News that Trump’s legal team is scribbling answers to Mueller’s written questions doesn’t mean Mueller won’t still subpoena the president for a sit-down interview about obstruction. Yet Smith’s professional association with Flynn, who became a part of the Trump inner circle, and his WikiLeaks connection-he solicited money for the organization and reportedly told possessors of Clinton emails to forward them to the organization-makes him a background object of interest.Įlsewhere on the Russia scandal buffet, steaming over the Sterno pots, we find the latest-and still inconclusive- dueling between Mueller and Trump’s attorney over the questioning of the president by the investigators. Was Smith onto something? Was he being hustled by grifters? Or was he targeted for exploitation by Russian spies? According to the FBI, Clinton’s server was never compromised, making the rediscovery of deleted Clinton emails a low probability. In the June 2016 session, the Russians promised to reveal “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. The Smith saga doesn’t show that Russian hackers-or anybody else-possessed Clinton’s deleted emails, but it points to a quest for damaging information that is consistent with the fabled meeting in Trump Tower between Russian operatives and the top brass of the Trump campaign-Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner. The fact that Smith, who was experienced in opposition research, should croak just hours after he spoke enthusiastically with associate Charles Ortel about a new project would argue against suicide, but that’s what the police report says. Usually when scandals erupt, wild dot-connectors descend on the story to discover intrigue and mystery not readily digestible for those with high evidentiary standards. Smith’s untimely death gives a woo-woo element to the Russia scandal that it has long been lacking. ![]() Smith’s estate has surrendered his hard drives to Senate and House intelligence committee investigators, the Daily Beast reports. Smith’s quest for the emails left a trail that shows he was well-connected with both senior Trump campaign operatives and alt-right goofball Charles Johnson, and a bank wire to a fund for “Russian students” gives credence to the theory that Smith had connected with Russia hackers. Is Smith a Russia scandal main course or an amuse bouche? In his Popular Information newsletter, Judd Legum adeptly reviewed the evidence this week without giving a definitive ruling. He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and currently awaits sentencing. Flynn, you recall, was briefly Donald Trump’s national security adviser until the revelations that he had lied about his pre-inaugural discussions of sanctions with the Russian ambassador led to his sacking. Smith met with Mike Flynn in 2015 when Flynn was just a Trump campaign adviser, the Journal notes. ![]() Mueller’s investigators, including at least one witness who was called before a grand jury,” the newspaper reports. Smith’s quest have been questioned by Mr. The Smith angle got a tasty reheating this week thanks to the Journal, which advanced the story with its finding that he had raised at least $100,000 from at least four wealthy donors to finance the hunt for the missing emails that he thought hackers-perhaps Russians-possessed. ![]() His death was ruled suicide by helium asphyxiation. Just days after talking to the newspaper, the 81-year-old dropped dead in a Rochester, Minn., hotel room. The Wall Street Journal, which wrote the first big story about Smith on June 29, 2017, conveyed his claim that he had obtained batches of emails from hackers but couldn’t authenticate them. ![]() Before the election, Smith dove into the dark web in pursuit of the 33,000 deleted emails from Hillary Clinton’s private server-which he thought contained incriminating information-and hoped to make them useful to the Trump campaign. Smith, with the Wall Street Journal doing the culinary honors. At the top of my leftover buffet this week were the new stories about Republican activist Peter W.
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