Michael Isikoff

I found myself a little reluctant to begin Isikoff and Corn's book, "Russian Roulette", having already been inundated by endless news reports and Presidential Tweets dealing with links between Trump associates and the Kremlin and Russian interference in the 2016 election. But I hoped that these two veteran Washington reporters would be able to clarify the matter after examining the numerous conflicting claims and counter claims made by the White House and those tasked with examining these matters.

Isikoff and Corn seemed able to sort out most of the details about the Russian story, although the investigation continues to this day, and until the Muller investigation concludes, we still may not know all the answers. We have seen several Trump associates like Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos indicted or convicted of related crimes. Michael Flynn reportedly hid his talks with Russia's ambassador to Washington, Paul Manafort was accused of illegal lobbying actions on the behalf of Ukraine, Rick Gates was charged with conspiracy against the United States, and George Papadopoulos was sentenced for lying to the FBI about his relationships with foreign nationals with connections to senior Russian government officials. Papadopoulos also reportedly tried to set up meetings between Russian and Trump campaign officials on various occasions. Additionally, a number of Russian individuals and officials have been indicted by the Muller team for interfering in the 2016 election. So some of the charges related to this matter as reported in the Media ring true.

Isikoff and Corn detail some of the reasons the Russians may have wanted to hack the Democratic Party information, some of the many individuals in the Trump circle investigated and indicted, and the probable impact of the Russian meddling. They also discuss the weaknesses in the Hillary Clinton campaign, the cloud of her private email server, and the impact of the 11th-hour Comey announcement of re-opening the FBI investigation of her emails just before the election and as news broke of Trumps "pussy-grabbing" of women. This book was probably as complete and thorough as possible as of the time it was written, and does put a lot of the issues to bed.… (mere)

A comprehensive look at what happened between the U.S. and Russia, and between Donald Trump and his associates and the Russian government, over the last few years--roughly from the period of "reset" in U.S.-Russia relations during the Obama presidency, when Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State until the early days of the Trump administration. I didn't quite "read" this book, but rather listened to it on CD. In this case, there might be a distinction between the two, as listening to it, with all the Russian names and factual details, you miss a lot. I often thought how a certain passage or chapter would have to be read slowly if I was going actually to absorb it as I wanted to.

Somewhat surprising to me was the lack of certainty in the authors' treatment of Trump's alleged "collusion" with Russia. Both journalists, Isikoff and Corn go only so far as their evidence takes them, and they concede there is much that we cannot know with available information. If you're interested in bringing yourself up to date about what has happened with the Russia story and what is still to be learned, this would be a good book to pick up.… (mere)

It's exhausting... trying to keep up with the day-to-day insanity of the Trump-Russia revelations. Isikoff and Corn's book is a useful, if also exhausting, refresher course in the early days of this mess. There are details, especially from the two months prior to the election, that are easy to have forgotten, and some that were never really publicized all that much. The question remains: when (and how) will this end, and how (and when) will we repair the damage and build a more just society? (Brian)… (mere)