canadian goose jacket Putin makes a clear reference to the subject of the 2016 Trump Tower meeting canadian goose jacket

Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed to offer an olive branch to special counsel Robert Mueller during a news conference after his summit with President Trump on Monday. Perhaps Mueller could come to Russia and interview the 12 intelligence officers indicted by a grand canada goose outlet niagara falls jury last week for alleged involvement in hacking the Democratic National Committee and the campaign of Hillary Clinton.

All Putin would ask was that the courtesy be returned.

canada goose clearance sale “Then we would expect that the Americans would reciprocate,” he said through canada goose jacket uk a translator, “and they would question officials, including the officers of law enforcement and intelligence services of the United States, who we believe have something to do with illegal actions on the territory of Russia, canada goose outlet us and we have to request the presence of our law enforcement.” canada goose clearance sale

uk canada goose outlet Did he have an example of one such investigation? He certainly did: Bill Browder. uk canada goose outlet

“Business associates of Mr. Browder canada goose outlet sale have earned over $1.5 billion in Russia. They’ve never paid any taxes, canada goose outlet miami neither in Russia or the United States,” Putin said. “And yet the money escaped the country. They were transferred to the United States. They sent a huge amount of money $400 canada goose outlet legit million as a contribution to the campaign of Hillary Clinton. Well, that’s a personal case. It might have been legal, the contribution itself, but the way http://www.canadagoosejacketoutlett.com the money was earned was illegal.”

Those transactions, he said, were “accompanied and guided” by intelligence officials. Those officials could be interviewed in the presence of Russians just as he would graciously allow Mueller’s team to canada goose outlet in canada be present for the questioning of his own officers.

canada goose clearance It’s not clear whether this obviously false assertion by Putin was the “interesting idea” of his to which Trump had earlier referred. canada goose outlet location (Why obviously false? Well, for one thing, there was no $400 million donation to Clinton’s campaign or even to the Clinton Foundation from anyone or any entity connected to Browder.) But while Browder’s name may not be familiar to most Americans, there was a subtext to Putin’s claim that is very important in the context of Russian election interference. canada goose clearance

canada canada goose outlet goose Browder and his relationship with Russia were at the center canada goose parka outlet uk of the meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016. canada goose

canada goose factory sale In the original offer made by music publicist Rob Goldstone via canada goose outlet reviews an email to Donald Trump Jr., Goldstone wrote that pop star Emin Agalarov and his father, Aras, had met with a senior canada goose outlet ottawa Russian official who “offered to provide the Trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father.” canada goose outlet online This was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump,” Goldstone asserted. Trump Jr. asked to speak canada goose jacket outlet uk with Emin Agalarov before committing to a meeting; they spoke a few days later (according to Agalarov), and the meeting was set. canada goose factory sale

Canada Goose Parka What dirt Trump Jr. might have been expecting on Clinton wasn’t clear, but we have a good canada goose outlet online store sense of what was actually canada goose shop uk offered. Trump Jr.’s original, misleading statement canada goose jacket outlet store indicated that the meeting with Kremlin linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was focused on the issue of Russian adoptions. The statement was dictated by President Trump, The Washington Post later reported, on his flight back from a meeting of the canada goose outlet black friday Group of 20 in Europe at which he and Putin discussed, among other things, adoptions. Trump Jr. later released his emails, which made clear that adoptions weren’t the predication for the meeting. Canada Goose Parka

Canada Goose Online But they weren’t unimportant. Putin is focused on the issue of adoption because curtailing the adoption of Russian children by Americans was a response to sanctions imposed by the United States after the death of an anti corruption lawyer named Sergei Magnitsky. He died in prison in 2009. In 2012, the canada goose outlet toronto location United States passed the Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on those believed to be responsible for his death, including a number of people close to Putin. Canada Goose Online

cheap canada goose uk Browder was Magnitsky’s canada goose outlet boston boss. He explained canada goose sale uk in an essay for Politico in 2015 how Magnitsky’s death inspired him to push for new sanctions. cheap canada goose uk

“There was no plausible deniability to Sergei’s torture and murder,” Browder wrote. “In his 358 days in detention, Sergei had written over 450 complaints documenting what had been done to him. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. Instead, the Russian government exonerated everyone, and even canada goose outlet belgium gave some of the most complicit promotions and state honors.”

When Trump Jr. and campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump’s son in law, Jared Kushner sat down with Veselnitskaya canada goose outlet in uk and a Russian intelligence veteran turned lobbyist named Rinat Akhmetshin in June 2016, this whole affair was what was discussed, including some allegations against Clinton.

Canada Goose sale In an conversation with Fox News’s Sean Hannity last year, Trump Jr. explained his frustration with Veselnitskaya. Canada Goose sale

canada goose coats on sale “I was probably pressing because the pretext of the meeting was, ‘Hey, I have information about your opponent,’ ” he said. “It was this, you know, ‘Hey, some DNC donors may have done something and Russia and they didn’t pay taxes.’ canada goose outlet montreal I was, like, what does this have to do with anything?” canada goose coats on sale

canada goose store That, you will note, is a very good summary of the pitch Putin made Monday. canada goose store

canada goose coats Manafort’s notes, as released by the Senate Judiciary Committee. canada goose coats

buy canada goose jacket cheap Manafort’s notes from the meeting, turned over to Mueller, reinforce how important Browder was to the pitch. His is the first name listed among those Manafort typed into his phone; the notes proceed through Veselnitskaya’s case largely as articulated in a memo she prepared before the meeting. buy canada goose jacket cheap

canada goose uk shop Veselnitskaya had been working on the Magnitsky/adoption issue for a while, arguing for a reversal of the sanctions to allow adoptions to proceed. She admitted canada goose outlet seattle this year that her past denials of a link to the Kremlin were false canada goose outlet in vancouver and that canada goose outlet store toronto she was in contact regularly with Russia’s prosecutor general. (Goldstone’s initial email pitch said the Agalarovs had been given information from the “Crown prosecutor of Russia.”) canada goose uk shop

canada goose black friday sale Standing next to Trump on Monday, Putin isolated this same issue for specific mention as an example of his country having been treated unfairly. It’s unclear how direct Putin’s hand might have been in the Trump Tower meeting in June 2016, if at all. But on Monday, he made clear how important the issue was to him and to his country, in very pointed terms. canada goose black friday sale

canada goose uk black friday Or, perhaps, he deliberately made reference to the most obvious example of the Trump campaign’s willingness to work with Russia, even while joining in Trump’s public denials that Russia and the Trump campaign had worked together canada goose uk black friday.