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What to make of today's revelation that it was Paul Manafort's "cunning plan" to win the election that triggered Russsia's email hack of the DNC? It shows that from the beginning of his arrival on the campaign, the plan was to use Russian help. /1 https://theblackledgerbook.wordpress.com/2020/10/06/manaforts-%d1%85%d0%b8%d1%82%d1%80%d1%8b%d0%b9-%d0%bf%d0%bb%d0%b0%d0%bd-how-trump-won/
In February and March 2016, Manafort used Trump friend Tom Barrack to make his case to run the campaign. Barrack forwarded Manafort's strategy memos to the Trumps in late February. /2 https://theblackledgerbook.wordpress.com/2020/08/27/daddy-tom-says-we-should-get-paul/
During this same period, GOP consultant Sam Patten was shocked to find that pro-Russian oligarchs and Russian intelligence officer Konstantin Kilimnik were confident that Manafort would be running the Trump campaign. On March 16, Trump hired Manafort. /3
On March 19th, AFTER THE MANAFORT HIRE, Fancy Bear launched their attack on DNC email accounts. Trump did not announce the hiring of Manafort until March 28th. In April, before news of the hack broke, Kilimnik told an associate that Manafort had "a cunning plan" /4
That plan, which Manafort explained to Kilimnik in a meeting in New York, involved raising Clinton's negatives in the Upper Midwest. The emails were the tool. Although they contained no scandalous information, the coverage of the hack highlighted Clinton's email server. /5
Breathless reporters awaited new emails that they hoped showed scandal. They never did. But the hack story was enough. The most covered topic in the campaign, according to a Harvard study, was Hillary's emails by a wide margin. /6
On election night, pundits were shocked. Trump won Wisconsin and Michigan, previously known as "Blue Wall" states. Despite Manafort's firing, the plan had worked. Trump was president-elect. And Russia now had a hope of getting Ukraine back and lifting sanctions. /7
LEARN MORE: in The Black Ledger: How Trump Brought Putin's Disinformation War to America. /8 Available now in Ebook:
https://wordpress.com/block-editor/page/the-black-ledger-book.com/263
https://wordpress.com/block-editor/page/the-black-ledger-book.com/263
