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Background Briefing: August 19, 2020

On By gram

 

How Trump Wore Down the Intelligence Community

We begin with the explosive report from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee on Paul Manafort which makes clear that there was enormous and systemic collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian Intelligence during the 2016 campaign with the same influence operations continuing to this day, not against Hillary Clinton, but this time against Joe Biden. Joining us is the author of the new book, just out, To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America into Iraq, Robert Draper, a writer at large for The New York Times magazine where his latest article is “Unwanted Truths: Inside Trump’s Battles With U.S. Intelligence Agencies Last Year; intelligence officials gathered to write a classified report on Russia’s interest in the 2020 election. An investigation from the magazine uncovered what happened next.”  We discuss how Trump has worn the intelligence community down starting from his first day in office when he asked the top CIA officials whether they voted for him. We also look into Trump’s Intelligence Advisory Board which he has stacked with wealthy cronies who are suspected of using classified information to make trades in commodities for example and the advisory board’s Chair Stephen Feinberg, who is close to Jared Kushner and the Saudi Crown Prince MBS with whom Feinberg’s company Dyncorp has defense and security contracts.

 

The Explosive Report From the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee

Then we look further into the Senate Intelligence Report which contradicts everything AG Barr and his sidekick Durham are trying to manufacture in their investigation of the investigators and speak with Scott Horton, a professor at Columbia Law School who is a contributing editor at Harper’s in legal affairs and national security. We speculate why the pro Trump Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee like Cotton and Cornyn signed off on this damning report which makes clear in great detail that Manafort, Stone and Wikileaks were in collusion with Russian Intelligence.

 

Suing Trump and DeJoy to Stop the Weaponizing of the USPS Against Americans’ Need to Vote

Then finally we speak with Kristen Clarke, the President and Executive Director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law who along with Common Cause, the League of Women Voters and the National Urban League, have filed a federal lawsuit last night against Postmaster General DeJoy and the U.S. Postal Service to stop DeJoy and Trump from further weaponizing the USPS against Americans’ need to vote.