Among the latest round of bad news for the Trumps—particularly Donald Trump Jr.—was the revelation Friday by Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who met with Trump Jr. and others at Trump Tower in June 2016, that she is in fact a Russian spy. Now, the president has started gaslighting his base with a new claim in an effort to obfuscate. Vladimir Putin, Trump says, is behind Veselnitskaya’s spy confession and the recent leaking of her emails because Trump has been so tough on Russia.

The man who so clearly has been in Putin’s pocket—and who did everything he could to delay Russian sanctions—now wants the world to believe the two are bitter rivals. Only in Trumpland does this degree of twisting of the facts make any sense.

During a meandering, off–script, 80–minute speech that included all of the typical Trump vitriol, the president addressed the Veselnitskaya revelations by saying:

I guarantee you, I’m tougher on Russia, nobody ever thought. In fact, have you heard about the lawyer? For a year, a woman lawyer, she was like, ‘Oh, I know nothing.’ Now all of a sudden she supposedly is involved with government. You know why? If she did that, because Putin and the group said, ‘You know, this Trump is killing us. Why don’t you say that you’re involved with government so that we can go and make their life in the United States even more chaotic.’ Look at what’s happened. Look at how these politicians have fallen for this junk. Russian collusion—give me a break.

So, according to Trump’s logic, the lawyer who wasn’t involved with Putin when she met with Trump’s son then conspired with Putin to concoct a fake confession that she actually does work for Putin. But in reality, she doesn’t work for Putin. Got it.

Putin critic Bill Browder had a better explanation last Friday when he told CNN that Veselnitskaya is “an agent of the Russian government. She’s an agent of Vladimir Putin, and when she went to Trump Tower, she went there on behalf of Vladimir Putin.”

That makes a little more sense.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3964991&forum_id=2#35957038)

Do you mind sharing your theory on why this meeting took place? Was it actually to provide dirt on HRC?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3964991&forum_id=2#35957406)

The meeting was about sanctions against Russian oligarchs. She represents a number of such oligarchs. In fact, she was in MFH that day because she had been admitted pro hac vice for a hearing in the SDNY in a money laundering case against said oligarchs. Do you think that is more likely than what you suggest: that the meeting was a pretextual setup to gain evidence against Trump and that she’s lying about being an FSB lawyer because Putin has told her to put the plan in action and punish Trump for his purportedly anti-Russian measures?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3964991&forum_id=2#35957446)

I'm not sure how any of this implicates Trump much unless we see evidence of quid pro quo, but this is all very gamer gate to me. It does seem well designed to harm Trump politically, though.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3964991&forum_id=2#35957554)

do you actually believed that our intelligence agencies were not aware she was a spy? Are you under the impression that our intelligence agencies prohibit Russian spies from entering the country?

“It does seem well designed to harm Trump politically, though.”

So you do think Trump was correct that this lawyer is pretending to be a Russian agent because Putin instructed her to damage Trump?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3964991&forum_id=2#35957619)

Still not sure what the big deal is.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3964991&forum_id=2#35957921)