Journalist Garrett Graff appeared on CNN Monday to offer a big-picture summary of what we know about the Trump campaign's contacts with Russian agents -- and it does not look good for the president.
During an interview with CNN's John Berman, Graff said that we now know that Russians directly talked with 14 different Trump campaign officials or Trump associates during the 2016 presidential election, including Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
"That's a lot of Russians!" Graff remarked. "I think that really bears emphasis: There are not that many Russians you encounter normally in U.S. politics. This isn't a country that is actively involved day-to-day in the swirl of politics in Washington. To have that many people with that many ties to the Kremlin approaching that many different Trump officials... it really is striking how much the Trump campaign opened their arms to these contacts."
Graff went on to explain how striking it was that none of the Trump associates who met with Russian officials ever turned down meetings or offers of help, which he said could give the Kremlin leverage over multiple Trump officials.
"That's information the Trump campaign has been lying about for effectively two years now," Graff said. "And for two years the Russian government has known the Trump administration is lying about something. That, again, is about the worst-case scenario for the United States from a counter-intelligence perspective."
Watch the video below.
