Tag: 2016 Trump campaign

White House Lied About Having No Contacts With Russia

Trump and his White House repeatedly denied that there were any contacts between members of the Trump campaign and Russia. They were lying — now we know Russians interacted with at least 16 Trump associates during the campaign and transition.

Trump denied any campaign contact with Russia, “with a firm ‘no.’”

Jim Acosta: “Fortunately ABC’s Cecilia Vega asked my question about whether any Trump associates contacted Russians. Trump said no.”

Cecilia Vega: “?? @DavidGroff you must have missed the part of my reporting that said trump came back and answered my first question with a firm ‘no.’”

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Prosecutors recommend ‘substantial’ prison time for ex-Trump lawyer Cohen

Federal prosecutors in New York on Friday recommended that Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney, receive “substantial” prison time for several federal crimes, despite his cooperation with ongoing law enforcement investigations, including special counsel Robert Mueller‘s Russia probe.

In a filing late Friday afternoon, prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York recognized Cohen’s cooperation with law enforcement in “ongoing matters” but argued the seriousness of his crimes warrant a “substantial term of imprisonment.”

The filing also cites Cohen’s decision not to become a traditional cooperating witness with federal authorities in New York, despite offering assistance in numerous ongoing investigations.

View the complete December 7 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

Key Takeaways from the Manafort Filing

Here are key takeaways from Mueller’s Manafort filing tonight:

REMAINED IN CONTACT WITH SENIOR TRUMP OFFICIALS: Manafort lied about not having contact with anyone in the Trump administration, and actually remained in contact with at least one “senior” official into this year.

Mueller: “For instance, in a text exchange from May 26, 2018, Manafort authorized a person to speak with an Administration official on Manafort’s behalf. Separately, according to another Manafort colleague, Manafort said in February 2018 that Manafort had been in communication with a senior Administration official up through February 2018. A review of documents recovered from a search of Manafort’s electronic documents demonstrates additional contacts with Administration officials.”

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Key Takeaways from the Cohen Filings

Here are key takeaways from the sentencing memos filed by Mueller and SDNY prosecutors tonight:

MORE EVIDENCE OF RUSSIA CONTACTS: Cohen told Mueller’s office about at least two additional contacts he had on Trump’s behalf with people close to the Russian government.

Mueller: “For example, and as described above, the defendant provided a detailed account of his involvement and the involvement of others in the Moscow Project, and also corrected the record concerning his outreach to the Russian government during the week of the United Nations General Assembly.”

Mueller: “The defendant also provided information about attempts by other Russian nationals to reach the campaign. For example, in or around November 2015, Cohen received the contact information for, and spoke with, a Russian national who claimed to be a ‘trusted person’ in the Russian Federation who could offer the campaign ‘political synergy’ and ‘synergy on a government level.’”

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The president’s misleading statements on Trump Tower Moscow: A timeline

Donald Trump defends himself from possible conflicts of interest with foreign governments. (The Washington Post)

“Well I told you, General Flynn obviously was dealing [with Russia]. So that’s one person. But he was dealing, as he should have been. . . . Russia is a ruse. I have nothing to do with Russia. Haven’t made a phone call to Russia in years. Don’t speak to people from Russia. I have nothing to do with Russia. To the best of my knowledge, no person that I deal with does.”

— President Trump, in a news conference, on Feb. 16, 2017

President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about his efforts to secure a real estate deal in Moscow for the Trump Organization in 2015 and 2016, while his boss was campaigning for president.

For three decades, Trump had angled to strike a real estate deal in Moscow, but he could never cinch it, even after his Miss Universe pageant was held in Moscow in 2013. In a recent court filing, prosecutors laid out extensive contact on a possible deal through 2016 between Cohen, then an executive vice president of the Trump Organization, Felix Sater, a Russian-born businessman with a checkered past, and numerous Russian nationals, including the press secretary for the president of Russia.

View the complete December 3 article by Meg Kelly on The Washington Post website here.

Mueller’s probe has produced a rogues’ gallery of liars

Two stunning developments in the special counsel’s investigation shed light on investigators’ focus on President Trump as a main subject of interest. (Video: Jenny Starrs /Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

As special counsel Robert S. Mueller III moves toward the summation of his investigation — and whatever his eventual report produces — there is no escaping the sleaze factor that existed around President Trump before and during his campaign for the White House in 2016.

It was there in the presence of Paul Manafort, who arrived at the campaign in the spring of 2016 and lasted until embarrassing and continued disclosures about his past work with pro-Russian officials in Ukraine forced him to step aside, and whose recent plea agreement was tossed outthis past week because prosecutors say he has continued to lie to them.

It was there in the presence of Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal lawyer and fixer, who did the deals and arranged the payoffs that were designed to suppress damaging allegations about Trump and other women during the final months of the campaign and whose new guilty plea about lying to Congress has put renewed focus on the president’s words and actions.

View the complete December 1 article by Dan Balz on The Washington Post website here.

Scuttled Trump Tower Moscow project back in limelight after Cohen guilty plea

Trump associate and convicted felon Felix Sater told NBC News that he discussed a plan with Cohen to give a penthouse in the proposed Moscow skyscraper to Putin.

For years, President Donald Trump flirted with the idea of opening a massive, Trump-branded skyscraper in Moscow.

After holding his Miss Universe pageant there in 2013, Trump tagged Russian billionaire developer Aras Agalarov in a tweet and promised that “Trump Tower-Moscow” was next.

The project never came to be. But the Trump Organization’s attempts to get a deal green-lit caught the attention of congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.

View the complete November 29 article by Ken Dilanian and Allan Smith on the NBCNews.com website here.

The lies that Mueller has already documented

Former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel probing Russian interference in the 2016 election Credit: Andrew Harnik, AP

To date, the investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible coordination with President Trump’s campaign has resulted in criminal charges against 33 individuals and three companies. Of those 33 individuals, six are U.S. nationals, 25 are Russian, one is Ukrainian and one is Dutch. Of the six U.S. nationals, five had some direct association with Trump’s campaign — with the addition on Thursday of Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen.

All five have admitted criminal liability in some form or another. All five — Cohen, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates, former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and former campaign adviser and national security adviser Michael Flynn — have agreed to cooperate with the Mueller probe to some extent. Four are awaiting sentencing. One is currently serving time in prison.

For the most part, the charges faced by the non-Russian individuals stem from having made false statements to federal investigators or, in the case of Cohen, to Congress. In the cases of Gates and Manafort, the plea agreements include admissions of guilt on these charges because they are relatively minor compared to other charges they faced.

View the complete November 30 article by Philip Bump on The Washington Post website here.

Pardon Manafort — and Go to Jail

For more than a year, Donald Trump has dangled presidential pardons before former associates who might provide evidence against him. He teased such miscreants as Mike Flynn, his crooked national security adviser, and Michael Cohen, his bullying ex-lawyer. And today we know how blatantly he has been using that same enticement to lure his former campaign manager Paul Manafort to abandon a plea agreement with the special counsel.

While supposedly cooperating with Robert Mueller’s prosecution team, Manafort and his attorney were revealing to President Trump and his lawyers what questions the prosecutors were asking and how he had answered. In short, he acted as a spy for the White House.

Why would a man facing many years in prison accept such a grave risk during those months of conferring with the Trump lawyers unless he heard a powerful hint of a pardon?

View the complete November 28 article by Joe Conason on the Creators website here.

Mueller eyes Ivanka and Don Jr.’s work on Trump Tower Moscow

Credit: Yahoo News; photos; AP (3), Getty Images

WASHINGTON – Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into President Trump’s efforts to build a skyscraper in Moscow has led him to ask questions about the role two of the president’s children played in attempting to secure a Russian real estate deal, sources tell Yahoo News.

Mueller’s interest in the Trump family real estate company’s plans for a skyscraper in Russia was confirmed on Thursday when Michael Cohen, the president’s former attorney and fixer, pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the proposed deal. In charging documents, Mueller said Cohen falsely claimed that the effort to build a Trump Tower Moscow “ended in January 2016” in an attempt to “minimize” links between Trump and the project and to “give the false impression” the effort ended before the Republican primaries in 2016. Yahoo News first reported in May that congressional investigators had obtained text messages and emails showing Cohen’s work on Trump Tower Moscow continued for longer than he admitted under oath.

But Cohen wasn’t the only person at the Trump Organization who was pursuing deals to build a skyscraper in the Russian capital. Multiple sources have confirmed to Yahoo News that the president’s elder daughter, Ivanka, who is now a top White House adviser, and his eldest son, Don Jr., were also working to make Trump Tower Moscow a reality. The sources said those efforts were independent of Cohen’s work on the project. One of the sources said Ivanka was also involved in Cohen’s efforts. And a separate source familiar with the investigation told Yahoo News that Mueller has asked questions about Ivanka and Don Jr.’s work on Trump Tower Moscow.

View the complete November 29 article by Hunter Walker on the Yahoo News website here.