David Jay Morris for BuzzFlash: Was the Russian Media Trolling Us or Is Trump Our Man in Moscow?
Is Donald Trump our man in Moscow? (Gage Skidmore)
August 27, 2022
By David Jay Morris
In the wake of the FBI’s unprecedented search of Mar-a-Lago for stolen government documents (let’s call them what they are), it’s hard to turn on a TV in the U.S. without seeing a talking head or three holding forth on the subject.
Putin-friendly pundits in Russia haven’t held back on the issue either.
Reporting on a broadcast on state TV made soon after the search, Russia watcher Julia Davis tweeted, “Putin's mouthpieces on state TV are taunting America about "Top Secret" documents sought during the raid of Trump's estate, which they claim had to do with the newest nuclear weapons developed by the US and gleefully imply that Moscow already got to see them.”
A related Newsweek article added this quote from Kremlin-supporting Russia-1 announcer, Evgeny Popov, “if there were any important documents, they've been studying them in Moscow for a while."
And not to be outdone, program host Vladimir Solovyov said, "I'm very worried for our agent Trump.”
“Our agent” Trump?
“They’ve been studying them in Moscow?”
In light of what we now know about the documents spirited off to his utterly unsecured beach club home by former President Trump, what should we make of these comments?
Two possibilities spring to mind.
It could just be trolling of the U.S. intelligence community.
Very clever trolling.
Even if the Russians never laid an eye on any of the classified documents, American counter-intelligence will have to assume that they have seen them all until it is definitively proven otherwise.
Or…
Do we have to consider the possibility that the Russian announcers – all of whom have close ties to the Kremlin – were just telling us the simple truth?
Is it so unthinkable that the despot and money-loving head of Trump University, developer of the Big Lie and main instigator of the January 6th attack on the Capitol would trade valuable secrets for cold cash. Or perhaps a promise of future favors?
Also, let’s not forget all the money Trump and his companies have received from Russians over the years – often at critical times when U.S. banks wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole. And how about the support his 2016 candidacy received from Kremlin related entities (see the real Mueller Report, not the Bill Barr pseudo-summary)? Is it beyond the pale to wonder if the passing on of critical information could have been some sort of quid-pro-quo payment for services rendered?
Or could it have been for revenge?
Petulant revenge against the American people for not returning him to the office he seems to think is his – and his alone.
Don’t for a minute think that in the bottom of his heart, Trump doesn’t know as well as anyone that he lost. That a large majority of the American people want no part of him.
Can’t you just hear him thinking, “If I’m going down, America, I’m taking you down with me!”
That would certainly be a Trumpy sort of thing to do. According to David Corn, Trump has always been obsessed with getting even with anybody who crosses him.
Of course, it’s not impossible Trump really did just take the documents for no more nefarious purpose than his own narcissism and greed for cool souvenirs of his days in the White House.
But would that have made any real difference? Does anyone really think that a determined team of top-flight FSB agents couldn’t have figured out an effective way to penetrate Trump’s utterly vulnerable supper club and take whatever they wanted, even without his assistance.
The sad truth is that whatever the reality might be, the FBI, CIA, NSA, Dept. of Defense, etc. now have no choice but to work on the worst-case assumption that all of the information contained within the stolen documents has been compromised.
People who have worked for us might die.
Our next generation weapons systems might already be obsolete.
Our most-effective intelligence-gathering techniques might no longer work.
Foreign spies in the U.S. might have been warned that we are on to them.
An in-depth damage assessment is desperately needed.
Now!
Not just for this fiasco, but for the four long years Comrade Trump was in the White House, and every minute since he left.
The harm this evil man has done to America is incalculable.
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