Putin is again helping Trump in 2024 as he did in 2020 and 2016—that’s why Trump won’t criticize Putin.

Putin and Trump are the new Axis of Evil

Donald Trump has been suspiciously consistent from his 2016 run for president through today on one thing: His refusal to publicly criticize Russia’s Vladmir Putin.  In fact, Trump has even in the past despicably defended Putin’s murder of people like pro-democracy activist Alexei Navalny.

We can debate why Trump has done this from possibly being blackmailed by Putin to bribery to simply admiring Putin for being able to silence critics by killing them. But one thing is clear from the latest revelation that the GOP’s star witness, Alexander Smirnov, in their planned impeachment of Joe Biden. Smirnov was not only lying to the FBI about Biden’s wrongdoing---but was peddling disinformation provided by Russian intelligence. That means Putin--just as he did in 2016—attempted to help Trump win in 2020 and is again at it in 2024.

This is no longer speculation, it’s now fact.

How can I say that? Simple, the GOP’s “star impeachment witness” Smirnov first told the FBI--as the DOJ’s filing on Tuesday explained--in June 2020 that years before Joe Biden and his son Hunter had sought $5 million bribes from Ukrainian energy giant Burisma.  That was “coincidentally” exactly the same time that Biden wrapped up the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.  

Now we know from DOJ’s filing “that Russian intelligence were involved in passing” information to Smirnov—a longtime FBI informant. That means Putin was hoping that Smirnov’s claim that Biden took bribes would influence the 2020 campaign. 

Trump’s then AG Bill Barr did promptly have the information alleged by Smirnov in June 2020 reviewed by a US Attorney. But much to the chagrin of Putin and Team Trump, the sketchy allegations by Smirnov did not become public during the 2020 campaign.

In fact, as the Special Counsel David Weiss--who was personally appointed by Trump in 2018 as US Attorney for Delaware—details in Tuesday’s filing, Smirnov’s claims that Biden had received bribes were “fabrications.”    Red flags were certainly raised about Smirnov’s credibility given that he claimed the Biden bribery scheme happened in 2015 yet he never told his FBI “handler” until June 2020.   Why would Smirnov until the heart of the 2020 campaign to first tell the FBI about this alleged bribery scandal? Simple, to hurt Biden’s 2020 campaign as DOJ notes.

However, someone in Trump world must have seen the benefit of this Putin fueled story to be used to damage Biden in the 2024 campaign. That explains why out of the blue in May 2023, Republicans Rep. James Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassely start talking about a person they called a “whistleblower" demanding that the FBI release the FD-1023 form documenting "an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.” That FD-1023 form in reality contained the lies of Smirnov about Biden provided at least in part by Russian intelligence operatives.

How important was Smirnov’s false story to the GOP’s impeachment plan? Well, GOP Rep. Jim Jordan said that just last month on Fox News that Smirnov’s claims in FBI form FD-1023 “is really the heart of this matter.” Jordan—who should be a co-defendant in Trump’s Jan 6 case for his role in the attempted coup—added, "The most corroborating evidence we have is the 1023 form from this highly credible confidential human source."

But lost in the reporting about the recent criminal charges against Smirnov was that he was now peddling new lies about Biden that were provided to him by Russian intelligence. As DOJ noted in Tuesday’s filing, “When he was interviewed by FBI agents in September 2023, Smirnov repeated some of his false claims, changed his story as to other of his claims, and promoted a new false narrative after he said he met with Russian officials.”  

Specifically, federal prosecutors noted Smirnov was now promoting a new scheme about “Public Official 1” and another businessperson however that business executive had never been to Ukraine as Smirnov claimed.  As DOJ wrote, “Thus, Smirnov’s efforts to spread misinformation about a candidate of one of the two major parties in the United States continues.”

Putin’s efforts to help Trump, of course, go back to the 2016 campaign.  As detailed in the Mueller Report released in 2019, "The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion."  

The report explained in detail how Trump knew that Putin was trying to help him win and welcomed that help.  As the report laid out, “The investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome.” The report continued that the Trump “campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.”  

As a reminder, Mueller spent almost 200 pages describing “numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign.”  Examples include Donald Trump Jr.’s meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in New York, to get dirt on Hillary Clinton, former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s contacts with Trump advisers — including Jeff Sessions, Jared Kushner, and Michael Flynn and more.

That means Trump and his campaign 100 percent knew Putin was helping Trump during the 2016 campaign. There can be little doubt Trump knew of Putin’s attempted help in 2020. And, of course, Trump is aware that Putin is again actively working to elect him.

The why behind Putin’s desire to see Trump in the White House is obvious from Trump’s defense of Putin killing journalists to in 2022 his praising Putin’s attack on Ukraine as being  “genius” and “savvy” to just a few weeks ago his declaration that he would not honor NATO’s collective defense obligation of all members and instead allow Putin’s Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies who don’t fulfill Trump’s conditions.  And, of course, Trump attempted a coup and incited the Jan 6 terrorist attack to end our democratic Republic—which has long been a goal of Putin.

There has not been a threat to our democratic Republic as dire as Trump and his MAGA movement since World War II when our nation had to defeat the fascists of the Axis Powers. Just as generations before saved our nation from those fascist forces, we will do the same come November.

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