Adam Schiff Lays Out The Devastating Timeline Of Russia-Trump Campaign Collusion

Responding to the bombshell New York Times report that Donald Trump Jr. knew the Russian government was behind the damaging info he sought in his meeting with a Kremlin-backed lawyer, top Democrat on the House Intelligence committee Adam Schiff called it a “serious development” and said it’s just the latest in a series of troubling events linking Donald Trump’s campaign to Russia.

In simple terms, Schiff laid out the increasingly incriminating timeline of activity that links the Trump campaign directly to the Russian effort to derail Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

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Schiff said:

This goes back to June of last year, just when the now-president has essentially seized the Republican nomination. If this article is correct, his son gets an email from someone who helped the Trump family do business in Russia saying, “The Russian government is helping your father get elected president, we have some damaging information, you should take this meeting.” Donald Jr. takes the meeting with this woman who’s an advocate for the Kremlin, along with Kushner and Manafort … This meeting, purportedly in June, in July the Russians start dumping documents helpful to Donald Trump, hurtful to Hillary Clinton. … Flash forward after the election, investigation starts, and the family is asked, the president is asked, “Did you have any meetings with any representatives of the Russian government.” The answer is, “No, absolutely not, not in a million years. …  In a pattern we have seen over and over again, when confronted with evidence of particular meetings, they’re forced to acknowledge, “Oh, well, yes we did have that meeting.” … Obviousy, there’s a lot to unpack here, but the chronology, I think, is very concerning. It all warrants thorough investigation. Everyone who was in that meeting ought to come before our committee. These emails that are described, we need to see.

As Schiff noted, the more revelations that come out with respect to Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential campaign, the more it looks like the Trump campaign not only knew that Russia was behind the effort to help their candidate, but they coordinated with Moscow in a way that would damage Hillary Clinton the most.

The month after the now-infamous meeting between Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-backed lawyer, the Russians started spilling information that would hurt Clinton’s campaign and boost the candidacy of Trump.

The fact that the son of the Republican nominee and now-President of the United States knew that the Russians were involved in aiding his dad’s campaign before taking such a meeting is, as Schiff noted, a “very serious development” and has the potential to sink Trump’s presidency.

If the White House was hoping this story would go away, the last 48 hours of New York Times reporting is evidence that it isn’t going anywhere.

Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.