Washington, D.C. — A new brief from the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s Moscow Project shows that, based on public reporting and indictments by special counsel Robert Mueller, there are at least 70 known contacts between Trump’s team and Russia-linked operatives during the campaign and transition, including at least 22 meetings. At least 12 members of the Trump team had contacts, and at least another 10 people knew about these contacts. These numbers are much larger than the previous consensus among followers of the Russia investigation and particularly concerning given that the Trump team issued at least 15 blanket denials of contacts with Russia—all of which have been proven false.
“The number of contacts between Trump’s team and Russia-linked operatives raises serious questions. Why were there so many meetings? What was discussed in them?” said Sam Berger, CAP Action senior adviser and co-author of the brief. “More importantly, why did Trump and his camp lie about all of them, including to federal law enforcement?”
This new higher count of contacts is especially troubling in light of the House Intelligence Committee’s forthcoming vote to end their investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. With respect to the 70 known contacts, in 81 percent of the cases, the committee obtained either no or partial information from the relevant Trump representative.
For 60 percent of the known contacts, the committee failed to interview the Trump representative involved in the contact. In another 21 percent of cases, House Democrats on the committee noted that there was a need to call back the witness to get further information, either because they may have lied, invoked a nonexistent privilege to avoid answering questions, or more information has come out about their involvement. Of the 22 people who had known contacts with Russia-linked operatives or were aware of them, the House Intelligence Committee failed to interview at least eight of them and failed to require at least another five to reveal all that they knew about those contacts.
The Moscow Project brief provides a comprehensive, chronological list of the contacts that have been discovered to date and the lies Trump’s campaign, transition, and White House told to hide them. At least 22 high-level campaign officials and Trump advisers took part in or were aware of contacts between the Trump team and Russia during the campaign and transition, including the three successive people who ran Trump’s campaign. Yet, none of them ever revealed to federal law enforcement that the Russians were seeking to interfere with the election by aiding the campaign.
Click HERE to read “Trump’s Russia Cover-Up By the Numbers” by Sam Berger and Talia Dessel. For more information or to speak with an expert, contact Morgan Finkelstein at [email protected] or (202) 473-5311.