530805461.0
3/ To follow up on the second of these: from June 2015 through Election Day, Putin visited an EU nation precisely t… https://t.co/fNYgfvlaXw— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530805580.0
4/ To follow up on the third of these: when ABC "erroneously" (we'll see) reported that Trump ordered Michael Flynn… https://t.co/wRP2ZcEhT7— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530805683.0
5/ (To explain that last point: if Trump was negotiating sanctions policy with Russia pre-election, he was aiding a… https://t.co/shrCTIdfyi— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530805806.0
6/ (And pre-election sanctions negotiations would of course also violate election law and bribery statutes, and the… https://t.co/MSKrsnhmpv— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530805904.0
7/ So—all that said—here's a complete list of the EU nations that *opposed* sanctions on Russia during the 2016 ele… https://t.co/53XXntgMPD— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530806089.0
8/ As it's illegal to accept anything of value from a foreign national as part of a campaign, negotiate U.S. policy… https://t.co/FIxh4B3MLL— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530806270.0
9/ I need to repeat what I just said: there was *no value* and therefore *no reason* for the Trump campaign, *pre-e… https://t.co/wK3dadEPfE— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530806365.0
10/ Foreign diplomats do *not* attend political functions; foreign leaders do *not* endorse U.S. candidates pre-ele… https://t.co/w73fk8Xy17— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530806464.0
11/ So if we detected a *clear pattern* of Trump aides not *only* secretly reaching out to foreign nations, but *ex… https://t.co/BvCEAj7OaT— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530806647.0
12/ ITALY. In the next series of tweets, I'll recount pre-election facts about the Trump campaign and Italy that su… https://t.co/hzFXpcw1bX— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530806760.0
13/ 5 days before Trump announced his presidential campaign, Vladimir Putin made one of his two trips to an EU nati… https://t.co/zM3v9tk7NH— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530806886.0
15/ We do know Barrack's top business associate in Italy is of Russian descent. And we know Barrack is under crimin… https://t.co/LirqrIyO1z— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530807182.0
16/ Barrack spends time with Russians in Italy; needs Italy's government to be on his side; and was Trump's top adv… https://t.co/fNG3Dr7WPZ— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530807304.0
17/ We'll see if Italy's ambassador pops up again at any point in our story.— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530807341.0
18/ In February '16, Flynn—who'll later become Barrack's *business partner*, working on a Middle East energy deal t… https://t.co/0oZ25gIRJK— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530807568.0
19/ The very first Trump hire after Manafort and Flynn are both aboard is *energy consultant* George Papadopoulos.… https://t.co/wLvEbxwafP— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530807671.0
20/ While in Italy on unspecified Trump campaign business, guess what happens? A *Kremlin agent* named Josef Mifs… https://t.co/zggQciXJRk— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530807805.0
21/ Mifsud wants to establish a backchannel between Russia and the Trump campaign, and he's in Italy—not surprising… https://t.co/8vs3gagK7Q— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530807930.0
22/ In January '17, Papadopoulos will lie to the FBI about his meeting in Italy with Mifsud. His lie will be *very… https://t.co/ZPc9Ea8pZT— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530808081.0
22/ In January '17, Papadopoulos will lie to the FBI about his meeting in Italy with Mifsud. His lie will be *very… https://t.co/ZPc9Ea8pZT— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530808081.0
23/ About a month later, Manafort schedules his first campaign *event* as Trump's campaign manager. The event is Tr… https://t.co/iMSr101y9E— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530808191.0
24/ Though the new venue for the speech—the Mayflower Hotel—is smaller and less secure, Manafort says the move is f… https://t.co/21uV1bx66R— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530808281.0
25/ The one thing longstanding U.S. political custom dictates Manafort *cannot* do is invite foreign diplomats to T… https://t.co/Qhp0YLD8xZ— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530808358.0
26/ Instead, Trump's campaign invites just four ambassadors—of all the ambassadors in the world—to Trump's VIP cock… https://t.co/VhOF5zja1Y— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530808487.0
27/ That's right: Trump invites the *same ambassador* who was talking sanctions with Putin in Italy in June '15 to… https://t.co/AdbNUFOlVI— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530808588.0
28/ Of course, I'm forgetting another top advisor: Cohen. What's he doing as Trump-Russia talks—headed by Papadopou… https://t.co/1Y8OqbdKUP— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530808732.0
29/ It's impossible to sufficiently underscore how unlikely it is that Cohen—Trump's lawyer—would go on a ten-day v… https://t.co/bQOrEIq0Y2— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530808822.0
30/ The problem isn't just that this vacation *looks* suspicious, it's that it *is* suspicious: Cohen's alibi for w… https://t.co/HeXhdaaZiK— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530808910.0
32/ GREECE. In the next series of tweets, I lay out how a second EU nation—of only four that supported Putin's anti… https://t.co/doG5B1o7nO— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530809129.0
33/ As the Papadopoulos-Mifsud talks heat up in Spring 2016—Mifsud floats the idea of letting the Trump campaign se… https://t.co/iS0aq1BCk8— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530809318.0
34/ In early May—just 3 weeks before Putin's trip to the EU—Trump's campaign sends Papadopoulos on a trip that'll b… https://t.co/T3khlbvErA— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530809497.0
35/ After making "contacts" with top Greek politicians in early May—including Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, whos… https://t.co/bDn7LJaXEq— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530809700.0
36/ I want to remind everyone that Papadopoulos was one of the first NatSec hires Trump made; he's now a convicted… https://t.co/FUki6SVXHq— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530809815.0
37/ I also want to remind everyone that there was *no reason at all for Papadopoulos to be in Greece*—as there was… https://t.co/MkU5z7cer8— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530809916.0
38/ During the transition, Papadopoulos, back in Trump's orbit, goes to Greece again, telling journalists there tha… https://t.co/LfmCmecsrk— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530810060.0
39/ In Summer 2017, just before he is arrested, Papadopoulos goes to Greece *again*, and this time his wife Simona… https://t.co/pfxRZfH1sw— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530810143.0
40/ HUNGARY. Hungary is the EU HQ of the FSB—formerly the KGB—and it's of so little geopolitical consequence the id… https://t.co/6OKYbdtkMs— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530810271.0
41/ The other early NatSec hire by Trump-Flynn-Manafort-Barrack—which came as Sessions was being hired to run the N… https://t.co/SS64arrCFo— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530810393.0
42/ In Congressional testimony, Page shocked everyone by revealing that not only had he made a foreign trip during… https://t.co/1x8MuJSsdf— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530810475.0
43/ In the same testimony, Page revealed that *another* member of Trump's national security team, Joseph Schmitz, h… https://t.co/0Sh3AWyanY— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530810597.0
44/ Shortly after Schmitz went to Hungary, that nation's president—an avowed Putin pal—broke with international pro… https://t.co/Qv9I4GyU0l— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530810668.0
45/ Though it has *no geopolitical significance*, Hungary got yet *another* visit from a Trump NatSec aide—JD Gordo… https://t.co/v7ODhao6xv— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530810793.0
46/ AUSTRIA. I'm still looking at Trump-Austria ties. For now, I can say this: it was a tougher lift for Trump to p… https://t.co/nJVsakuL1u— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530811108.0
47/ QATAR. What I *can* do is bring this thread full-circle by talking about Qatar, the Mayflower, the Steele dossi… https://t.co/CjKrxIT63J— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530811216.0
48/ The Steele dossier says the purpose of Putin's anti-sanctions shenanigans was to free up Russia's involvement i… https://t.co/NqkIbbeSNM— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530811308.0
49/ Steele's dossier says Trump was going to be given a cut of Russia's largest-ever oil deal—the sale of a portion… https://t.co/q448OHw8AF— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530811411.0
50/ The Rosneft deal ties together so many threads I've discussed that it's mind-blowing: Rosneft execs were with P… https://t.co/eza5O470e1— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530811500.0
51/ Then there's this: a key player in the Rosneft deal was the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). Indeed, the QIA w… https://t.co/A9OS6oi4PN— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530811822.0
52/ So Barrack handpicks the foreign agent (Manafort) who—with Sessions and Flynn—shepherds Trump's pro-Russia sanc… https://t.co/UjUfH0nM1C— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530811976.0
53/ ...to the entity that made the Rosneft deal possible—which deal is said to net Trump money for supporting the s… https://t.co/i6MMKEBZbK— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530812102.0
54/ And in the context of this damning evidence—evidence that Trump agents had secret contacts with nations involve… https://t.co/FwkhLc0jAW— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530812198.0
55/ And I haven't even *touched* upon, in this thread, Page's, Gordon's, and Papadopoulos' *immediate boss*—Session… https://t.co/Q9qofWM1Ha— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530812298.0
56/ I'll keep saying it until the media listens: there should be *many* stories on what Thomas Barrack was doing du… https://t.co/naNtA8JWB4— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530812501.0
57/ What is obvious is that *all* of Trump's top aides—not just a few of them—targeted, and not just after the elec… https://t.co/VzuJPeRzqt— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530812597.0
58/ These contacts—in their timing, high-level nature, and meticulous targeting toward Putin's EU allies and *only… https://t.co/hsRwQQGwNm— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530812724.0
59/ There's *no* doubt that Trump was negotiating U.S. sanctions policy during the election and—I must add—both bef… https://t.co/jid6lfyg1a— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530812796.0
60/ Whether Trump also *coordinated* with Russian *hacking* is a separate question—and the jury is still out on tha… https://t.co/30Q0sVZOBf— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530812884.0
PS/ Please take this thread as just a *piece* of the puzzle this feed—and others—have put together. So yes, I've do… https://t.co/RCdq4wd0dg— Seth Abramson (@Seth Abramson) 1530813044.0
