was Moscow’s cultivation of American secessionists in places like Texas and California, though this was less an influence or lobbying campaign and more simply a matter of sowing chaos in the United States—and potentially fracturing the United States outright. This, unexpectedly, was how I initially uncovered the social media prong of Russian interference efforts—including a grammatically challenged post that read, memorably, “IN LOVE WITH TEXAS SHAPE.” See Casey Michel, “How the Russians Pretended to Be Texas—and Texans Believed Them,” Washington Post, October 17, 2017.
6. One area the Mueller Report overlooked, for instance, was how the Kremlin was firmly embedded in leading nonprofit organizations among America’s so-called Religious Right. One organization in particular, the US-based World Congress of Families (WCF), offered entrée for a range of pro-Kremlin oligarchs and their proxies—and allowed them to directly access, and lobby, American politicians and allies within the Religious Right. As Alexey Komov, the Russian representative for the WCF—which has accepted funding from multiple now-sanctioned Russian oligarchs—told me, “We’re often shown as a strange people like we’re homophobic fascists or something.” Given the Kremlin’s recent manifestation, “homophobic fascist” remains an apt description. See Casey Michel, “How Russia Became the Leader of the Global Christian Right,” Politico Magazine, February 9, 2017.
7. Unsurprisingly, cultivation of evangelical organizations and groups like the NRA carried significant overlap. For instance, Russian agent Maria Butina originally connected with the NRA because of a Tennessee lawyer named Kline Preston. When I spoke with Preston, he revealed that he believed Putin was, quite literally, a gift from God. “I think there are certain people throughout history … who have been placed on this planet, once about every five hundred years, who are difference-makers, without whom things would be much different and worse,” Preston told me. “In the history of our nation, I believe firmly that George Washington was one of those people. Had he not lived, this would be a totally different scenario. There are two people in Russian history in the last days that I believe were God-sent. One was Boris Yeltsin, and one was Vladimir Putin. And the reason I say Yeltsin … he was the guy that anointed Putin, and, man, that was a world-changer right there. Him. Yeltsin did it. And from whence it came, I can only think, you know, that it was divine.”
8. Casey Michel, “Tom Barrack Suggests Trump’s White House Was Even More Vulnerable than We Thought,” NBC News, July 25, 2021.
9. Sharon LaFraniere and William K. Rashbaum, “Thomas Barrack, Trump Fund-Raiser, Is Indicted on a Lobbying Charge,” New York Times, July 20, 2021.
10. U.S. Department of Justice, “Former Advisor to Presidential Candidate Among Three Defendants Charged with Acting as Agents of a Foreign Government,” press release, July 20, 2021.
11. U.S. v Rashid Sultan Rashid Al Malik Alshahhi et al., Indictment, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, Case No. 1:21-cr-00371, July 15, 2021, https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1413381/download.
12. Tom Winter and Dareh Gregorian, “Tom Barrack, Former Trump Inaugural Chair, Released on $250 Million Bond,” NBC News, July 23, 2021.
13. Michel, “Tom Barrack Suggests.”
14. Rebecca Davis O’Brien, “Trump Adviser’s Trial May Shed Light on Foreign Influence Campaigns,” New York Times, September 17, 2022.
15. Debra J. Saunders, “Steve Wynn Named RNC Finance Chairman,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, January 30, 2017.
16. Isaac Stanley-Becker and Spencer S. Hsu, “U.S. Sues to Compel Casino Mogul Steve Wynn to Register as Agent of China,” Washington Post, May 17, 2022.
17. Attorney General of United States of America v. Stephen A. Wynn, Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Civil Action No. 22-1372, May 17, 2022, https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1506786/download.
18. U.S. Department of Justice, “Elliott Broidy Pleads Guilty for Back-Channel Lobbying Campaign to Drop 1MDB Investigation and Remove a Chinese Foreign National,” press release, October 20, 2020.
19. Spencer S. Hsu, “Major RNC, Trump Fundraiser Elliott Broidy Pleads Guilty to Acting as Unregistered Foreign Agent,” Washington Post, October 20, 2020.
20. Attorney General of United States of America v. Stephen A. Wynn, Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief.
21. Mark Hosenball, “Trump Ex-Fundraiser Elliott Broidy Pleads Guilty in 1MDB Foreign Lobbying Case,” Reuters, October 20, 2020.
22. Attorney General of United States of America v. Stephen A. Wynn, Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief.
23. Ken Dilanian, “Russians Paid Mike Flynn $45K for Moscow Speech, Documents Show,” NBC News, March 16, 2017.
24. Carol E. Lee, “Mueller Gives New Details on Flynn’s Secretive Work for Turkey,” NBC News, December 5, 2018.
25. Isaac Arnsdorf, “Trump’s New Spy Chief Used to Work for a Foreign Politician the U.S. Accused of Corruption,” ProPublica, February 21, 2020.
26. U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Treasury Targets Corruption and the Kremlin’s Malign Influence Operations in Moldova,” press release, October 26, 2022.
27. Arnsdorf, “Trump’s New Spy Chief.”
28. Casey Michel, “The Law That Could Take Down Rudy Giuliani,” New Republic, October 15, 2019.
29. Jo Becker, Maggie Haberman, and Eric Lipton, “Giuliani Pressed for Turkish Prisoner Swap in Oval Office Meeting,” New York Times, October 10, 2019.
30. Aram Roston, Matt Spetalnick, and Brian Ellsworth, “Exclusive: Giuliani Told U.S. His Client Deserves Leniency for Financing Venezuela’s Opposition—Parnas,” Reuters, January 22, 2020.
31. Casey Michel, “The Kleptocrat Who Bankrolled Rudy Giuliani’s Drive for Dirt on Biden,” New Republic, August 4, 2022. Firtash is currently fighting extradition to the United States.
32. Nick Penzenstadler, Steve Reilly, and John Kelly, “Most Trump Real Estate Now Sold to Secretive Buyers,” USA Today, June 13, 2017.
33. Craig Unger, “Trump’s Russian Laundromat,” New Republic, July 13, 2017.
34. Richard C. Paddock and Eric Lipton, “Trump’s Indonesia Projects, Still Moving Ahead, Create Potential Conflicts,” New York Times, December 31, 2016.
35. “Trump’s Luxury Condo: A Congolese State Affair,” Global Witness, April 10, 2019.
36. Luke Broadwater and Eric Lipton, “Documents Detail Foreign Government Spending at Trump Hotel,” New York Times, November 14, 2022.
37. Details of Malaysian government expenditures at Trump International Hotel, Washington, DC, for September 10–19, 2017,
