Forget conspiracy theories. This is why Trump’s Russian connection is actually a problem.
In the past 12 hours, a flurry of stories have come out on Donald Trumps links to Russia. One such story, at Slate, suggests that a server owned by Trump has been communicating with a Russian bank with ties to the Kremlin. Another, at Mother Jones, quotes an unnamed former intelligence officer claiming that Trump is a Russian operative, one who has been "compromised" by Moscow "for at least 5 years."
These stories are overblown, for reasons my colleagues Matt Yglesias and Timothy Lee explain rather well. Cybersecurity experts believe the server in question is most likely sending spam emails from Trump hotels, not secret missives to Russian handlers, and the FBI has found no credible evidence that Trump has direct ties to Russian intelligence.
The problem with these stories isnt just that theyre speculative. Its that they obscure and even discredit the more sober evidence about Trumps troubling attitude toward the Russian state.
There is basically conclusive evidence that Russia is interfering in the US election, and that this interference has been designed to damage Hillary Clintons campaign. There is strong evidence linking Trumps foreign policy advisers to Russia, and Trumps stated policy ideas are extremely favorable to Russian interests.
You dont need to construct poorly evidenced conspiracy theories to explain this. There is a confluence of interests between the Kremlin and Donald Trump, and they are, in effect, helping each other. Russias role in the election is plenty worrying without positing any Manchurian Candidate plots. Heres why.
We know that Russia is hacking Clinton allies and dumping their info to WikiLeaks
There used to be some doubt as to whether Russia was behind the hacking of various people and organizations close to Hillary Clinton and the dump of their private emails to WikiLeaks.
No longer. The evidence that Russia is behind the two most significant hacks, of the Democratic National Committee and top Clinton aide John Podesta, is beyond any reasonable doubt.
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http://www.vox.com/world/2016/11/1/13487322/donald-trump-russia-agent-hack