"Without Butina, Erickson’s future looks rough. He remains a target of the feds, and sources close to him tell The Daily Beast he’s struggling to keep up with his legal bills."
LOL fuck that guy.
Interestingly, playing Devil's advocate for a moment, while this shows collusion between the NRA and the Russians, is does not actually connect the dots all the way to Trump himself, does it? Ah, but yes it does. Remember Aleksander Torshin?
"Butina helped arrange a trip to Moscow for NRA leaders in December 2015. She pushed for those Americans to visit with senior Russian politicians, according to the plea deal. The Americans on the trip met with Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s powerful minister of foreign affairs; and Dmitry Rogozin, a
deputy of Vladimir Putin and a subject of U.S. sanctions.
After the trip, Butina sent a message to the central bank official (known to be Alexander Torshin) in Russian that has two translations in the plea agreement.
“We should let them express their gratitude now, we will put pressure on them quietly later,” reads the first translation.
“We should allow them to express their gratitude now, and then quietly press,” reads the second."
MAY 3-6, 2016
TRUMP JR. MEETS WITH KREMLIN-LINKED BANKER AT NRA CONVENTION
"Donald Trump Jr.
meets with Aleksander Torshin, a deputy governor of Russia’s central bank, at the N.R.A.’s annual convention in Louisville, Kentucky. The conservative operative who set up the meeting, Paul Erickson, had previously
reached out to the Trump campaign aide Rick Dearborn about arranging the conversation, suggesting that the convention could serve as a point of “first contact” between Trump and Russia and that “Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump” and would invite the then-candidate to Russia. Torshin subsequently
emailed the Trump campaign with a “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite.”"
But we've learned a lot since this article was written. It would not necessarily have to have been the first communication between them when they could easily use Butina as a conduit. If this direct connection doesn't bring down Trump, what will?