New Trump-Russia collusion document is dated one day before Jeff Sessions met with Russian Ambassador
Donald Trump’s Russian election collusion scandal has now focused in on Republican political operative Peter W. Smith, who was attempting to collude with Russian hackers on stolen emails, and who claimed to be well connected to top figures in the Trump campaign. Smith just dropped dead, leaving us with only his paperwork to go on. But here’s a key detail: his Trump-Russia collusion document is dated one day before Trump adviser Jeff Sessions met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Peter Smith claimed that he was working with Trump adviser Michael Flynn, and told other operatives that he would deliver any stolen emails to Flynn, according to the Washington Post (link). Smith also assembled a document which cited other Trump advisers including Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway (link). The date on Smith’s document: September 7th, 2016.
As first pointed out this evening by respected political pundit Caroline Orr (link), the now infamous meeting between Jeff Sessions and Sergey Kislyak in Washington DC – which Sessions conveniently “forgot” about when asked if he’d ever met with the Russians – took place just one day later on September 8th, 2016. Orr has also previously documented a number of key Trump-Russia developments which also took place on that same day (link). If it’s a coincidence that Smith’s collusion document was dated the day before, it’s one hell of a coincidence. Furthermore, one person on the receiving end of Smith’s recruiting pitch says he believes Smith was in fact working with the Trump campaign.
Matt Tait is now revealing in a new Lawfare posting (link) that Peter Smith tried to recruit him as part of his operation, and that he’s one of the sources for the Wall Street Journal’s story. Tait says that he believes Smith was working with the Donald Trump campaign, and that Smith only set up his own LLC in Delaware to give the campaign deniability for his actions. And as Palmer Report pointed out this evening (link), no one involved can get a straight answer on why Smith suddenly dropped dead just a few days after he began talking to reporters.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report