Steele further claimed that Page met with Ivan Diveykin, a Kremlin official. Diveykin is said to have informed Page that Russia had a kompromat file on Mrs. Clinton that it might be willing to share with the Trump campaign. He also suggested that the Kremlin had such a file on Trump, too, which Trump should bear in mind in his dealings with Russia.
Steele placed these allegations in the framework of what he described as a conspiracy of cooperation between Russia and the Trump campaign, overseen on the latter’s end by Paul Manafort (then the campaign chairman). Page was said to be an intermediary between Manafort and Kremlin contacts. Steele’s reports suggest that coordination with Russia on the theft of DNC emails and their subsequent transmission to WikiLeaks was part of this scheme. The Steele dossier, in other words, is the version of the “collusion” narrative that Trump detractors want to believe.
.. . Much of the GOP shunned the Trump campaign, so Page is like many others who were instantly designated “advisers” if they were willing to help — these were will-o’-the-wisp arrangements.
Trump Supporter Emailed Campaign About Public WikiLeaks Trove
Top officials were notified Russia-stolen communications were available in September 2016
A Donald Trump supporter in September 2016 emailed top campaign officials, including Mr. Trump and one of his sons, to flag a recent release of emails stolen by Russian hackers and published by the website WikiLeaks, according to an email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
“WikiLeaks has uploaded another (huge 678mb) archive of files from DNC,” wrote the supporter, Michael Erickson, who is president of a Virginia aviation-consulting company. “It is too big for me to send you by e-mail attachments,” he added, and provided a link to a database where he said they could “download it yourselves.” Mr. Erickson also provided a decryption key in the Sept. 14 message.
After Flynn, Are Kushner and Don Jr. Next?
Mr. Kushner also failed to disclose approximately 100 foreign contacts on his security clearance application; each omission is a potential false statement. Mr. Flynn may have information about conversations with Mr. Kushner that would demonstrate that the omissions on Mr. Kushner’s form were intentional, and therefore criminal.
.. What was disclosed in the court filings and hearings is probably only the tip of the iceberg; prosecutors generally keep that to the bare minimum needed for the guilty plea, in order to avoid tipping their hand in their investigation.
.. the president’s son has been interviewed at length as a part of congressional investigations, and Mr. Flynn’s testimony could show he was not candid. Because of Mr. Flynn’s role on the campaign as a trusted member of the inner circle, he may also have a great deal to say about topics like Mr. Trump Jr.’s June 2016 meeting with several Russians, Mr. Manafort and Mr. Kushner, or about the Trump scion’s contacts with WikiLeaks.
.. Mr. Flynn’s cooperation could also place Mr. Trump himself in real jeopardy. ABC News has reported that Mr. Flynn will say Mr. Trump “directed him to make contact with the Russians.” If that is so, it opens a Pandora’s box of questions for the president. Is that a reference to the calls about the sanctions, or something else?
.. Mr. Trump exposed himself to obstruction of justice liability by exercising his power to fire Mr. Comey for questionable ends. Mr. Trump would incur the same potential liability were he to issue pardons for self-interested or corrupt reasons, and the courts might not recognize their validity. Even lawfully conferred powers wielded by the president cannot be employed corruptly.
Donald Trump Jr. Exchanged Messages With WikiLeaks
The messages, seen in an email, mark the first evidence of direct contact between senior Trump campaign officials and the leak-spilling website
.. Donald Trump Jr. was in communication during the 2016 campaign with WikiLeaks, the online operation that last year published a trove of damaging Democratic emails that the U.S. intelligence community concluded were stolen by Russian hackers, according to an email obtained by The Wall Street Journal.
On Sept. 20, 2016, WikiLeaks contacted the son of President Donald Trump through a direct message on Twitter to advise him about the pending launch of a website that would highlight ties between the elder Mr. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the email.
“A PAC run, anti-Trump site putintrump.org is about to launch,” WikiLeaks warned the younger Mr. Trump, who was a top campaign adviser to his father.
The WikiLeaks message told him it had “guessed the password” behind the website, and asked Mr. Trump Jr.: “Any comments?”
.. He subsequently forwarded the email to top campaign aides, including then-campaign chief executive Steve Bannon, campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, senior adviser Jared Kushner and digital director Brad Parscale, according to the email viewed by The Journal.
“Do you know the people mentioned and what the conspiracy they are looking for could be?,” he asked the group.
.. The exchange—which was first reported by the Atlantic on Monday and is part of a collection of documents turned over to congressional investigators by the younger Mr. Trump’s lawyers—marks the first evidence of direct contact between senior Trump campaign officials and the Sweden-based WikiLeaks.
.. On Oct. 3, 2016, WikiLeaks asked him to “comment on/push” a quote by Mrs. Clinton saying she wanted to “Just drone” Mr. Assange.
“Already did that earlier today. It’s amazing what she can get away with,” the president’s son responded.
.. On Oct. 12, 2016, WikiLeaks said it was “great to see you and your dad talking about our publications” and suggested a link for the elder Mr. Trump to tweet if he were to mention the website, according to the Atlantic.
Fifteen minutes later, the elder Mr. Trump tweeted: “Very little pick-up by the dishonest media of incredible information provided by WikiLeaks. So dishonest! Rigged system!”
He didn’t include the suggested link but his son tweeted it out two days later. “For those who have the time to read about all the corruption and hypocrisy all the @wikileaks emails are right here: http://wlsearch.tk/,” the younger Mr. Trump wrote.