Tag

#Russia

Incidents involving Russia, including the collapse of nuclear arms control agreements, diplomatic dynamics affecting the Ukraine conflict, and policies that affect strategic stability between nuclear powers.

12 incidents

Grade 1 of 5: Significant Democratic Concern

NATO Article 5 Threats: Encouraging Russia to Attack Allies Who Don't Pay

NATO's collective defense commitment under Article 5 — that an attack against one member is an attack against all — was the foundational guarantee that had maintained European security for 75 years. Trump's statement that he would encourage Russia to attack members he deemed to be underpaying undermined the credibility of the deterrence that Article 5 provided. NATO allies condemned the statements as dangerous; European leaders described them as a fundamental threat to the alliance's deterrence value. In his second term, Trump continued pressing NATO members with threats of U.S. withdrawal contingent on spending levels, while simultaneously pursuing a Ukraine peace framework that European allies described as favorable to Russia.

Grade 1 of 5: Significant Democratic Concern

Open Skies Treaty Withdrawal: Unilateral Exit from 35-Nation Arms Control Agreement

The Open Skies Treaty allows its 35 signatories — including the United States, Russia, and most NATO and former Warsaw Pact nations — to conduct scheduled unarmed reconnaissance flights over each other's territory. The flights collect imagery that member states share, building collective military transparency. Trump administration officials argued Russia had violated the treaty by restricting U.S. flight paths over certain territories. European allies agreed Russia had compliance issues but argued the U.S. should address them within the treaty framework rather than withdraw, and warned that U.S. withdrawal would give Russia an excuse to exit entirely. Russia did subsequently withdraw from the treaty in January 2021, after Trump's withdrawal had set the precedent. The Biden administration reviewed but did not rejoin the treaty due to concerns about congressional opposition.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Roger Stone: Convicted, Then Commuted, Then Pardoned — Witness Tampering and Obstruction Rewarded

Stone was convicted of lying to Congress about his contacts with WikiLeaks, which had published emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta by Russian intelligence. The jury found he had also tampered with a witness — elderly former radio host Randy Credico — to prevent him from contradicting Stone's false congressional testimony. All four prosecutors withdrew from the case after senior DOJ officials overrode their sentencing recommendation. Trump commuted Stone's sentence days before Stone was to report to prison; he issued a full pardon seven months later.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Barr's Mueller Report Summary: Misrepresented Findings, Withheld Report for Weeks

Mueller's investigation documented ten episodes of potential obstruction of justice and concluded that while it could not exonerate Trump, it also could not reach a traditional prosecutorial judgment because of the OLC opinion barring indictment of a sitting president. Barr's summary letter stated 'the Special Counsel did not find that the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with Russia' and that Mueller had 'not established that members of the Trump campaign conspired.' On obstruction, Barr stated on his own authority that the evidence was 'not sufficient to establish that the President committed an obstruction-of-justice offense' — an independent judgment Mueller had explicitly declined to make.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Paul Manafort: Bank and Tax Fraud Convictions, Conspiracy and Witness-Tampering Plea — Pardoned

Prosecutors alleged Manafort was paid more than $60 million between 2010 and 2014 by Ukrainian sponsors for political work for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian Ukrainian president later forced from office and who fled to Russia. Manafort hid the income in offshore accounts and spent lavishly while lying on tax returns and bank loan applications. Mueller's investigation documented that Manafort had also shared internal Trump campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report (Volume 5, August 2020) characterized as a 'Russian intelligence officer', calling Manafort's activities a 'grave counterintelligence threat'.

Grade 1 of 5: Significant Democratic Concern

Helsinki Summit: Trump Sided With Putin Over His Own CIA on Election Interference

Trump and Putin met privately for approximately two hours with only translators present; there was no U.S. notetaker. (In 2019, The Washington Post reported that Trump had gone to unusual lengths to conceal details of his conversations with Putin, in one instance taking possession of his interpreter's notes.) At the public press conference, Trump said he didn't 'see any reason why it would be Russia' that interfered in the election — contradicting the assessment of the U.S. intelligence community. When asked the next day, Trump claimed he had misspoken and meant to say 'wouldn't' instead of 'would.' The statement provoked condemnation from Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Republican Speaker Paul Ryan, and dozens of Republican members of Congress.

Grade 1 of 5: Significant Democratic Concern

Refusing to Confront Russian Election Interference: Capitulation to Putin at Helsinki

Standing next to Putin at a joint press conference, Trump declined to affirm the intelligence community's unanimous assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to benefit him. He also refused to implement congressionally-mandated sanctions against Russia following the Salisbury chemical weapons attack and on other grounds. The Senate Intelligence Committee's 2020 bipartisan report confirmed not only Russian interference but that Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared internal polling data with a Russian intelligence operative.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Sessions Recusal, AG Firing, and the Mueller Obstruction Pattern

Sessions's recusal created the conditions for the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, since it meant Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein oversaw the Russia investigation. Trump spent 20 months publicly attacking Sessions for his recusal — including in tweets, press statements, and reporting — while his private conduct (documented by Mueller) included repeated instructions that Sessions should 'unrecuse' himself and take control of the investigation. The day after the 2018 midterm elections, Trump demanded and received Sessions's resignation, replacing him with Matthew Whitaker — a move DOJ legal scholars argued was designed to install an acting AG who would not be recused from the Russia investigation.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Intelligence Community Attacks: CIA Briefings Undermined, Officials Publicly Attacked

Trump's attacks on the intelligence community followed a pattern: dispute assessments that reflected poorly on him or contradicted foreign governments he was cultivating, attack the officials who provided them, reward officials who shaped assessments to his preferences, and revoke credentials of critics. He disputed the CIA's assessments of Saudi Crown Prince MBS's role in the Khashoggi murder, Russian interference in the 2016 election, North Korean nuclear progress, and Iranian nuclear program compliance. He announced the revocation of former CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance and threatened the clearances of other former officials who had criticized him, and installed loyalists in acting DNI and other positions.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Michael Flynn: Turkey Lobbying Cover-Up, Foreign Agent, NSA Lies to FBI

Flynn was paid over $530,000 by a Turkish-controlled entity while serving as one of Trump's most prominent campaign surrogates in 2016 — work he initially did not disclose and later retroactively registered as foreign agent activity. He lied to FBI investigators about his December 2016 contacts with Russian Ambassador Kislyak, in which he discussed sanctions that the Obama administration had just imposed on Russia for election interference. Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements in December 2017, cooperated with Mueller, then attempted to withdraw his plea, and was ultimately pardoned by Trump in November 2020.

Grade 1 of 5: Significant Democratic Concern

2016 Russian Election Interference: Mueller Findings and Senate Intelligence Committee

The Senate Intelligence Committee's August 2020 bipartisan report documented that Paul Manafort shared confidential Trump campaign polling data with Konstantin Kilimnik, a Ukrainian political consultant the committee assessed had ties to Russian intelligence. The report characterized this as 'a grave counterintelligence threat.' The report also documented extensive contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russian nationals. Mueller found the hacking and dumping of Democratic emails benefited the Trump campaign and that the campaign was aware of, and made use of, the releases — but did not find sufficient evidence of criminal conspiracy between the campaign and the Russian government.

Grade 1 of 5: Significant Democratic Concern

Trump Tower Moscow: Active Negotiations During 2016 Campaign, Covered Up

The Trump Tower Moscow project involved Cohen emailing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov's office in January 2016 seeking Putin's personal assistance advancing the project. Trump signed a letter of intent in October 2015. Negotiations continued through June 2016. Cohen testified to Congress in 2017 that negotiations ended in January 2016 — a lie he later admitted under oath. The project would have been the largest Trump deal ever, potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars and requiring Russian government approval. Throughout this period, Trump repeatedly denied any Russian business dealings and publicly advocated for lifting sanctions on Russia.