The Report: Part V: Russian Overtures

August 18, 2019 1:38 PM

It's the morning of April 25, 2016. At a hotel in London, a Maltese professor meets with a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. The two have been in touch over the past few weeks; the professor has been helping the young man connect with Russian officials. Now, over breakfast, the professor lets him in on a secret. On a recent trip to Moscow, high-level government officials told him that the Russians have "dirt" on Trump's opponent. What was the "dirt" in question? "Emails," he says. They have "have thousands of emails."
posted by General Malaise (1 comment total)

In this episode, we are shown some of the personalities we may have heard of, but not been given the proper context to understand their roles. If you've been spending the last few years wonder 'Who the hell is Carter Page anyway?" this is the episode for you. We see the campaign, which couldn't get any "mainstream" Republican foreign policy experts on their team, go to lengths to get anybody, including some folks who may not be as...expert as they'd want you think.

While Russians are trying to get to the Trump family directly (see previous episode), they're also playing key inexperienced Trump campaign advisers around the world.
posted by General Malaise at 1:43 PM on August 18, 2019