Trump Tracking and Putin's Analysis: FACT CHECK FRIDAY

As President Donald Trump reminded the world this week – that he believes that "fake media" are "the real enemy of the people" – we remind you that this is Fact Check Friday!

The week was dominated by President Trump's highly controversial meeting and press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the political fallout that followed.

But before getting into the facts, we offer some reflections from two American leaders:
"Unfortunately, too much politics today seems to reject the very concept of objective truth: people just do stuff, they invent stuff, we see it in state-sponsored propaganda, we see that. In the fabrications on the internet, we see in the confusion between news and entertainment, we see the total loss of shame among political leaders, where they are caught in a lie and they are content to lie and lie a little more … Politicians have always lied, but usually if you caught them they would be like, "Oh man." Now they just continue to lie. "- President Barack Obama, July 17, 2018, in Johannesburg, South Africa

"What's so interesting in this city is that when someone says something, you never believe it, and I understand that." Why would you believe when he seems that in this city, when someone opens his mouth, we know that they are not telling the truth? "- John Kasich, former Republican governor of Ohio, July 12, 2018, at the National Washington DC Press Club

"What does the server say?"

Standing next to Vladimir Putin, President Trump was directly invited on Monday when he would denounce Russian electoral interference and warn the Russian president to never do it again. Instead of responding directly, Trump embarked on a conspiratorial and wandering response about what he considers to be deficiencies in the intelligence investigation that concluded that Russia, and more particularly Putin himself, are responsible for the electoral interference.

"You have groups who wonder why the FBI never took the server – did not take the server, "said Trump, referring to the computer server of the Democratic National Committee that was infiltrated by the Russians.

"What happened to the Pakistani gentlemen's servers who worked on the DNC? Where are these servers? They are missing where are they?" the president added.

His first statement suggests that the FBI did not have access to all the computer evidence it needed from the DNC, and that in some way, if it was, more would have been learned. It is true that the FBI did not remove the material from the DNC, but the facts are that the FBI had access to copies of the cloud data it needed. Much has been copied (and not from a single server) through a process called Crowdstrike imagery, the cybersecurity firm engaged by the DNC to respond to the intrusion.

Second, the case of the "Pakistani gentleman", also called "Pakistani mysterious man" by Trump and some in the conspiratorial blogosphere right, was settled two weeks ago.

Imran Awan, a former congressional computer scientist (who has never worked for the DNC as Trump falsely claims) was investigated for 18 months by federal prosecutors and eventually pleaded guilty to bank fraud charges, basically for buying office supplies. Federal investigators took the unusual decision to include in his plea agreement that it was not, as suggested by the conspiracy theorists, a Pakistani spy-terrorist hired by Democrats stealing highly sensitive data on Capitol Hill.

Nevertheless, the president suggested that he wanted a deeper dive on these issues before he was ready to blame Putin for his electoral interference.

"I accept the conclusion of our intelligence community"

This brings us to the next fact check: Trump's highly suspicious statement this week that he accepts his community's findings of the information.

After his disastrous press conference with Vladimir Putin on Monday, many Democrats and Republicans were as appalled as the US president said: he did not know why it would have been Russia that ingested ; called Putin's denial "extremely strong and powerful;" Maintained the idea of ​​Putin asking Russian agents to interrogate a former US ambbadador; called the United States "crazy"; and blamed the United States for its bad relations with Russia.

So on Tuesday, he said that he felt compelled to clarify that he agrees with the badessment that Russia has mingled with elections.

But he does not do it. He does not do it clearly.

The statement of "clarification" actually contradicts the results of the intelligence community!

"And I felt very strongly that although Russia's actions had no impact on the outcome of the elections, let me be absolutely clear – and I I have said several times, I accept our intelligence community.Conclusion that Russia's interference in the 2016 elections has occurred.Can be to other people too. "

It was this last line, "could be from other people too."

Leah Millis / Reuters

The problem is, it is not true, according to the intelligence community. As a reminder, the director of national intelligence concluded: "We believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an influential campaign in 2016. Russia's objectives were to undermine public confidence in the US democratic process, denigrating Secretary Clinton and harming We further believe that Putin and the Russian government have shown a strong preference for President-elect Trump and that we have great confidence in these judgments. "

Missed Opportunity

President Trump was not alone at this press conference. Vladimir Putin spoke at his side and referred to a number of his own false and misleading statements – creating a missed opportunity for President Trump to verify it in real time. Here are Putin's claims that Trump might have intervened:

"The Russian State has never interfered and will not interfere in the internal affairs of the United States, including the electoral process. "

The American intelligence community has concluded the opposite.

"Police officers and intelligence services of the United States, which we believe to be – which have something to do with illegal actions on the territory of Russia."

Putin baderted a false claim that US officials had helped a US businessman commit financial crimes in Russia. In reality, Putin is seeking revenge for the Magnitsky law, an American law that punishes Russian officials involved in human rights violations and corruption.

"When President Trump was in Moscow at the time, I did not even know that he was in Moscow."

Putin said that he did not even know that Trump was in Moscow during the Miss Universe contest in 2013, arguing that he would not have been able to collect any compromising information about him. However, Politifact notes that a Trump business badociate testified under oath there were high level discussions about a possible meeting, but that never transpired. It's possible that Putin never knew, but it seems dubious.