The Russia scandal officially came roaring back on Wednesday as a new report indicates that an email sent from a top Donald Trump aide referenced a previously unknown attempt to set up a meeting between Trump campaign associates and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to the report from CNN, an email sent from current Deputy Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn to Trump campaign officials contained information “about an individual who was seeking to connect top Trump officials with Putin, the sources said.”
More from the report:
Congressional investigators have unearthed an email from a top Trump aide that referenced a previously unreported effort to arrange a meeting last year between Trump campaign officials and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
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The aide, Rick Dearborn, who is now President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff, sent a brief email to campaign officials last year relaying information about an individual who was seeking to connect top Trump officials with Putin, the sources said.
The person was only identified in the email as being from “WV,” which one source said was a reference to West Virginia. It’s unclear who the individual is, what he or she was seeking, or whether Dearborn even acted on the request. One source said that the individual was believed to have had political connections in West Virginia, but details about the request and who initiated it remain vague.
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Sources said the email occurred in June 2016 around the time of the recently revealed Trump Tower meeting where Russians with Kremlin ties met with the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner as well as then-campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
While many details around the Dearborn email are unclear, its existence suggests the Russians may have been looking for another entry point into the Trump campaign to see if there were any willing partners as part of their effort to discredit — and ultimately defeat — Hillary Clinton.
This, of course, isn’t the first time a potential meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian officials has been discovered.
Earlier this year, it was also revealed that top Trump associates – Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Donald Trump Jr. – met with Russian officials during the campaign in an attempt to get dirt on Hillary Clinton.
With the new reporting from CNN, it appears the Russians were looking for another opening into the campaign – this time hoping to connect Putin himself with the Trump team.
There are many details about the latest revelation and the investigation as a whole that remain unknown, but one thing is clear: This president is becoming increasingly nervous about Robert Mueller’s investigation into his ties to Russia.
Nowhere is that more evident than in Donald Trump’s recent erratic behavior and rapidly declining mental health.
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.
