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Donald Trump’s team was in contact with Russian ambassador when Obama was announcing sanctions
The Washington Post broke the story that Donald Trump and his team may have been in touch with Russia’s ambassador to the United States at the same time that The Obama Administration was expelling Russian diplomats and instituting new sanctions.
According to an Associated Press story, “A senior U.S. official says the Obama administration is aware of frequent contacts between President-elect Donald Trump’s top national security adviser and Russia’s ambassador to the United States.”
The AP story goes on to say, “The official says the contacts happened on the day President Barack Obama expelled dozens of Russian officials from the U.S. and imposed sanctions as punishment for election-related hacking. The official says the administration is also aware of contacts between Trump adviser Michael Flynn and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at other times as well.”
And they very next day after Obama imposed new sanctions against Russia, Vladimir Putin announced that he would not retaliate against the U.S. for the sanctions and the expelled diplomats. To which Donald Trump praised Putin for being a “very smart.”
The AP story also notes that “Flynn’s conversations were first reported by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. The official was not authorized to confirm the contacts publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.”
Donald Trump may have just violated the Logan Act
All of this raises one important question: Why was Donald Trump’s team talking to Russia while the Obama Administration was announcing sanctions against Russia?
Donald Trump’s incoming Press Secretary Sean Spicer
said Friday that the call was made in order to set up a post-inauguration phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But here is the catch, as Mr. Ignatius pointed out in his Washington Post piece, the
contact between Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak could be a violation of the Logan Act. The Logan Act is a
1799 statute that makes it illegal for U.S. citizens of to attempt to influence a foreign government that is engaged in “disputes or controversies with the United States.”
Donald Trump’s Russian connection
The news that his team has been in contact with Russia reignites the concern about Trump and Flynn’s seemingly cozy relationship with Russia. Flynn of course, once gave a paid speech at a gala thrown for state-run news network RT. And after his speech, Mr. Flynn sat at the same dinner table as Vladimir Putin. And following that dinner, Flynn went on to make regular appearances on the Russian government-propaganda TV network RT, where he argued for a closer relationship between the U.S. and Russia.
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