Remember that time CNN sent a reporter to St. Petersburg to dig through dumpsters for evidence of Trump-Russia collusion? And then that time a few weeks ago when they accosted a random elderly Florida woman for sharing a Russia-linked post on her Facebook page?
This week, CNN went all the way to Thailand to meet with a jailed prostitute who claims to have proof that Trump colluded with top Russian officials to rig the 2016 presidential election, which she says she’ll release – if the U.S. gives her asylum.
And honestly, I feel stupider for having even typed that sentence. But it’s a thing that actually happened.
CNN correspondent Ivan Watson went all the way to Bangkok to meet with 21-year-old Anastasia Vashukevich, a self- described “sex coach” who’s been thrown in jail by Thai authorities for…um…“working” without a license, to put it delicately.
Now, to keep from being booted back to Russia upon her release, Vashukevich is claiming she’s got dirt on Trump and the whole Russian election meddling affair (which, apparently, has fallen so far from reality that actual news reporters are relying on unproven hear-say from sex workers in Thai prisons to make that narrative work).
Here's part of CNN’s actual, honest-to-God “report” that somehow made it on air.
“She described herself as a seductress," Watson's "report" begins.
"This woman claims to have evidence of Russian meddling in the U.S. election. The question, is this a desperate ploy to get out of jail, or as her friend claims, is this young woman truly in danger because she knows too much?” Watson explained.
"For days several Russian friends have been held at this jail in the capital of Thailand where visitors are not allowed to bring cameras,” he continued. “I came out of this detention center. It was loud and hot and chaotic and talking through the bars she says she witnessed meetings between the Russian billionaire [Oleg Deripaska] and three Americans who she refused to name. She claims they discussed plans to effect the U.S. elections but she wouldn’t give any further information because she fears she could be deported back to Russia."
Vashukevich says she was formerly mistress to Deripaska, a billionaire in the aluminum business and former business associate of ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. CNN claims Vashukevich may be telling the truth, by the way, because the network dug up an old photograph of her with the billionaire from a while back.
Deripaska denys that Vashukevich was ever his mistress.
According to CNN, Vashukevich also claims to possess tapes that hold proof of Russian government crimes – but says she’ll only cough them up, of course, if the U.S. keeps her from being deported back to Russia once she’s released.
Even CNN seems to realize on some small level that this whole thing is reaching new levels of insane – but it’s cool, the network says, because the hooker once wrote a book:
The claims made by Vashukevich and [her business associate] Kirillov might not normally hold much water. Both describe themselves as free sex advocates whose Instagram feeds are full of scantily clad photos of themselves cavorting with other half-naked young women.
But allegations and revelations of an affair Vashukevich made in her book "Diary of the Seduction of a Billionaire" gained traction thanks to an investigation by the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
And there you have it.
CNN is literally interviewing imprisoned hookers to prove Trump colluded with Russia.