For a morning stretch, let’s see if we can connect special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s first catch in the Russia investigation to a South Dakota Trumpist.
The Washington Post notes that Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, who was arrested in July and pled guilty to lying to the FBI earlier this month, “communicated with several senior campaign officials about his outreach to the Russian government over a period of months.” Among those officials was Iowa conservative Sam Clovis:
Victoria Toensing, an attorney for Sam Clovis, confirmed that several references in court filings to “the campaign supervisor” refer to the onetime radio host from Iowa, who served as Trump’s national campaign co-chairman.
At one point, Papadopoulos emailed Clovis and other campaign officials about a March 24, 2016, meeting he had in London with a professor, who had introduced him to the Russian ambassador and a Russian woman he described as “Putin’s niece.” The group had talked about arranging a meeting “between us and the Russian leadership to discuss U.S.-Russia ties under President Trump,” Papadopoulos wrote. (Papadopoulos later learned that the woman was not Putin’s niece, and while he expected to meet the ambassador, he never did, according to filings.)
Clovis responded that he would “work it through the campaign,” adding, “great work,” according to court documents.
In August 2016, Clovis responded to efforts by Papadopoulos to organize an “off the record” meeting with Russian officials. “I would encourage you” and another foreign policy adviser to the campaign to “make the trip, if it is feasible,” Clovis wrote.
Toensing said Clovis “always vigorously opposed any Russian trip for Donald Trump and/or the campaign.” She said his responses to Papadopoulos were courtesy by “a polite gentleman from Iowa” [Rosalind S. Helderman, “Who’s Who in the George Papadopoulos Court Documents,” Washington Post, 2017.10.30].
Clovis used to teach at Morningside College in Sioux City, which sharply criticized his defense of Trump’s proposed Muslim ban. Clovis also hosted a Sioux City radio program on which he stoked birtherism and climate change denial. He is now Trump’s underqualified USDA science advisor.
Clovis also appears to have Google-vetted and recruited Carter Page, Trump’s Russia advisor during the campaign.
Sam Clovis ran for Senate in Iowa in 2014 and placed a Larry Rhoden-level second behind majority-landslider and eventual general election winner Joni Ernst. During that 2014 primary, Sam Clovis was the featured speaker at a political event hosted at Beef Products Inc. founder Eldon Roth’s doomed restaurant in Sioux City by Dan Lederman’s Rushmore PAC:
Lederman said he’s glad to have Clovis, “one of Siouxland’s most prominent conservative leaders as a guest speaker for the first lunch of this election cycle” [Bret Hayworth, “Clovis Appearance Is First in PAC Group Series,” Sioux City Journal, 2014.03.21].
I don’t know if Lederman and Clovis have had much time to catch up since the Trump campaign and Clovis’s elevation to federal office. But Lederman has certainly been blowing his Trump horn, which noise was a big part of his campaign to oust SDGOP chair Pam Roberts last February. And as a bonus tangential connection, by making a false statement on his registration as a foreign agent for the Saudis in 2016, Lederman violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act, one of the many laws for which a federal grand jury has indicted Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates.
Clovis, Lederman, and everybody else in the dining car of the Trump train had better fasten their seatbelts. Their connections may lead them to a bumpy ride through the new Watergate.
South Dakota was not missed with Russian meddling in the last election. Facebook and social media were very busy here. South Dakota is supposed to be reliable red so it does kind of make one wonder why we had Russian interference in our election process. Our new American flag is still red, white and blue, but now it misses the stars. http://flagpedia.net/russia Let us hope we don’t get used to saluting it.
republicans/russians have been shown to be in bed together in the coup to take over the United States. Facebook reveals this today from Morning Joe:
“”Facebook now says an estimated 126 million people received Russian-backed content on the website during the 2016 election,” Mika Brzezinski said. “That’s roughly one-third of the nation’s population.”
She said the revelation was made in prepared testimony by Facebook’s general counsel.
“Facebook says some 29 million Americans directly received material from 80,000 posts by 120 fake Russian-backed pages. Alarming new data from Twitter was revealed as well. Two sources told NBC News the company has found almost 37,000 automated accounts linked to Russia that generated election-related material that resulted in nearly 1.5 million tweets that could have appeared in the timelines of some 288 million users,” she said.
“So you got possibly 288 million, almost 300 million impressions on Twitter from Russian accounts,” Joe Scarborough said.
“And you have Facebook posts seen by 126 million Americans, all to influence a campaign that was won by the barest of margins. The number that fit in a football stadium were the size of the victory, .06% of 126 million. You add 288 million, and maybe that’s .01 or .02%.”‘ This is treason that the majority in congress, republicans, will not address. They want to take away healthcare and give themselves a tax break by treason.
Folks, South Dakota is in the tank on this as well. We have clearly been sold out to the russians for a couple hundred million bucks. Cheap cheap cheap, a buck apiece is what your head is worth. Start by Calling the SDGOP and demand Lederman step down.
The Kremlin didn’t just pay for the fake news posted on Facebook, they had operatives to help spread their lies.
It would be interesting to know if Clovis, Lederman or Powers where some of the republicans that sanctioned and promoted Russian fake news stories on Facebook.
In the past ten months or so we have found out the one thing Trump is good at and that is filling his cabinet and administration with inept and unqualified republicans.
From John Kelly, Paul Manafort and his minions, to cabinet selections like Ben Carson, Betsy DeVoes, etc.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/31/sam-clovis-senate-russia-investigation-244370
Clovis is thought to be a cooperative witness in Senate Russia investigation.
Toensing and hubby/law partner Joe DiGenova are/were/still might be regulars on Fake Noize.