In Defying the Odds, we discuss Russian involvement in the 2016 campaign. The update -- just published --includes a chapter on the 2018 midterms.
Less than a week after the inauguration, Sally Yates, the acting attorney general, warned the White House Flynn was a security risk potentially subject to Russian blackmail. Instead of having the national security adviser frogmarched to the sidewalk, Trump allowed him to soldier on at the center of national security decision-making for another 18 days.
Then there was the Oval Office moment in May 2017 when Trump the Blabbermouth sold out Israel. Bragging about foiling a plot by the Islamic State in a meeting with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, Trump inadvertently revealed a major Israeli espionage operation. Russian generosity meant that this information was almost certainly shared with its Iranian allies.
The New York Times reported last October that Trump regularly speaks with friends on an insecure iPhone that is closely monitored by the Chinese...
The president was equally forthright a month ago when he unequivocally denied that he intervened in any way to get a permanent security clearance for his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
But, to use Watergate lingo, that denial became “inoperative” this week with a new bombshell report from the Times. In May 2018, Trump ordered the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, to grant Kushner a high-level clearance despite the opposition of career intelligence officials.
