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Good morning. I'm James Holman from the Washington Post and this is the Daily 202 for Tuesday, July 17th.

In today's news, a Russian national is charged with infiltrating the conservative movement

to push the Kremlin's agenda. President Trump is considering restarting peace talks

with the Taliban. In Sinclair Broadcasting's bid to create a conservative television juggernaut hits a snag.

But first, the big idea. Trump ignored advisors in embracing Putin.

Ahead of his summit on Monday and Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin,

staffers provided President Trump with some 100 pages of briefing

materials aimed at laying out a tough posture toward Putin.

He ignored most of it. As one person familiar with the discussions told my colleagues who are traveling in Finland,

Trump's remarks were very much counter to the plan.

Everyone around Trump was urging him to take a firm stance with Putin.

Before Monday's meeting, advisors covered matters from Russia's annexation of Crimea

to its interference in the U.S. elections, but Trump made a game time decision to handle things

his way. The result is what's being universally covered is a triumph for the

Kremlin. At a news conference, Trump said he gave the same weight to Putin's denial

that Russia assaulted U.S. democracy as he does to the U.S. intelligence communities

certainty that he did.

All I can do is ask the question.

My people came to me, Dan Coates came to me and some others.

They said they think it's Russia.

...