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In the midst of the frenzy surrounding the Democratic Convention as well as Donald Trump’s attempts to hold in-person campaign rallies, the Senate Intelligence Committee released the final volume of its investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 elections. Included in the fifth volume, was a series of letters Trump had written to Russian President Vladimir Putin years prior to getting elected.
The Senate Intelligence Committee revealed some of the letters Trump had written Putin, with the future president expressing his admiration for the Russian leader. In the letters, Trump congratulated Putin on becoming Person of the Year back in 2007 for Time Magazine, and a 2013 letter to Putin revealed that Trump invited him to the Miss Universe Pageant that took place in Moscow as his guest of honor as well as a private meeting days prior to the event.
The Senate report revealed that Putin did not attend, but a Senior Kremlin official attended on his behalf. However, the Russian leader did respond to Trump’s letter of invitation, informing Trump that he would not be able to attend the event as well as the private meeting and congratulated him on the success of the pageant. Putin’s letter also came with a decorative lacquer box.
“I would like to congratulate you and your colleagues on successfully holding the Miss Universe contest in Moscow. I hope that all participants in this remarkable event will go home with good memories of their visit to the Russian capital. It is a pity we were not able to have our meeting, but I hope we will be able to talk during one of your visits to Russia,” according to a translation of Putin’s response on the box.
The 1000-page bipartisan report which would most likely be the fifth and final volume of the committee’s probe into the interference during the 2016 elections, names were dropped, revealing their involvement. One name that was revealed was Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, whom the committee described as a “grave counterintelligence threat,” because of his correspondence with Russian intelligence officer Konstantin Kilimnik, who may be involved in the hacking operation of former first lady Hillary Clinton’s emails during the 2016 elections.
Aside from Manafort, Trump’s associate Roger Stone was also revealed to be involved. Stone had the task of finding out all he can from WikiLeaks about Clinton and the Democrats at the time. The Trump campaign used Stone’s information to their advantage, suggesting that more releases would be coming according to the information taken.
