The draft report from the Russia investigation will make a bombshell claim about the help Donald Trump gave to Vladimir Putin in his bid to disrupt the United States, a veteran Watergate journalist claims.
In an appearance on CNN on Sunday (which has been shared on Twitter ), legendary journalist Carl Bernstein said that he has learned the final report from Robert Mueller will show how Trump helped Russia “destabilize the United States.” Bernstein claimed that intelligence officials who have studied the allegations of collusion between Trump and Russia have come to a sobering conclusion.
“This is about the most serious counterintelligence people we have in the US government saying, ‘Oh my god, the President’s words and actions lead us to conclude that somehow he has become a witting, unwitting or half-witting pawn…to Vladimir Putin,’ ” Bernstein said.
Bernstein added that Trump has been working to achieve “what appears to be Putin’s goals,” though was not able to say if Trump did this on purpose or unwittingly.
Bernstein’s insight about the final report from the Russia investigation comes just a day after another bombshell report from the Washington Post documents that Trump has taken actions to conceal his private conversations with Vladimir Putin since taking office, even going so far as to destroy notes from interpreters. The report noted that this is very unusual, something past presidents have never done in their own interactions with world leaders.
. @carlbernstein : “This is about the most serious counterintelligence people we have in the US government saying, ‘Oh my god, the President’s words and actions lead us to conclude that somehow he has become a witting, unwitting or half-witting pawn…to Vladimir Putin.’” pic.twitter.com/QOSdJPsJN5
— Reliable Sources (@ReliableSources) January 13, 2019
The report noted that U.S. officials were not even aware of the efforts Trump had taken to hide his communications with Putin. It only came to light after a senior state department official tried to find more information about a meeting between Trump and Putin in 2017, and found that there was no record of it.
Donald Trump fanned the flames of the controversy even more on Saturday night in an interview with Jeanine Pirro of Fox News . In the interview, Pirro asked Trump directly if he was working on behalf of Russia, but Trump did not give a yes or no answer.
Trump revealed more than you think in his interview with Pirro. He said he discussed “securing Israel” with Putin—that is, finding a way to limit Russia’s support for Iran. And you know what would get that done, per everyone? Dropping sanctions on Russia. https://t.co/P8rGD6IfO7
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) January 13, 2019
Democrats said they could be taking action to find out what was said in the private meetings between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. As CNN reported, Senator Bob Melendez said he would meet with his House counterpart to determine what they could do to subpoena the translator from Trump’s meetings with Putin.
It was not clear when the final Russia report was expected to be released, and whether it would conclude that Donald Trump actively colluded with Russia.
