Proof of Collusion

How Trump Betrayed America

Seth Abramson

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781982116101
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: American Government
• Index: Politics & International Relations

For the first time, the full, explosive record of the unthinkable: how a US president compromised American foreign policy in exchange for the promise of future business and covert election assistance. 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... 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 the promise of future business 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 and Kremlin agents. —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 Congressional investigation or a report from Special Counsel Mueller—the public record already indicates 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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Author’s Note
• Introduction: A Theory of the Case
• Chapter One: Russia and the Trumps—1987 to 2012
• Chapter Two: Trump and the Agalarovs—2013
• Chapter Three: Kompromat—November 2013
• Chapter Four: The Campaign Begins—2013 to 2015
• Chapter Five: The National Security Advisory Committee—January to March 2016
• Chapter Six: The Mayflower Hotel—April 2016
• Chapter Seven: The Back Channels—May to June 2016
• Chapter Eight: The Republican National Convention—July 2016
• Chapter Nine: The Hunt for Her Emails—July to September 2016
• Chapter Ten: The October Surprise—October 2016
• Chapter Eleven: The Transition—November 2016 to January 2017
• Chapter Twelve: The Firings of Flynn and Comey—February to May 2017
• Chapter Thirteen: Testimony and Plea—June to December 2017
• Chapter Fourteen: A Nation in Suspense—2018
• Afterword: The Death and Rebirth of America
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Notes
• Copyright