Proof of collusion : how Trump betrayed America

Format:

Book

Title:

Proof of collusion : how Trump betrayed America

Author:

Abramson, Seth, 1976- author

ISBN:

9781982116088

9781471182396

9781471182389

Edition:

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.

Publication:

New York : Simon & Schuster, [2018]

Physical Description:

429 pages ; 25 cm

Contents:

Author's note -- Introduction: A theory of the case -- Russia and the Trumps : 1987 to 2012 -- Trump and the Agalarovs : 2013 -- Kompromat : November 2013 -- The campaign begins : 2013 to 2015 -- The National Security Advisory Committee : January to March 2016 -- The Mayflower Hotel : April 2016 -- The back channels : May to June 2016 -- The Republican National Convention : July 2016 -- The hunt for her emails : July to September 2016 -- The October surprise : October 2016 -- The transition : November 2016 to January 2017 -- The firings of Flynn and Comey : February to May 2017 -- Testimony and plea : June to December 2017 -- A nation in suspense : 2018 -- The death and rebirth of America.

Summary:

"Looking back at this moment in history, historians will ask if Americans knew they were living through the first case of criminal conspiracy between an American presidential candidate turned commander in chief and a geopolitical enemy. The answer might be: it was hard to see the whole picture. The stories coming in from around the globe have often seemed fantastical: clandestine meetings in foreign capitals, secret recordings in a Moscow hotel, Kremlin agents infiltrating the Trump inner circle ..."--Cover.

Personal Subject:

Trump, Donald, 1946-

Trump, Donald, 1946- (OCoLC)fst00174117

Subject(s):

Political campaigns -- Corrupt practices -- United States.

Political corruption -- United States -- History -- 21st century.

United States -- Foreign relations -- Russia (Federation)

Russia (Federation) -- Foreign relations -- United States.

United States -- Politics and government -- 2009-2017.

United States -- Politics and government -- 2017-2021.

Geographic Term:

United States -- Foreign relations -- Russia (Federation)

Russia (Federation) -- Foreign relations -- United States.

United States -- Politics and government -- 2009-2017.

United States -- Politics and government -- 2017-2021.

Russia (Federation)

United States.

Genre:

History.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Salem Main Library	327.73 Abramson 2018	Searching... Unknown
Searching... McMinnville Public Library	327.73 Abramson	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Newberg Public Library	327.73047 ABRAMSON	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

For the first time, the full, explosive record of the unthinkable: how a US president compromised American foreign policy in exchange for financial gain and covert election assistance.

Looking back at this moment, historians will ask if Americans knew they were living through the first case of criminal conspiracy between an American presidential candidate turned commander in chief and a geopolitical enemy. The answer might be: it was hard to see the whole picture. The stories coming in from across the globe have often seemed fantastical: clandestine meetings in foreign capitals, secret recordings in a Moscow hotel, Kremlin agents infiltrating the Trump inner circle...

Seth Abramson has tracked every one of these far-flung reports, and now in, Proof of Collusion , he finally gives us a record of the unthinkable--a president compromising American foreign policy in exchange for financial gain and covert election assistance. The attorney, professor, and former criminal investigator has used his exacting legal mind and forensic acumen to compile, organize, and analyze every piece of the Trump-Russia story. His conclusion is clear: the case for collusion is staring us in the face. Drawing from American and European news outlets, he takes readers through the Trump-Russia scandal chronologically, putting the developments in context and showing how they connect. His extraordinary march through all the public evidence includes:

-How Trump worked for thirty years to expand his real estate empire into Russia even as he was rescued from bankruptcy by Putin's oligarchs, Kremlin agents, and the Russian mafia.

-How Russian intelligence gathered compromising material on him over multiple trips.

-How Trump recruited Russian allies and business partners while running for president.

-How he surrounded himself with advisers who engaged in clandestine negotiations with Russia.

-How Trump aides and family members held secret meetings with foreign agents and lied about them.

By pulling every last thread of this complicated story together, Abramson argues that--even in the absence of a report from Special Counsel Mueller or a thorough Congressional investigation--the public record already confirms a quid pro quo between Trump and the Kremlin. The most extraordinary part of the case for collusion is that so much of it unfolded in plain sight.

Author Notes

Seth Abramson was born on October 31, 1976. He is an investigative journalist, lawyer, editor and professor. He graduated Dartmouth College in 1998 and Harvard Law School in 2001. After graduation he became an assistant professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at University of New Hampshire. His specialities include digital journalism, post-internet writing, and legal advocacy. He has also been a columnist for The Huffington Post, Indiewire, and Poets and Writers. His title's include Bestr American Experimental Writing , Proof of Collusion, Golden Age, and The Poets and Writers Guide to MFA Handbook.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

President Trump and his underlings "conspired with a hostile foreign power to sell... control over America's foreign policy in exchange for financial reward and covert election assistance," argues this scattershot investigation into the Trump-Russia scandal. Drawing mainly on press accounts, CNN legal analyst Abramson (Northerners) constructs a detailed, labyrinthine chronicle of contacts between Trump and his associates on the one hand and Russian officials, oligarchs, and fixers on the other. From this tangle of interactions, Abramson constructs a "theory of the case," inferring that Trump et al. offered to lift U.S. sanctions on Russia and pursue pro-Russian policies in exchange for the Russian government's permitting a Moscow real-estate deal, helping Trump's campaign with hacking and propaganda, or just bribing him. Contrary to the certainty or actionability implied by the book's title, Abramson's repetitive, eye-glazing narrative produces clouds of suspicious dots to connect, but these only occasionally rise to the level of criminal allegations. He reasonably suggests that Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey may constitute obstruction of justice; more dubiously, he asserts that Trump's campaign-trail gibe of "Russia... I hope you're able to find the 30,000 [Clinton] emails" was an illegal solicitation of a campaign contribution. Abramson's exhaustive amassing of published evidence is useful, if hard to wade through, but there's no smoking gun to clinch his claim of having proved anything. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

A former criminal defense attorney and legal analyst sifts through much of the "damning" evidence of Russian ties to Donald Trump, specifically in terms of criminality.Abramson (Digital Journalism, Legal Advocacy, and Cultural Theory/Univ. of New Hampshire; Golden Age, 2017, etc.) uses a two-tiered approach: a summary of evidence and a compilation of news stories that he has linked to his Twitter feed since January 2017. As such, there is much that is overlapping and repetitive as he moves chronologically through the years of Trump and his associates' dealings with Russia, from the 1987 attempts to create a Trump hotel in Moscow and "rigging" of the 2002 Miss Universe pageant to the actions of dozens of the "Trump Team" in creating a "back channel" to funnel National Rifle Association money and Russian support into Trump's incipient presidential campaign. The author minutely examines the many troubling threads to this labyrinthine story. Among them: the alleged kompromat recording of Trump's scandalous meeting with prostitutes in the Ritz-Carlton Moscow suite in 2013; the covert activities of Russian operative Maria Butina to establish a hidden link between the Kremlin and Republican leadership; the establishment of Trump's National Security Advisory Committee in early 2016 (many of whose members had "puzzling contacts with the Russians"), which coerced the GOP to change its platform at the Republican National Convention to ease the anti-Russian stance on Ukraine; and Trump's overt "aiding and abetting" activities in publicly encouraging Russian cyberaggression months after he was officially informed as a presidential candidate that Russians were involved in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee. There are so many bizarre turns to this ongoing saga that Abramson fears the truth will take many years to come to light. Still, he expresses confidence that Robert Mueller's final report will present "an entire landscape of graft Americans can't now contemplate."Spirited, thorough, and thunderously foreboding. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Choice Review

Abramson (writing, Univ. of New Hampshire) at the outset describes his work as one that mainly "aggregates and curates information." The information he assembles derives from a vast array of news articles in some way dealing with whether Russians colluded with Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign. The book assembles a "theory of the case," described as "a narrative that connects all other narratives." Abramson asserts that he is providing "the only theory of the case that answers the question of what's happening in America right now and how we can stop it." What follows is a lengthy compilation of news reports alluding to various suspect interactions between Trump, his campaign, and Russians over the years. The book does assemble a lengthy hypothesis. Convincing verification, however, would entail assembling and disproving rival hypotheses, and that is not accomplished here. A problematic example is the author's acceptance of the much-disputed Steele dossier as credible, because "numerous intelligence sources in England will vouch for [its] credibility." Those concerned about Trump's possible collusion should consult the report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller for a more measured analysis of the matter. Summing Up: Not recommended. --Steven E M Schier, emeritus, Carleton College

Author's Note	p. 1
Introduction: A Theory of the Case	p. 3
Chapter 1 Russia and the Trumps-1987 to 2012	p. 13
Chapter 2 Trump and the Agalarovs-2013	p. 43
Chapter 3 Kompromat-November 2013	p. 69
Chapter 4 The Campaign Begins-2013 to 2015	p. 80
Chapter 5 The National Security Advisory Committee-January to March 2016	p. 102
Chapter 6 The Mayflower Hotel-April 2016	p. 124
Chapter 7 The Back Channels-May to June 2016	p. 139
Chapter 8 The Republican National Convention-July 2016	p. 162
Chapter 9 The Hunt for Her Emails-July to September 2016	p. 178
Chapter 10 The October Surprise-October 2016	p. 193
Chapter 11 The Transition-November 2016 to January 2017	p. 218
Chapter 12 The Firings of Flynn and Comey-February to May 2017	p. 244
Chapter 13 Testimony and Plea-June to December 2017	p. 261
Chapter 14 A Nation in Suspense-2018	p. 287
Afterword The Death and Rebirth of America	p. 313
Acknowledgments	p. 321
Notes	p. 323

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Choice Review

Table of Contents