clay. rick xian

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</div><div>=</div><div>mojo</div><div>
</div><div><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">May 2016: In an email to Trump campaign aide Rick Dearborn, with the subject line “Kremlin Connection,”</span><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> Erickson says Russia is “quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S.” and proposes using the NRA convention to set up “first contact” with the Trump team</b><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">. According to a New York Times report, Erickson writes that he’s in a position to “slowly begin c</span><b style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">ultivating a back-channel to President Putin’s Kremlin</b><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">.” The email doesn’t name Torshin but appears to reference him as “President Putin’s emissary” who planned to attend a dinner hosted by conservative<b> Christian activist Rick Clay.</b> Meanwhile, Clay sends an email to Dearborn with the subject line “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,” seeking a meeting between Trump and Torshin. Dearborn forwards Clay’s email to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who reportedly nixes the proposal.</span></div><div>=</div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div>https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/04/ukraine-gop-platform-gordon.html</div><div>
</div><div>Throughout the investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, questions have swirled around an odd change the campaign pushed for in the Republican platform at the party’s 2016 convention in Cleveland. As the Washington Post originally reported shortly after the convention, Trump campaign representatives pushed to water down language in the platform about “providing lethal defensive weapons” to the government of Ukraine for its fight against pro-Russian separatists. Given then–campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s financial ties to pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine, that raised some eyebrows. Was the platform move part of a quid pro quo, or a demonstration of good faith to Trump’s allies in Moscow?</div><div>
</div><div>On this particular question, the just-released Mueller report is mostly good news for Trump. Investigators found no evidence that the president ordered or was even aware of the change to the platform language. But it does highlight the degree to which Trumpworld officials with questionable motives were engaged in freelance policymaking during this period.</div><div>
</div><div>The report mostly confirms what has been reported by the Post and later the Daily Beast about the incident. At a meeting of the national security platform subcommittee shortly before the convention, on July 11, 2016, Diana Denman, a Ted Cruz–supporting delegate, submitted an amendment to the platform denouncing Russian military aggression in Ukraine and calling for the provision of lethal weapons, a step the Obama administration was then opposing.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>J.D. Gordon, a former Pentagon spokesman who was then a national security adviser to the Trump campaign and attended the meeting as a non-voting observer, flagged the amendment, saying he did not believe it corresponded with Trump’s views on Russia and Ukraine.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Denman says Gordon told her during the meeting that he was on the phone with Trump himself, but she was skeptical of this claim, and Gordon denies ever making it. Trump told the Mueller team he did not speak with Gordon about the matter, though <b>phone records show Gordon called Jeff Sessions’ office that day</b>.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Gordon does say he talked to senior Trump advisers Rick Dearborn and John Mashburn</span>, and here’s where things get odd: Gordon says the two backed him up, but <b>Mashburn remembers telling Gordon that Trump hadn’t taken a stand on the issue and that the campaign shouldn’t interfere.</b> With this one notable exception, Trump campaign observers mostly held back and didn’t offer any substantive input during the platform-drafting process.</div><div>
</div><div><b>In the end, the language in the amendment was softened to “appropriate assistance,” which led Mashburn to believe, as the Mueller report puts it, that “Gordon had violated Mashburn’s directive not to intervene.</b>” Then-campaign co-chair Sam Clovis also told investigators that he was surprised by the change and did not believe it accorded with Trump’s views. (In fairness, Trump’s stated views on Ukraine, at that time, were a little vague and hard to parse.)</div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.politico.com/interactives/2018/trump-russia-investigation-ties/">https://www.politico.com/interactives/2018/trump-russia-investigation-ties/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.politico.com/interactives/2018/trump-russia-investigation-ties/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">infographic</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">nra mojo</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">May 2016: In an email to Trump campaign aide Rick Dearborn, with the subject line “Kremlin Connection,”</span><b times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"> Erickson says Russia is “quietly but actively seeking a dialogue with the U.S.” and proposes using the NRA convention to set up “first contact” with the Trump team</b><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">. According to a New York Times report, Erickson writes that he’s in a position to “slowly begin c</span><b times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">ultivating a back-channel to President Putin’s Kremlin</b><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">.” The email doesn’t name Torshin but appears to reference him as “President Putin’s emissary” who planned to attend a dinner hosted by <b>c<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">onservative Christian activist Rick Clay</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Meanwhile, Clay sends an email to Dearborn with the subject line “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,” seeking a meeting between Trump and Torshin. Dearborn forwards Clay’s email to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who reportedly nixes the proposal.</span></span></font></div><div><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">also mashburn on rnc platform change:</font></span></div><div><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="f" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Dearborn</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and </span><span style="font-weight: bold; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Mashburn</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> were also the recipients of phone calls made by campaign foreign policy aide J.D. Gordon as delegates to the </span><span style="font-weight: bold; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Republican</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> National Convention were debating what the party's </span><span style="font-weight: bold; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">platform</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> on Ukraine should be. The party ultimately elected to adopt language that endorsed providing ...</span></font></span></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p></div></div></div><div>=</div>