SUMMARY: Since February, Russia has been handing Iran the locations of American troops and bases, and U.S. officials concluded that intelligence put Iranian missiles on target at Prince Sultan Air Base, where 12 Americans were wounded. Trump’s answer has been sanctions relief for Moscow and a story about Russia’s role that keeps shrinking every time he opens his mouth. On October 16, two days before the deadline in the sanctions law he signed, he waived its core penalties and shielded the buyers of Russian oil and gas from tariffs of up to 100 percent. That keeps Putin’s oil money flowing straight into the war machine pounding Ukraine, and it hands Moscow more leverage at the peace table with every barrel sold. Every one of those choices puts Russia’s interests ahead of American troops, ahead of Ukraine, and ahead of every ally counting on the United States to stand up to Putin. If Trump keeps protecting the country that’s helping Iran aim at our troops, and keeps siding with Putin over Ukraine every time the bill comes due, whose side is he on?
In March, Iranian missiles slammed into Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, wounding twelve American troops and damaging an E-3 AWACS radar plane, the flying radar station our commanders count on to track every aircraft and missile moving through the skies around them. Two days before that strike, fourteen Russian spy satellites passed over the base. U.S. officials later concluded that Moscow’s information made the precision attack possible.
As a lawyer I know what a case looks like when the evidence lines up and the defendant keeps changing his story, and this is one of those cases. Russia is helping Iran find and hit American forces and Trump keeps looking the other way.
Let me lay it out for you the way I would lay it out for a jury.
The Two Charges
The first charge is that since the war began on February 28, 2026, Russia has fed Iran the locations of American troops, warships, aircraft, and radar sites, mostly through satellite photos that Iran uses before a strike to choose its targets and after a strike to grade how much damage it did.
The second charge is that Trump knows about it and doesn’t do anything about it. To make matters worse, he keeps easing the economic pressure on Russia, most recently by waiving the heart of the Russia sanctions law that Congress passed and he signed in September.
Both charges stick.
How We Know Russia Is Watching Our Bases
The story broke on March 6, when three officials familiar with the intelligence told the Washington Post that Russia had been passing Iran the locations of American warships and aircraft since the opening day of the war. Within hours, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and Radio Free Europe confirmed it with their own sources. CNN reported that much of the material came from Russia’s own satellites.
Then look at where Iran’s missiles landed. Analysts said the strikes kept hitting command centers, radar sites, temporary buildings, and the Kuwait facility where six American service members died. Dara Massicot, a Russia specialist at the Carnegie Endowment, said the precision of the targeting itself pointed to outside help.
That matters, because officials said Iran’s own ability to spot American forces had already been knocked down in the first week of fighting. Iran owns only a small fleet of satellites. One Iranian satellite has no way to circle back often enough to follow American forces spread across several countries. Russia’s radar satellites see through clouds and darkness, and Iran has nothing like them. Somebody was giving Iran a much better pair of eyes.
Think of Russia as the spotter in a murder for hire, where one person gets paid to kill and another helps him find the target. The spotter follows the person of interest for days, texts the killer the exact address and the hour the target walks out the door, then drives past afterward to confirm the victim is dead. In California where I practice law, the man who sets up a killing and the man who pulls the trigger face the same murder charge.
In April, Reuters reported a Ukrainian intelligence assessment that counted at least 24 Russian satellite surveys in ten days at the end of March. Those surveys covered 46 sites spread across 11 countries in the Middle East. A Western military source and a regional security source told Reuters that their own intelligence matched what Ukraine found. Ukraine also found that Iranian missiles and drones struck those sites within days of a Russian pass.
America’s allies went on the record. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said publicly at the G7 meeting on March 26 that Russia was helping Iran target and kill Americans, and UK Defence Secretary John Healey said much the same.
Our own officials confirmed it under oath in careful, lawyered language. CIA Director John Ratcliffe told the Senate in March that Iran was asking Russia for intelligence, then moved the rest of his answer into a classified session. In July, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told senators there is definitely adversary alignment.
Here you have six major newsrooms, two allied governments, a matching strike pattern, and satellite records confirmed by Western sources, all pointing in one direction. The facts and law hand Trump everything he needs to drop the hammer on Moscow and squeeze Putin until he stops helping Iran and pulls Russian troops out of Ukraine. Instead, Trump set the hammer down, took a knee, and kissed Putin’s ring.
Trump’s Story Keeps Changing
Now watch how Trump’s story, and his administration’s story, move over seven months.
On March 7, the day after the Post report, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that if Iran was getting information, “it’s not helping them much.” When a reporter asked how it affected America’s relationship with Russia, he answered that Moscow would say America does the same thing to them.
Later that month, in a radio interview, he admitted Putin might be helping Iran “a little bit.”
On March 10, his envoy Steve Witkoff said Putin denied it and that America should take Russia at its word.
In July, days after Hegseth described adversary alignment to the Senate, Trump said Russia and China were not helping Iran. He called one reporter’s question on the subject stupid. On July 27, he said he would ask Putin about it directly.
On October 12, he wrote on Truth Social that any help was minimal and that he did not believe Russia and China were helping at all. On October 18, he wrote that Russia does little for Iran compared to what it is capable of doing.
Put that witness on the stand and you have a man who slid from a little bit all the way down to not at all over seven months without once claiming the intelligence was false, as his own Defense Secretary and CIA Director told the Senate something else entirely. Juries notice that. Americans need to notice this too.
Follow the Money
Words are cheap. The money tells the rest of the story.
Days after the first reports in March, the Treasury Department issued 30-day waivers that let sanctioned Russian oil already sitting on tankers reach buyers, including refiners in India. Senate Democrats said the relief helped hand Moscow a windfall of about $150 million a day. Senator Ruben Gallego and Representative Sam Liccardo wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and called the waiver “an inexplicable act of material benefit to the enemy.”
In September, Congress passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act by a Senate vote of 86 to 11. The law authorizes tariffs of up to 500 percent on Russian goods and secondary tariffs of up to 100 percent on the biggest buyers of Russian oil and gas. It also requires sanctions on major parts of Russia’s economy. Trump signed it, and the first mandatory deadline landed on October 18.
On October 9, Trump announced a diesel deal with Putin, and the Treasury issued a license to move Russian diesel. A bipartisan group of twelve senators called the deal a betrayal of the people of Ukraine.
On October 16, two days before the law’s first deadline, Trump signed an executive order waiving its key sanctions and tariffs.
Think of a prosecutor who files charges against the spotter in the murder for hire I referenced earlier, then quietly drops the case two days before trial, with the spotter still out there tailing the next victim and texting the killer where to find him. No court in America would tolerate that.
What This Looks Like
You do not need a secret deal to prove this charge, and I am not claiming one. No public evidence shows the waivers were traded for anything. The case rests on something simpler and harder to escape. Trump holds every tool Congress gave him, and he keeps setting those tools down.
Look at what the administration already knows. In March, Politico reported that Putin’s envoy offered to stop the flow of intelligence to Iran if Washington cut off the intelligence it gives Ukraine. The United States said no, and it was right to refuse. That offer, to anyone who has sat across a negotiating table, gives away the whole game. Moscow does not offer to shut off a pipeline that does not exist, and Washington does not turn down an offer about a pipeline it has never heard of.
Now read the President’s own explanation for the October waiver, because in it he wrote that Russia does little for Iran compared to what it is capable of doing, which in plain English means that if you punish Moscow, Moscow might help Iran more. That hands Russia a lever. The more damage Moscow is able to do to American troops, the less Washington will hold Russia accountable for its war on Ukraine. The danger to our service members becomes the excuse for going easy on the country supplying the targeting data.
Pressure is what the law demands, and pressure is what Trump has chosen to hold back. So the law sits on a shelf, and Russia keeps its oil money, its seat in Iran’s war room and its troops in Ukraine.
Your Move Before Mid-December
Rubio’s 60-day review lands in mid-December, and that window belongs to you.
Make the call. Phone your senator and your House member this week, ask them to declassify the intelligence on Russian targeting help so you and every other voter in this country get to judge it with your own eyes, and ask them to enforce the Graham Act exactly as Congress wrote it. Here’s the number: (202) 224-3121.
American troops are sleeping tonight on bases that Russian satellites are photographing for Iran.
That is unacceptable.
Every one of our soldiers deserves a commander in chief who protects them and makes Russia pay for putting a target on their backs.
Mitch Jackson, Esq.
Related:
Someone Throttled Ukraine’s Drones Mid-War, and Washington Won’t Say Who
Trump Lifted Sanctions on the Enemy, Sold Out Ukraine, and Is Aiding and Abetting Putin’s War
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Treason!!😡😡💙💙
Let me correct, iran is counter attacking a US aggression and puppet *rump it's rewarding dictator putler for it. US troops are targeted by warmongers and kremlin.