"This is huge": James O'Brien hears proof on Trump's collusion with Russia
19 August 2020, 15:11 | Updated: 19 August 2020, 15:16
Donald Trump insists there was "no collusion" with Russia, but a report yesterday said the opposite. Luke Harding told a story that James O'Brien said should "blow the lids off everything".
A Senate report into the links between the President and the Kremlin showed what was, to all intents and purposes, "a Russian spy at the heart of the Trump campaign".
Luke Harding has written a number of books about Russia and told James the key points of the 1,000-page report that went further that the much-vaunted Mueller report.
Speaking on LBC, he said: "One thing we learned as fact is that this Russian operative called Konstantin Kilimnik, who was talking to Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager throughout 2016, is outed as as a career Russian intelligence officer working for the GRU, the same outfit which tried to murder Sergei Skripal in Salisbury two years ago.
"They concealed all of their communications. They used burner phones, single-shot email accounts. They lied about it afterwards.
"For people who are skeptical about collusion, it's hard to think of what other word you might use for their relationship. Basically, there was a Russian spy at the heart of the Trump campaign.
"The other thing I thought was really interesting was we learned what goes on at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Moscow.
"Trump famously stayed there for the Miss Universe beauty pageant. And the dossier by Christopher Steele, which Trump says is fake and false and phoney, says that he was compromised there and videoed.
"What the Senate committee tells us is that indeed the Russians do have secret video in guests' bedrooms. They have a full-time career intelligence officer who checks who comes and who goes and watches all this stuff from a feed in his office.
"All in all, it's pretty damaging for Donald Trump. He's been saying 'No collusion, I'm vindicated'. Actually this report says exactly the opposite."
The full conversation is fascinating - watch in full at the top of the page.
