Trouble for Jill Stein in Donald Trump’s Russia scandal
Back on December 10th of 2015, Michael Flynn was paid $40,000 to attend a dinner banquet in Moscow. He sat next to Russian president Vladimir Putin during the dinner. Two months later, Flynn became a foreign policy adviser to the Donald Trump campaign, during which time he colluded with the Russian government. Also seated at the same Moscow dinner table as Vladimir Putin and Michael Flynn on that December 2015 evening: third party candidate Jill Stein.
Jill Stein’s attendance at the Moscow dinner is not in dispute. There’s a well traveled photo of Vladimir Putin and Michael Flynn sitting together at the table while Stein sits seated across from them. For that matter, Stein has made no effort to hide her trip to Russia, and she’s documented some of her other experiences in Moscow on her official website. But in light of what is now known about Flynn’s subsequent collusion with the Russian government, Jill Stein is now a material witness to the conversation between Flynn and Putin.
Stein had already entered the 2016 election six months before she dined with Putin and Flynn. There is no evidence to suggest that she’s a conspirator in any Russian plot to rig the election for Donald Trump. Nor do we know for certain whether the Kremlin paid her to attend the dinner, as it paid Flynn according to the NY Daily News. And even if Stein was paid to be there, the most plausible explanation is that she took Putin up on his invitation because was an obscure also-ran presidential candidate who was eager for any exposure she could get.
But regardless of how innocent Jill Stein may be in all of this, she sat within earshot of Vladimir Putin and Michael Flynn while they were having dinner together, just two months before Flynn went on to become a Kremlin operative in the Donald Trump campaign. Flynn’s subsequent actions appear to have been felonious. That makes him part of the Russian conspiracy to rig the election. And Jill Stein is a material witness who needs to come forward and share what she knows. Her recent defensive reaction (link). suggests she has something to hide. If she’s clean in all this, it’s time for her to speak up.
