Beginning today at noon, my Trump, Inc. co-host @ilyamarritz & I will be be hosting @AllOfItWNYC /special convention coverage beginning at noon. We'll be looking at the week of presentations as we do Trump's presidency: through a lens of the business of Trump.

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As we get started, we'll look today at the Senate report on Russian active measures in the LAST campaign w/ @FranklinFoer & @NatashaBertrand, 2 of the world's most knowledgeable experts on the subject.

I thought it would be useful here to share some thoughts on the report

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Right at the top of the bipartisan report concludes that Trump's campaign manager during the LAST convention, Paul Manafort, had a long standing business relationship with a Russian intelligence officer that "represented a grave counterintelligence threat."

Let that sink in.

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Manafort & his deputy, Rick Gates who also had a relationship with the intelligence officer, Konstantin Kilimnik, passed sensitive polling data to Kilimnik, who had a close working relationship with the oligarch Oleg Deripaska (OVD), who in turn worked closely w/ Putin.

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And Deripaska is identified as someone whose specific role in the Russian Kremlin/business hierarchy was to mount election interference operations abroad to "install pro-Kremlin regimes."

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So during the LAST Republican convention, the President's campaign manager was working closely with a Russian spy, giving him polling data to share with an oligarch. Typically this kind of polling data is used to micro-target messages, including disinformation.

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Manafort "lied consistently" about his dealings with Kilimnik, even after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy against the United States and promised to tell the truth.

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At the same time this was going on, Trump was on the phone OFTEN with Roger Stone, in advance of the Wikileaks dump, about the release. Sometimes Trump would use his security guard Keith Schiller's phone, apparently to hide his calls.

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[Side note: this is specifically NOT a criminal investigation, but in a criminal investigation "consciousness of guilt" can be used as evidence of guilt]

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Even though some of this will sound familiar, there's an important new thread here. The BIPARTISAN committee specifically shows that calling the Russia investigation a hoax or implying that Ukraine really interfered is in fact propaganda that originated in the Kremlin.

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We're hearing this propaganda even now. We heard it last night, in Rep. Jim Jordan's speech.

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So the Senate report is a useful overlay in which to view this convention: a porous, chaotic campaign, receptive to a well-organized and multi-pronged Russian influence attack that also embraced, and embraces Kremlin misinformation, right up to the present.

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There's a whole lot more to say, so please tune in at noon to @wnyc for more!

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