A key Republican senator kneecapped President Donald Trump as he prepares to meet with his Russian counterpart, according to one expert.
Trump announced Wednesday that he intends to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as early as next week, followed by talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ahead of the meeting, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who has been a staunch ally of the president, released some files from special counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.
Journalist Marcy Wheeler speculated on her blog that the release of the files was designed to help Trump and his emissary, Steve Witkoff, negotiate a deal with Putin. However, Wheeler said the release made Trump look “far weaker” than he already does.
The issue revolves around a redaction included in the documents Grassley released. The redaction links the Trump campaign to a hacker called Guccifer, who helped them frame Hillary Clinton for fabricating emails linking Trump to Russia.
“I don’t need to know what it says to know that the email gives Putin great leverage over Donald Trump at the moment that Trump finally tries to assert a strong hand with the Russian dictator,” Wheeler wrote.
“And here’s the thing. Putin’s spies know much of what is behind that redaction,” Wheeler continued. They can reverse engineer it because the footnote to it shows that the email in question is the one to which those Russian spies attached that fake July 27 email, nine years ago. They still have that email.
“Hell, it’s probably hanging in a gilt-edged frame somewhere, Putin’s trophy from a wildly successful attempt to compromise the Main Enemy,” she added.