During the weekend of August 27, 2016, Smith meets with “several groups of hackers” at a suburban Washington hotel, only two of which (out of five) he identifies as Russian; he is just eleven days from producing documentation claiming that his efforts to find Clinton’s emails are known to top Trump advisers Mike Flynn, Steve Bannon, Sam Clovis, and Kellyanne Conway—all of whom, per Smith, he is “coordinat[ing] [with] to the extent permitted as an independent expenditure.”97 According to the Wall Street Journal, Smith’s Washington meetings occur at a time when he “and his associates” say they
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