Volume V, Parts 8 and 9: Nothing of Any Importance

 

Volume V of the Senate Intelligence Committee continues to wander further and further afield in Parts 8 and 9, as it spends nearly 100 pages (pp. 586-662) to matters peripheral to the 2016 election.

Part 8

Part 8 (pages 568-635) addresses attempts by Alexander Torshin and Maria Butina to exercise influence on behalf of Russia with the NRA.  Torshin appears to have been a person of some importance in Russia -- vice chairman of the Russian Senate for a time, and a deputy governor of its central bank.  Butina (pronounced BOOTina, not BooTEENa), by contrast, does not appear to have had any particular influence in Russia.  She was born in Siberia and learned to hunt from her father.  She does appear to have done some gun advocacy in Russia, where private gun ownership is severely restricted.  

Butina, acting on behalf of Torshin, approached the NRA as a Russian gun rights activist.  The report gives a detailed chronological account of her activities from 2013 to 2016, none of which appear to have had any bearing on the 2016 election.  Butina attended NRA events, had an affair with one of its leaders, and attempted to establish an informal back channel between the NRA and the Russian government.  At least some of the NRA leaders understood what she was doing and accepted it.  Butina also wrote regular reports of her activities and observations on American politics and the influence of the NRA to Torshin.  On a number of occasions, she asked NRA leaders not to publicize their ties, giving as her reason the fear that she would be discredited in Russia for too strong American ties.  As is often the case, it is not always clear who is manipulating who. 

Maria Butina

Probably the most significant revelation in the report is that Russian intelligence targeted the NRA because it considered the NRA the most influential organization in the US and the key to any influence with the Republican Party.  (Not mentioned:  Whether Russian intelligence sought similar influence with the Democrats, and, if so, what organizations they considered important.  Also significant: NRA leaders appeared to understand that Butina was establishing a back channel to the Russian government and had no objections.  They seemed to value the influence this offered.  Butina's only contacts with the Trump campaign appear to have been meeting with Donald Trump, Jr. (an avid big game hunter) at an NRA dinner and various outreach to the campaign that went nowhere.

The obvious question is whether any of this was a crime.  After all, Butina did not seek out any classified information.  Her reports back on US politics do not appear to have been any more than a journalist might have written.  Her main role appears to have been establishing a back channel of communication with Russia.  She was charged as a spy.  Reports referred to her as a sexy siren whose beauty overbore men's judgment.  Looking at her picture, I could never see it.  Closer was someone's comment (don't remember where, can't find link) calling her the kind of sort-of pretty girl that men might think they had a chance with.  Even that seems generous.  I have included her picture.  Decide for yourself.

Part 9

Part 9 (pages 636-662) deals with whether there was any evidence that the Russians had a sex tape on Trump, apart from Christopher Steele's allegations.  Part 3 traces Trump's 2013 visit to Moscow for the Miss Universe contest in excruciating detail and finds only two gaps in which he could have held an orgy with local prostitutes -- one during the night he stayed, at which time his bodyguard turned away such offers, and during the afternoon the next day when he was waiting to see if he could get a visit with Putin.  It seems unlikely that Trump would have engaged in an orgy with Russian prostitutes while waiting by the phone for Putin to call -- what if Putin had actually called after all -- but I suppose with Donald Trump there is no telling.

In any event, even if nothing happened when Trump visited Russia in 2013, he also had visits in 1996 and one other occasion that Volume V does not identify.

The main evidence Volume V offers is that a Trump associate, David Geovanis, Trump had an affair with a Russian woman (name redacted).  Geovanis had contacts with the Russian intelligence services and loose lips, so the intelligence services might have found out.*  Geovanis also had ties to Oleg Deripaska, Manafort's sponsor.  Geovanis did not cooperate with the Committee, so information here is limited.

In addition, a former executive of Marriott International reported overhearing two employees with the Moscow Ritz Carlton discussing what to do with a video that showed Trump in an elevator "involved with several women who the discussant implied to be "hostesses.'"  Michael Cohen also said that following the 2013 visit, he got calls from six people claiming to have compromising tapes.  Trump denied that such tapes were real, and Cohen never received any verification.  The Committee also reported the existence of a realistic and well-sourced but fake tape.  

All this is nothing more than rumor, with nothing concrete to support it.

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*Geovanis, by the way, appears to have done the same sort of work as Hunter Biden -- offering contacts in the West and serving as a front man in dealing with the contacts, and getting paid vastly out of proportion to the actual work he did.