Question: did Trump and his associates met Russians prior to 2016 election?
Yes, numerous Trump campaign associates had contacts with Russian nationals and individuals linked to the Russian government before the 2016 U.S. election. These interactions were a central focus of investigations by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee. [1, 2]
Donald J. Trump and 18 of his associates had at least 140 contacts with Russian nationals and WikiLeaks, or their intermediaries, during the 2016 campaign and presidential transition, according to a New York Times analysis.
The report of Robert S. Mueller III, released to the public on Thursday, revealed at least 30 more contacts beyond those previously known. However, the special counsel said, “the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges.”
Very few, if any, of these interactions were publicly known before Mr. Trump took office.
Key instances of contact include:
- The Trump Tower Meeting: In June 2016, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, and campaign chairman Paul Manafort met with a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, after being offered "dirt" on Hillary Clinton as part of what was described as "Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump".
- Campaign Adviser Communications: Campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos had multiple contacts with Russian operatives who expressed interest in arranging meetings between the Trump campaign and Russian leadership. Paul Manafort also had numerous communications with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business associate with suspected ties to Russian intelligence, and shared campaign polling data with him.
- Business Dealings: Michael Cohen, an attorney for Donald Trump at the time, was in contact with Russians about a plan to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the campaign.
- WikiLeaks Intermediaries: Campaign associate Roger Stone was in contact with Russian intelligence operatives posing as the hacker "Guccifer 2.0," who were responsible for disseminating stolen Democratic emails, and discussed future releases with senior campaign officials. [1, 3, 4, 5]
The Mueller report concluded that while the Russian government interfered in the election in a "sweeping and systematic fashion" and the Trump campaign expected to benefit from it, the evidence was not sufficient to establish a criminal conspiracy or coordination between the campaign and the Russian government's election interference activities. The bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, however, provided extensive evidence of contacts and described Manafort's sharing of information as a "grave counterintelligence threat," with Democrats on the committee referring to the pattern of interactions as "what collusion looks like". [3, 6, 7]
Several Trump associates, including Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort, and Michael Cohen, later pleaded guilty to or were convicted of crimes related to lying to investigators about their Russia contacts. [5, 8]
AI responses may include mistakes.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/01/26/us/politics/trump-contacts-russians-wikileaks.html
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/us/politics/senate-intelligence-russian-interference-report.html
[6] https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/senate-panel-finds-russia-interfered-in-the-2016-us-election
