"Where did you get this idea that President Trump trusts me or I trust him?" (Russian President Putin, July 16, 2018, Helsinki)

THE REAL NEWS TODAY IS THE SHAMEFUL ATTACK ON PRESIDENT TRUMP. For doing what every other American President has done -- try to keep a communication channel open with Russia. There is so much downright venom in the media right now, that I will leave most of it for you to read for yourselves. But, "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free," so, let's start with the facts -- what was actually said at the Trump-Putin press conference. • • • THE ACTUAL WORDS. All the following quotes are taken from the "Full text : Trump and Putin’s press conference, transcribed and posted online by POLITICO staff. • • • PUTIN'S PREPARED REMARKS. President Putin's prepared remarks included these points : "Negotiations with the President of the United States, Donald Trump, took place in a frank and business-like atmosphere. I think we can call it a success and a very fruitful round of negotiations. We carefully analyzed the current status the present and the future of Russia and US relationship [and] key issues of the global agenda. It's quite clear to everyone that the bilateral relationship are going through a complicated stage. Yet those impediments, the current tension, the tense atmosphere essentially have no solid reason behind it. The Cold War is a thing of past. The era of acute ideological confrontation of the two countries is a thing of remote past, is a visage of the past. The situation of the world changed dramatically." • President Putin named strategic stability as a key goal : "Today, both Russia and the United States face a whole new set of challenges. Those include a dangerous maladjustment of mechanisms for maintaining international security and stability, regional crises, the creeping threat of terrorism and trans-national crime. It's the snowballing problems in the economy, environmental risks and other sets of challenges. We can only cope with these challenges if we join the ranks and work together. Hopefully, we will reach this understanding with our American partners. Today's negotiations reflected our joint wish with President Trump to redress this negative situation in the bilateral relationship, [and] outline the first steps for improving this relationship to restore the acceptable level of trust and going back to the previous level of direction on all mutual interest issues. As major nuclear powers, we bear special responsibility for maintaining international security....it’s crucial that we fine-tune the dialogue on strategic stability and global security and nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction. We submitted [to] our American colleagues a note with a number of specific suggestions." • Putin called for continuing cooperation on counterterrorism and maintaining cybersecurity : "I'd like to point out specifically that our special services are cooperating quite successfully together. The most recent example is their operational operation within the recently concluded world football cup. In general, the contacts among special services should be put to a system-wide basis should be brought to systemic framework. I reminded President Trump about suggestion to re-establish the working group on antiterrorism." • Then, President Putin turned to the world's hot spots : "We also mentioned the plethora of regional crises, not always that our postures dovetail exactly. And yet the overlapping and mutual interests abound. We have to look for points of contact and interact closer in a variety of international forum. Clearly, we mentioned the regional crisis, for instance, Syria. As far as Syria is concerned, the task of establishing peace and reconciliation in this country could be the first showcase example of the successful joint work. Russia and the United States apparently can proactively take leadership on this issue and organize the interaction to overcome humanitarian crisis and help Syrian refugees to go back to their homes. In order to accomplish this level of successful cooperation in Syria, we have all the required components. Let me remind you of that. Both Russian and American military have acquired useful experience of coordination of their action, established the operational channels of communication which permitted [us] to avoid dangerous incidents and unintentional collisions in the air and in the ground. Also crushing terrorists in the southwest of Syria, the south of Syria should be brought to the full compliance with the treaty of 1974 about separation of forces, about separation of forces of Israel and Syria. This will bring peace to Golan Heights. And bring more peaceful relationship between Syria and Israel and also to provide security to the state of Israel. The President paid special attention to the issue during today’s negotiations and I would like to confirm that Russia is interested in this development and this will act accordingly. • Putin talked about North Korea : "We’re glad that the Korean Peninsula issue is starting to resolve. To a great extent, it was possible thanks to the personal engagement of President Trump, who opted for dialogue instead of confrontation. • He mentioned Iran : "We also mentioned our concern about the withdrawal of the United States from the JCPOA. Well, the US -- Our US counterparts are aware of our posture. Thanks to the Iranian nuclear deal, Iran began [to be the] most controlled country in the world, it’s submitted to the control of IAEA, it effectively ensures peaceful nature of Iranian nuclear program and strengthens the non-proliferation regime." • He adressed Ukraine : "While we discussed the internal Ukrainian crisis, we paid special attention to the bona fide implementation of Minsk agreement by Kiev. The United States could be more decisive in nudging the Ukrainian leadership and encourage it to work on this." • Putin noted the key issue for Russian business : "We paid more attention to economic ties and economic operations. It’s clear that both countries, businesses of both countries are interested in this. American delegation was one of the largest delegations in the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. It featured over 500 representatives from American businesses. We agreed, me and President Trump, we agreed to create a high level working group that would bring together captains of Russian and American business. After all, entrepreneurs and businessmen know better how to articulate this successful business cooperation. Let them think and make their proposals and suggestions in this regard." • And, Putin talked about the 2016 election issue : "Once again, President Trump mentioned issue of so-called interference of Russia with the American elections. I had to reiterate things I said several times, including during our personal contacts, that the Russian state has never interfered and is not going to interfere in internal American affairs, including the election process. Any specific material, if such things arise, we are ready to analyze together. For instance, we can analyze them through the joint working group on cybersecurity, the establishment of which we discussed during our previous contacts." • President Putin's conclusion : "We have to engage experts on bilateral relationship who know history and background of our relationship. The idea is to create an expert council that would include political scientists, prominent diplomats and former military experts in both countries who would look for points of contact between the two countries. That would look for ways on putting the relationship on the trajectory of growth. In general, we are glad with the outcome of our first full-scale meeting because previously we only had a chance to talk briefly on international forum. We had a good conversation with President Trump and I hope that we start to understand each other better. I’m grateful to Donald for it. Clearly, there are some challenges left, when we were not able to clear all the backlog. But I think that we made a first important step in this direction." • • • TRUMP'S PREPARED REMARKS. President Trump's prepared remarks included these points : "We had direct, open, deeply productive dialogue. Went very well....I’m here today to continue the proud tradition of bold American diplomacy. From the earliest days of our Republic, American leaders have understand that diplomacy and engagement is preferable to conflict and hostility. A productive dialogue is not only good for the United States and good for Russia, but it is good for the world. The disagreements between our two countries are well-known. President Putin and I discussed them at length today. But, if we're going to solve many of the problems facing our world, then we're going to have to find ways to cooperate in pursuit of shared interests. Too often in both recent past and long ago we have seen the consequences when diplomacy is left on the table. We have also seen the benefits of cooperation....Even during the tensions of the Cold War, when the world looked much different than it does today, the United States and Russia were able to maintain a strong dialogue." • President Trump made the point he has often made : "Our relationship has never been worse than it is now. However, that changed as of about four hours ago. I really believe that. Nothing would be easier politically that to refuse to meet, to refuse to engage. But that would not accomplish anything. As President, I cannot make decisions on foreign policy in a futile effort to appease partisan critics or the media or Democrats who want to do nothing but resist and obstruct. Constructive dialogue between the United States and Russia affords the opportunity to open new pathways toward peace and stability in our world. I would rather take a political risk in pursuit of peace than to risk peace in pursuit of politics. As President, I will always put what is best for America and what is best for the American people." • Trump went on to the 2016 election issue : "During today's meeting, I addressed directly with President Putin the issue of Russian interference in our elections. I felt this was a message best delivered in person. Spent a great deal of time talking about it. And President Putin may very well want to address it and very strongly, because he feels strongly about it and he has an interesting idea." • Trump addressed North Korea and denuclearization : "We also discussed one of the most critical challenges facing humanity, nuclear proliferation. I provided an update on my meeting last month with Chairman Kim on the denuclearization of North Korea. After today, I am very sure that President Putin and Russia want very much to end that problem. Going to work with us, and I appreciate that commitment. • President Trump talked about terrorism : "The president and I also discussed the scourge of radical Islamic terrorism both Russia and the United States have suffered....and we have agreed to maintain open communication between our security agencies to protect our citizens from this global menace. Last year, we told Russia about a planned attack in St. Petersburg. They were able to stop it cold....I appreciated President Putin's phone call afterwards to thank me." • Trump noted Iran and Syria : "I also emphasized the importance of placing pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear ambitions and to stop its campaign of violence throughout the area, throughout the Middle East. As we discussed at length, the crisis in Syria is a complex one. Cooperation between our two countries has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives. I also made clear that the United States will not allow Iran to benefit from our successful campaign against ISIS. We have just about eradicated ISIS in the area. We also agreed that representatives from our national security councils will meet to follow up on all of the issues we addressed today and to continue the progress we have started right here in Helsinki." • President Trump concluded : "Today's meeting is only the beginning of a longer process. But we have taken the first steps toward a brighter future and one with a strong dialogue and a lot of thought. Our expectations are grounded in realism, but our hopes are grounded in America’s desire for friendship, cooperation and peace....President Putin, I want to thank you again for joining me for these important discussions and for advancing open dialogue between Russia and the United States. Our meeting carries on a long tradition of diplomacy between Russia, the United States, for the greater good of all. This was a very constructive day. This was a very constructive few hours that we spent together. It's in the interest of both of our countries to continue our conversation. And we have agreed to do so. I'm sure we will be meeting again in the future, often, and hopefully, we will solve every one of the problems that we discussed today. Again, President Putin, thank you very much." • • • THE PRESS CONFERENCE Q & A. • A Russian journalist asked Trump about the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline and Trump's comment that it makes Europe hostage of Russia, and the journalist noted that before the meeting with President Putin, Trump called him an adversary, a rival. TRUMP answered : "Actually I called him a competitor and a good competitor he is....I think that we will be competing when you talk about the pipeline. I'm not sure necessarily that it's in the best interests of Germany or not. That was a decision that they made. We will be competing. As you know, the United States is now -- or soon will be, but I think it is right now -- the largest in the oil and gas world. We're going to be selling LNG and we’ll have to be competing with the pipeline. I think we will compete successfully." Then, PUTIN added : "If I may, I throw in some two cents. We talked to the President, including this subject as well. We are aware of the stance of President Trump. I think that we as major oil and gas power and the United States is a major gas and oil power as well, we can work together on regulation of international markets....We do have space for cooperation here, as a first thing. Then about the Nordstream 2. Mr. President voices his concerns about the possibility of disappearance of transit through Ukraine. I reassured the President that Russia stands ready to maintain this transit. Moreover, we stand ready to extend this transit contract that's about to expire next year, in case, if the dispute between the economic entities -- dispute will be settled in Stockholm arbitration court." • An American journalist asked about the Mueller probe and President Trump tweeting that it's US foolishness, stupidity and the Mueller probe that is responsible for the decline in US relations with Russia, asking if Trump holds Russia at all accountable for anything in particular, and if so, what? TRUMP answered : "Yes I do. I hold both countries responsible. I think the United States has been foolish. I think we have all been foolish. We should have had this dialogue a long time ago, a long time, frankly, before I got to office. I think we're all to blame. I think that the United States now has stepped forward along with Russia. We're getting together and we have a chance to do some great things, whether it's nuclear proliferation in terms of stopping, we have to do it. Ultimately, that's probably the most important thing that we can be working on....I think that the probe is a disaster for our country. I think it's kept us apart. It's kept us separated. There was no collusion at all. Everybody knows it. People are being brought out....So far, that I know, virtually, none of it related to the campaign. They will have to try really hard to find something that did relate to the campaign. That was a clean campaign....The main thing -- we discussed this also -- is zero collusion. It has had a negative impact upon the relationship of the two largest nuclear powers in the world. We have 90% of nuclear power between the two countries. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous what's going on with the probe." • The journalist then asked President Putin why Americans and President Trump should believe his statement that Russia did not intervene in the 2016 election given the evidence that US Intelligence agencies have provided? Will you consider extraditing the 12 Russian officials that were indicted last week by a US grand jury. TRUMP stepped in : "I’m going to let the president answer the second part of that question. As you know, the concept of that came up perhaps a little before, but it came out as a reason why the Democrats lost an election....Just to say it one time again, and I say it all the time, there was no collusion. I didn't know the president. There was nobody to collude with. There was no collusion with the campaign. Every time you hear all of these 12 and 14 -- it's stuff that has nothing to do -- and frankly, they admit, these are not people involved in the campaign. But to the average reader out there, they are saying, maybe that does. It doesn't" PUTIN then answered : "As to who is to be believed, who is not to be believed, you can trust no one. Where did you get this idea that President Trump trusts me or I trust him? He defends the interests of the United States of America. I do defend the interests of the Russian Federation. We do have interests that are common. We are looking for points of contact. There are issues where our postures diverge and we are looking for ways to reconcile our differences, how to make our effort more meaningful. We should not proceed from the immediate political interests that guide certain political powers in our countries. We should be guided by facts. Could you name a single fact of that would definitively prove the collusion? This is utter nonsense. Just like the President recently mentioned, yes, the public at large in the United States had a certain perceived opinion of the candidates during the campaign. But there's nothing particularly extraordinary about it. That's usual thing. President Trump, when he was a candidate, he mentioned the need to restore the Russia-US relationship and it's clear that certain parts of American society felt sympathetic about it and different people could express their sympathy in different ways. But isn't that natural? Isn't it natural to be sympathetic towards a person who is willing to restore the relationship with our country, who wants to work with us? We heard the accusations about it....There's no evidence when it comes to the actual facts. We have to be guided by facts, not by rumors....We have an existing agreement between the United States of America and the Russian Federation, an existing treaty that dates back to 1999. The mutual assistance on criminal cases. This treaty is in full affect. It works quite efficiently. On average, we initiate about 100, 150 criminal cases upon request from foreign states. For instance, the last year, there was one extradition case upon the request sent by the United States. This treaty has specific legal procedures we can offer. The appropriate commission headed by special attorney Mueller, he can use this as a solid foundation and send a formal and official request to us so that we would interrogate, hold questioning of this individuals who he believes are privy to some crimes. Our enforcement are perfectly able to do this questioning and send the appropriate materials to the United States. Moreover, we can meet you halfway. We can make another step. We can actually permit representatives of the United States, including the members of this very commission headed by Mr. Mueller, we can let them into the country. They will be present at questioning. In this case, there's another condition. This kind of effort should be mutual one. Then we would expect that the Americans would reciprocate. They would question officials, including the officers of law enforcement and intelligence services of the United States whom we believe -- who have something to do with illegal actions on the territory of Russia. And we have to request the presence of our law enforcement. For instance, we can bring up...Mr. Browder....Business associates of Mr. Browder have earned over $1.5 billion in Russia. They never paid any taxes. Neither in Russia nor in the United States. And yet, the money escapes the country. They were transferred to the United States. They sent huge amount of money, $400 million as a contribution to the campaign of Hillary Clinton. That's their personal case. It might have been legal, the contribution itself. The way the money was earned was illegal. We have a solid reason to believe that some intelligence officers guided these transactions. So we have an interest of questioning them. That could be a first step. We can extend it. Options abound. They all can be found in an appropriate legal framework." • A Russian journalist asked how the US and Russia are working together in Syria. TRUMP answered first : "We have worked with Israel long and hard for many years, many decades. I think we have never -- never has any one country been closer than we are. President Putin also is helping Israel. We both spoke with Bibi Netanyahu. They would like to do certain things with respect to Syria, having to do with the safety of Israel. In that respect, we absolutely would like to work in order to help Israel. Israel will be working with us. So both countries would work jointly....Creating safety for Israel is something that both President Putin and I would like to see very much. One little thing I might add to that is the helping of people. Helping of people....If we can do something to help the people of Syria get back into some form of shelter and on a humanitarian basis....I think both of us would be interested in doing that. We will do that." PUTIN then talked about military cooperation in Syria : "We did mention this. We mentioned the humanitarian track of this issue. Yesterday, I discussed this with French President Mr. Macron and we reached an agreement that together with European countries, including France, we will step up this effort. On our behalf, we will provide military cargo aircraft to deliver humanitarian cargo. I brought up this issue with President Trump. I think there's plenty of things to look into. The crucial thing is that huge amount of refugees are in Turkey, in Lebanon, in Jordan, in the states that border or are adjacent to Syria. If we help them, the migratory pressure upon the European states will drop, be decreased many-fold. I believe it's crucial from any point of view, from humanitarian point of view, from the point of view of helping people, helping the refugees. And in general, I agree, I concur with President Trump, our military cooperate quite successfully together. They do get along. I hope they will be able to do so in future. We will keep working in the [inaudible] Russia, Turkey and Iran, which I informed President Trump of. But we do stand ready to link this effort to the so-called small group of states so that the process would be a broader one, a multidimensional one. We will maximize our fighting chance to gather ultimate success on the issue of Syria." • Then came the final set of questions from the United States, the first one asked by Jonathan Lamier from the AP : "A question for each president. President Trump, you first. Just now President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016. Every US intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did. My first question for you, sir, is who do you believe? My second question is would you now with the whole world watching tell President Putin, would you denounce what happened in 2016 and would you warn him to never do it again? TRUMP answered first : "So let me just say that we have two thoughts. You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server, why haven't they taken the server. Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee. I've been wondering that. I've been asking that for months and months and I've been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know. Where is the server, and what is the server saying? With that being said, all I can do is ask the question. My people came to me, Dan Coats came to me and some others and said they think it's Russia. I have President Putin, he just said it's not Russia. I will say this. I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be [Trump corrected thr transcript on Tuesday -- the original word was "would."], but I really do want to see the server. But I have -- I have confidence in both parties. I really believe that this will probably go on for a while, but I don't think it can go on without finding out what happened to the server. What happened to the servers of the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC? Where are those servers? They're missing. Where are they? What happened to Hillary Clinton's emails? 33,000 emails gone, just gone. I think in Russia they wouldn't be gone so easily. I think it's a disgrace that we can't get Hillary Clinton's 33,000 emails. So I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. And what he did is an incredible offer. He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the 12 people. I think that's an incredible offer." PUTIN then alswered : "I'd like to add something to this. After all, I was an intelligence officer myself. And I do know how dossiers are made up. Just a second. That's the first thing. Now the second thing. I believe that Russia is a democratic state and I hope you're not denying this right to your own country, you're not denying that United States is democracy. Do you believe the United States is a democracy? And if so, if it is a democratic state, then the final conclusion in this kind of dispute can only be delivered by a trial, by the court, not by the executive, by the law enforcement. For instance, the Concord company that is brought up is being accused, it's being accused of interference, but this company does not constitute the Russian state. It does not represent the Russian state. I brought several examples before. Well, you have a lot of individuals in the United States take George Soros, for instance, with multibillion capitals, but it doesn't make him -- his position -- his posture the posture of the United States. No, it does not. It's the same case. There is the issue of trying a case in the court and the final — the final say is for the court to deliver. We are now talking about the private individuals and not about particular states and as far as the most recent allegations is concerned about the Russian intelligence officers, we do have an intergovernmental treaty. Please do send us the request. We will analyze it properly and we'll send a formal response. As I said, we can extend this cooperation, but we should do it on a reciprocal basis because we would await our Russian counterparts to provide us access to the persons of interests for us, who we believe can have something to do with intelligence service. Let's discuss the specific issues and not use the Russia and the US relationship as a loose change for this internal political struggle." • The last question was this : "A question for President Putin, thank you. Two questions for you, sir. Can you tell me what President Trump may have indicated to you about officially recognizing Crimea as part of Russia? And secondly, sir, do you -- does the Russian government have any compromising material on President Trump or his family? PUTIN answered : "President Trump -- well, the posture of President Trump on Crimea is well known and he stands firmly by it. He continues to maintain that it was illegal to annex it. Our viewpoint is different. We held a referendum in strict compliance with the UN Charter and international legislation....and now to the compromising material. Yeah, I did hear these rumors that these allegedly collected compromising material on Mr. Trump when he was visiting Moscow. Distinguished colleague, let me tell you this, when President Trump was in Moscow back then, I didn't even know that he was in Moscow. I treat President Trump with utmost respect, but back then when he was a private individual, a businessman, nobody informed me that he was in Moscow. Let's take the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, for instance. There were over 500 American businessmen, high-ranking, high-level ones. I don't even remember the last names of each and every one. Do you think that we try to collect compromising material on each and every single one of them?....Please disregard these issues and don't think about this anymore again. TRUMP had the last word : "And I have to say if they had it, it would have been out long ago." • • • WHERE IS THE BASIS FOR CONDEM‌ING TRUMP? It does not exist. Like the "collusion" nonsense batted around by Democrats, the ProgDem media and the Deep State who want to destroy Trump, there is NO EVIDENCE to accuse Trump of anything wrong in the joint press conference with Putin. You have the exact words. Read them carefully. There is Nothing Wrong. • LifeZette's Kathryn Blackhurst wrote on Monday that former CIA officer Scott Uehlinger, a Russia specialist, said on Fox's “The Ingraham Angle” : “The selective outrage of the liberal media is breathtaking to behold. But, in fact, our policies directed against Russia are considerably stronger than they were a decade ago, and it’s starting to tell. So our policies are working, and in this case deeds speak stronger than the occasional gaffes of the US President.” Uehlinger told Ingraham : "We have an unprecedented, incredibly biased press. Now, I can’t imagine right now if there was, at the Reykjavík summit with President Reagan and Gorbachev, having a Western media that would be asking Reagan in front of the world’s cameras to denounce the leader of -- in this case, Gorbachev -- as a liar to his face. Because this shows the Progressive mainstream media is more willing to grenade throw in the name of derailing Trump than it is in supporting any possible improvement in relations.” Ingraham noted that “you would have thought that Trump actually had defected to Russia,” given the media’s “mass hysteria” immediately following the news conference....did I miss something today? Did Donald Trump withdraw US sanctions on Russia? Or did he invite back those 60 Rissian diplomats and others he expelled in March from Russia? Did he cancel future sales of lethal weapons to Ukraine? Of course he didn’t, but he might as well have, given the media and liberal hyperbole on what happened today.” • American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp said : “When other Presidents try to start the Russian relationship off on the right foot, they’re called warriors for peace. Donald Trump tries to do that, and he’s called deranged. The Trump administration’s tough policy in dealing with Russia is right. The President needs to understand he’s winning on this. Stick to the course. The most important part of this is the policy. Should we be getting along with Putin’s Russia? Absolutely. The idea that you have liberals almost calling for open warfare is absurd.” • Stephen Yates, former deputy national security adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney, said the US has “really, really run the limits on absolute Trump Derangement Syndrome across the board on how people react to this kind of thing....Trump’s restoring realism, trying to get great power relations back on track, balancing one power against another to try to solve real problems. The proof of this is in results -- not in instantaneous sound bites.” • • • AND WHAT ABOUT THAT DNC SERVER? Mark Tapscott wrote on LifeZette Monday : "President Donald Trump responded with what was likely the last thing anybody expected when he was challenged by an Associated Press reporter to say if he believes American intelligence or Vladimir Putin on the issue of Russian meddling in the 2016 US election....'So let me just say that we have two thoughts: You have groups that are wondering why the FBI never took the server. Why haven’t they taken the server? Why was the FBI told to leave the office of the Democratic National Committee? I’ve been wondering that. I’ve been asking that for months and months, and I’ve been tweeting it out and calling it out on social media. Where is the server? I want to know, where is the server and what is the server saying?...I have President Putin, he just said it’s not Russia. I will say this : I don’t see any reason why it would be, but I really do want to see the server. But I have -- I have confidence in both parties. I really believe that this will probably go on for a while, but I don’t think it can go on without finding out what happened to the server. What happened to the servers of the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC? Where are those servers? They’re missing. Where are they? What happened to Hillary Clinton’s emails? 33,000 emails gone, just gone.' " Tapscott said that the media and ProDem response to the Presiden's answer conveniently ignores Trump’s most explicit attempt yet to focus attention on what may well be the weak spot in the armor of anti-Trump fanatics going all-out to destroy his presidency. Tapscott said : "If US intelligence and law enforcement officials were convinced it was Russians who hacked into the servers of the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, why didn’t they demand those servers be turned over to them to determine what the Russians were after? Trump didn’t say so, but why else would he have used a moment when the eyes of the world were on him and Putin to raise the question yet again of what was on the DNC’s server and why the FBI didn’t demand it be turned over -- unless he has an idea of the answer?....Former British spy Christopher Steele, author of the infamous Trump/Russia dossier, has extensive links to Russian interests with close ties to that country’s intelligence networks. What are the specifics of those links? Steele’s work in compiling the dossier was paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC at a time that she controlled it. Why did she agree to lay out money (campaign funds?) for Steele’s work, and how was this payment agreement negotiated? The cutout for the Clinton campaign and the DNC to make those payments to Steele via Fusion GPS was the Washington, DC, law firm Perkins Coie, well-known for its role in defending Democrats. Who retained the firm, when did they retain it, and on what terms? Former congressional Democrat IT aide Imran Awan had access to the DNC’s server via the personal laptop of then-DNC Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Clinton’s chosen DNC chief), and to the server of the House Democratic Caucus via his work for then-Represnetative Xavier Becerra. How many of the 33,000 destroyed Clinton emails were on those servers? There is evidence Awan has ties to Pakistan’s infamous intelligence service, which is notorious for playing both sides of every international conflict, including the US and Russia. Is this why DOJ recently flatly contradicted the claims of the House sergeant-at-arms and chief administrative officer that Awan represented a serious national security threat? Neither Cooper, nor Brennan, nor any of the rest of the mainstream media voices screaming for Trump’s impeachment will address those facts because they don’t want to know the answers. That’s also why they will never ask Mueller or former FBI Director James Comey or former Attorney General Loretta Lynch why they didn’t do whatever was necessary as soon as the alleged Russian hacking was known to have occurred to gain possession of those servers at the center of Russian collusion scandal. But unless and until those questions are answered, the American people will never have a complete understanding of who colluded with the Russians to sway the outcome of the 2016 president contest. Don’t expect Trump to stop demanding the answers." • • • SENATOR RAND PAUL. Senator Paul told a surprised CNN that the truth about the global political order is that there are entrenched interests vying for power just about everywhere. Allied countries spy on one another. Covert operatives sometimes use more nefarious methods to influence political developments. The important thing is that the integrity of elections themselves remain intact. • Senator Paul sided with President Trump on his handling of Russia despite the tsunami of criticism the President faced after his press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling Politico : “It’s gotten so ridiculous that someone has to stand up and say we should try to engage even our adversaries and open up our lines of communication. We’re going to talk to the President about some small steps in order to try to thaw the relations between our countries.” The Senator added that he’s traveling to Russia early next month to continue the dialogue that Trump started. Paul said he hopes to meet with Trump before the trip to “to see if there’s anything he wants us to follow up on.” The trip, says Paul, will allow the US to eventually start working with Russia to stop civil war in Syria, denuclearize North Korea and get Russian military out of Ukraine. • Senator Paul also addressed Trump’s remarks at the joint press conference, disagreeing with most Republicans and criticizing those slamming the President : "Republicans that are making the criticism are either the pro-war Republicans like McCain and Graham or the anti-Trump ones like Sasse...They are motivated by their persistent and consistent dislike of the President." • • • WHAT ABOUT THE KOMPROMAT. We not heard one word about that from the ProgDems or their propagandist media. Not one word. In the Fox News report of the Putin interview with Chris Wallace, Putin called it “utterly ridiculous”....The rumor of the Russians having compromising information on Trump was a central claim in the unverified and salacious Russia Dossier written by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and financed by Hillary's campaign and the Democrats that made its way to the FBI during the early stages of the Russia investigation, thanks to GOP Senator McCain, who on Monday called President Trump’s comments at the press conference “a recent low point in the history of the American Presidency.” REALLY? I thought that might have been reserved for President Obama having allowed Hillary Clinotn to run a renegade pay-for-play State Department that gave 20% of US uranium reserves to Russia and left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans to be slaughtered in Benghazi. • • • DEAR READERS, American Thinker's Tom Trinko hit a home run on the interference issue : "On every issue the left has two standards; one for the left and one for everyone else. In this case, it’s perfectly fine when parties release false information that is damaging to Trump, but it’s the ultimate evil when someone releases accurate information that hurts a leftist, i.e., Hillary....Ask yourself if leftists would consider it meddling if right before the election a British “ex” spy tried to convince the media that a Dossier he would later admit contained only unverified rumors from Russian sources that painted Trump in a very bad light was the real deal. Of course, you don’t need to ask yourself, since we know for a fact that Hillary paid an “ex” spy from Britain to produce a report full of “dirt” on Trump based on Russian sources. We know that Steele -- the “ex” spy -- produced such a document and that he told everyone that it was the real deal and that he would have known if his sources were lying even in cases where he never met the actual source....he said that right up until he was sued in England by some of the people he mentioned in the Dossier. Then he suddenly changed his tune and declared that the information in the Dossier was only a place for a real investigation to start; that nothing in the report was verified....if Steele had actual evidence for any of the claims, he could present it in court and get out of a serious legal situation. That he’s not doing so even though it could save him from potentially very serious legal consequences shows that he doesn’t have any proof to back up his claims. Yet even though the left now knows that the Dossier is bogus...they are not saying that its use was “meddling” in our election....To the left, a factually incorrect report on Trump produced by a foreigner, based on sources solely from Russia, and used to attack Trump is not election meddling. But the Russians leaking factual DNC emails showing that the DNC had lied to Democrat voters about being impartial and had, in fact, violated its own rules and worked hard to torpedo Bernie Sanders, democratic socialist par excellence, is election meddling....with all of Mueller’s indictments, there is no claim that the crimes involve any collusion related to the election between the Russians and anyone in Trump’s campaign....Yet the left is already generating #FakeNews that this latest indictment is bad news for Trump....the same leftists who are having a fit over Trump’s “collusion” aren’t bothered by the fact that the full power of the US intelligence establishment was turned against the Trump campaign. They’re also not bothered by the fact that political appointees in the Obama administration...unmasked the names Americans whose calls were monitored. If the ruling Democratic party using national intelligence assets to listen in to the inner workings of the Trump campaign isn’t election 'meddling' then it’s unclear what is." • If you want one Helsinki takeaway to hold onto for future reference, it echoes President Trump's often-repeated "We'll see what happens," but it comes from Vladimir Putin, the real-politik master : "Where did you get this idea that President Trump trusts me or I trust him? He defends the interests of the United States of America. I defend the interests of the Russian Federation. We do have interests that are common. We are looking for points of contact. There are issues where our postures diverge and we are looking for ways to reconcile our differences, how to make our effort more meaningful. We should not proceed from the immediate political interests that guide certain political powers in our countries. We should be guided by facts."