Something Even More Wicked This Way Comes . . . .

[ click pic to enlarge ]

This is the real story from today's law enforcement festivities in Washington and has yet to be entirely fleshed out:

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, tasked with pursuing collusion between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and foreign interests, just planted his first stake in the heart of the Russian matter.

Prosecutors on Mueller’s team revealed Monday that a foreign policy adviser on Trump’s campaign, George Papadopoulos, pursued Russia’s help in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and sought to open communication lines to the Kremlin. 

Even more than the indictments of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, the case -- showing how Russians attempted to influence key Trump aides -- lays out a blueprint for Mueller’s work as his prosecutors circle other campaign officials.

The case against Papadopoulos details repeated contact between Trump’s campaign team and agents working on behalf of Russian interests during the 2016 election campaign. Emails and testimony show that two high-level supervisors and other campaign officials involved in national security and foreign policy were aware of these communications.

The campaign also received information that the Russians had thousands of emails containing “dirt” on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton months before hacked emails from the Democratic Party were made public.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-30/trump-foreign-policy-adviser-pleaded-guilty-in-mueller-probe

Manafort's principal motivation appears to be mostly good old fashioned American greed.

This guy Papadopolous on the other hand, and no doubt several others who are likely under investigation as The Gadfly types this post, was in it for the glory of being on a winning presidential team and by proxy a hero in some sort of warped political and ideological victory.  To achieve that end, Papadopolous and others did not blink twice when presented with an opportunity to help their candidate by playing hide the salami with actors from an enemy state. . . . Oh what tangled webs they've woven.

This is just the tip of the iceberg too.  Word has it that Papadopolous has plea bargained his way out of serious prison time by singing like a canary to Mueller's team and if you understand that the charges pertaining to Papadopolous revolve around the Trump campaign's possible collusion with Russia in order to influence the outcome an American presidential election -- well you just know then that there are some people in Drumpf world who aren't going to be sleeping well at night for some time to come, and quite frankly, The Gadfly couldn't be more content about that.




----TFG