Trump Adviser Testifies Before Grand Jury: The Truth Comes Out
Trump Adviser Testifies Before Grand Jury, The long-running mystery over the origins of the Russia investigation has finally been solved, or at least one of its pieces has been cleared up. Michael Caputo, an adviser to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, testified before special counsel Robert Mueller’s grand jury on Friday as part of the ongoing Russia investigation.
Caputo was asked about his role in George Papadopoulos’s efforts to set up meetings between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials, which were revealed earlier this year and resulted in Papadopoulos pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about those attempts.
A lawyer for the Trump campaign met with a Russian operative in the summer of 2016
In the summer of 2016, Donald Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, met with a Russian operative to discuss what could have been a peace plan for Russia and Ukraine. The meeting came just before WikiLeaks released emails that were damaging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The operative offered synergy on a government level with the Kremlin and invited Cohen to attend an upcoming conference in Moscow. Cohen accepted the invitation but did not go.
According to CNN, it is unknown whether Cohen told his boss about this meeting. If he didn’t, he may be violating campaign finance laws that prohibit any candidate from accepting something of value from a foreign national or foreigner.
White House has tried to distance itself from Carter Page
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that Page, an unpaid adviser on the campaign, was only a volunteer and not an important figure. I can tell you that Carter Page is somebody that the president doesn’t know and wasn’t part of his campaign, she told reporters. I think it’s also been reported that he never actually sat down with the president, and never had a conversation with him.
Frequently on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program and CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, former head of the CIA under President Obama Michael Morell has called Carter Page an agent of a foreign power, who should have been surveilled by American intelligence long before he joined Team Trump.
What we know about Page’s testimony so far
In his testimony, Page admitted that he met with a Russian intelligence operative in 2013. He said he met with the spy at a conference in London and was offered dirt on Hillary Clinton in exchange for money. The attorney also testified that then-Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski approved the trip beforehand and knew about it afterward.
Manafort was being monitored by the FBI long before he joined the Trump campaign
Manafort is one of the few people in the president’s orbit who has been deeply scrutinized by the FBI and the Mueller investigation. He had long-term ties to Russia and Ukraine, including his work as a consultant for Viktor Yanukovych before he was ousted as Ukraine’s president and fled to Russia. He is also one of only two Americans charged with crimes that arose from Mueller’s investigation. The other American is George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his contact with Kremlin-connected Russians.
Where things stand with the Mueller investigation now
A grand jury in Georgia has been impaneled to hear testimony from witnesses about Russian interference in the 2016 election. The grand jury is not related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, but it does indicate that Mueller’s investigation is continuing apace. It also indicates that Mueller has expansive ambitions and is casting a wide net in his investigation. With every new development, it becomes clearer and clearer that President Donald Trump will not be able to avoid facing the music.
How did this start? What’s next?
Cohen testified for more than six hours before a grand jury at the federal courthouse in downtown Atlanta Michael Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan. This came after Cohen had agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee and Senate Intelligence Committee about Russia’s involvement in the US presidential election. These hearings were canceled due to the public release of his prepared opening statement.
-Next up? Cohen is scheduled to report for three years of supervised release from prison on March 6.
What do you think will happen next?
After the testimony, Mueller’s team will have a better idea of how much information Papadopoulos has and what type of witness he could be for the investigation. If he is willing to work with investigators and share more about his time in the campaign, it may lead to more evidence being gathered that ties the campaign to Russia’s interference efforts.
Papadopoulos also told ABC News that he was cooperating with the investigation. I don’t believe I committed a crime, he said. But even if I did, at some point in time, back on January 27th, 2017 when I went into this meeting (with Mifsud), there were no discussions about George Papadopoulos trying to set up any meetings between then-candidate Trump and President Putin.
What are your thoughts on all this?
Donald Trump is a corrupt and incompetent president. There’s no other way to put it. In just two years, he has managed to divide the country, insult our allies and create some of the most damaging policies in modern history. And now, this story of his personal attorney testifying before a grand jury about election interference only shows how inept he is at managing his business and protecting our democracy.
It’s about time we had some accountability for these actions, but unfortunately, that won’t come until Republicans are ousted from Congress in November. This will be an important step in restoring America’s dignity by making clear that there are consequences for breaking the law.
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