The term political sabotage is sometimes used to define the acts of one political camp to disrupt, harass or damage the reputation of a political opponent, usually during an electoral campaign, such as during Watergate. Smear campaigns are a commonly used tactic. The term could also describe the actions and expenditures of private entities, corporations and organizations against democratically approved or enacted laws, policies and programs.
Shep Smith from the Fox News Network states, “The deception, Chris, is mind-boggling…why are we getting told all these lies?” Chris Wallace: “I don’t know what to say”.
Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian Counterintelligence agent had accompanied the Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya on the clandestine meeting. The meeting had taken place on June 2016 at the Trump Tower and was attended by Donald Trump Jr.; Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law; and Paul Manafort, former chairman of the Trump campaign. Of interest to special counsel Robert Mueller and the House and Senate panels investigating the Russian election interference campaign. All of the email traffic suggests the meeting was part of a Russian effort to help Trump’s candidacy, according to many news reporters as well as Americans.
The Associated Press quoted Akhmetshin saying that Veselnitskaya brought with her to the meeting a plastic folder with printed-out documents that detailed what she believed was a flow of illicit funds to the Democratic National Committee. This was the internal motive behind the emails to entice “the candidate at the time Donald Trump’s son” Don Jr.
After more investigating, the AP reported, Donald Trump Jr., Veselnitskaya presented the contents of the documents to the Trump team, suggesting it could help the Trump campaign, and Donald Jr. asked if she had any further supporting documents.“He clearly asked me if I had any financial records to back and support the idea that some funds from illegal sources went to Democratic National Committee, went to Hilary Clinton,” she told NBC News. “In reply to that, I told him that not only I don’t have any financial records of that time — there was no chance that I could somehow, anyhow, have such records.”
Don Jr. wrote “I love it” to Goldstone when told about possibly getting his hands on material potentially damaging to the Clinton campaign. While Goldstone told Trump Jr. that the meeting would be with a “Russian government attorney” and that the information was “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” Trump Jr. responded exuberantly, “If it’s what you say I love it especially later in the summer.”
While Donald Trump is in France, he responds to this issue by, “My son is a wonderful young man. He took a meeting with a Russian lawyer, not a government lawyer but a Russian lawyer,” Trump said Thursday in a joint press conference in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron. “From a practical standpoint most people would have taken that meeting. It’s called opposition research or research into your opponent.”
A Soviet military intelligence officer, Akhmetshin, turned lobbyist attended the meeting at Trump Tower last June with Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner, and a Russian lawyer, NBC News reported Friday. Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian-born lobbyist who since at least last year has been working with the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, to overturn a US law sanctioning Russians, confirmed his participation in the meeting to the Associated Press.
The Espionage Act of 1917 gives authority to the Postmaster General to impound or to refuse to mail publications that he determined to be in violation of its prohibitions. Congress passed the McCarran Internal Security Act over President Harry S. Truman’s veto. It modified a large body of law, including espionage law. One addition was 793(e), which had almost exactly the same language as 793(d). According to Edgar and Schmidt, the added section potentially removes the “intent” to harm or aid requirement and may make “mere retention” of information a crime no matter what the intent, covering even former government officials writing their memoirs.
Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity or corporation through subversion, obstruction, disruption or destruction. In a workplace setting, sabotage is the conscious withdrawal of efficiency generally directed at causing some change in workplace conditions. One who engages in sabotage is a saboteur. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identities because of the consequences of their actions.
Any unexplained adverse condition might be sabotage. Sabotage is sometimes called tampering, meddling, tinkering, malicious pranks, malicious hacking, a practical joke or the like to avoid needing to invoke legal and organizational requirements for addressing sabotage.
The House and Senate want to speak with Donald Jr. It is expected that questions of treason and sabotage are brought into the discussion. Donald Trump, the 45th President has declared innocence on the part of his son. “”My son Donald did a good job last night,” Trump wrote. “He was open, transparent and innocent. This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!””“I applaud his transparency,” Trump said in a statement.
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