Tag: 2016 Trump campaign

How a Lawyer, a Felon and a Russian General Chased a Moscow Trump Tower Deal

Felix Sater, a longtime business associate of President Trump’s, drew on deep Russian contacts to pursue a real estate deal during the 2016 campaign. One of those contacts was a former intelligence official in Russia.

When Donald J. Trump took a run at building a tower in Moscow in the middle of his 2016 presidential campaign, it was the high point of a decades-long effort to plant the “Trump” flag there.

The role his former lawyer Michael D. Cohen played in the endeavor entered the spotlight again on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to misleading Congress. But the effort was led in large part by Felix Sater, a convicted felon and longtime business associate with deep ties to Russia.

To get the project off the ground, Mr. Sater dug into his address book and its more than 100 Russian contacts — including entries for President Vladimir V. Putin and a former general in Russian military intelligence. Mr. Sater tapped the general, Evgeny Shmykov, to help arrange visas for Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump to visit Russia, according to emails and interviews with several people knowledgeable about the events.

View the complete November 29 by Mike McIntire, Megan Twohey and Mark Mazzetti on The New York Times website here.

Michael Cohen’s new guilty plea should scare the pants off Donald Trump and the White House

Michael Cohen, former personal attorney to Donald Trump, pleaded making false statements to Congress about a Moscow real estate project Trump pursued during the months he was running for president. Credit: Drew Angerer, Getty Images

Cohen pleaded guilty to lying before Congress about Donald Trump’s real estate dealings in Russia.

Longtime Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen made a surprise appearance in a Manhattan federal court on Thursday, where he pleaded guilty to a federal crime as part of a new agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in connection with his ongoing Russia investigation.

Cohen pleaded guilty to lying under oath before Congress when he testified in a closed-door hearing in the fall of 2017. According to the Associated Press, his false statements involved Donald Trump’s business dealings in Russia.

Eric Tucker@etuckerAP

NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Cohen pleads guilty to lying to Congress about Trump real estate project in Russia.

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The financial ties between the Trump Organization and Russian investors has long been thought to be a central focus of Mueller’s investigation. A draft of questionsMueller’s team planned to pose to Donald Trump included a specific inquiry about any communication Trump had with Cohen regarding Russian real estate developments during the campaign. Trump reportedly submitted answers to Mueller’s team just last week.

View the complete November 29 article by Adam Peck and Jason Linkins on the Think Progress.org website here.

Cohen pleads guilty for misstatements to Congress about contacts with Russians

President Trump‘s former personal attorney Michael Cohen on Thursday pleaded guilty for misstatements he made to Congress while testifying about his contacts with Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Cohen appeared in a federal court in Manhattan after reaching a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller.

He pleaded guilty to making a false statement about the effort to build a Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign while testifying before Congress, according to court documents, and made false statements about the timing of the project.

View the complete November 29 article by Justin Wise on The Hill website here.

Trump makes clear that he is still considering a pardon for Paul Manafort — deepening his own legal peril

“Obstruction of justice out in the open.”

This week has been full of Paul Manafort-related bombshells. On Monday, November 26, the news broke that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was terminating Manafort’s plea deal because he had been lying repeatedly to federal investigators. And the following day, the New York Times reported that Manafort (President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager) had been funneling information on Mueller’s investigation to Trump’s attorneys—a major breach of the plea deal. But with Manafort now facing the possibility of spending the rest of his life in federal prison, Trump is not ruling out the possibility of a presidential pardon.

During a Nov. 28 Oval Office interview with the New York Post, Trump explained that a pardon for Manafort “was never discussed, but I wouldn’t take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?”

Other reports have suggested that Trump has discussed the idea of pardoning Manafort.

View the complete November 28 article by Alex Henderson on the AlterNet.org website here.

Trump’s night-owl calls to Roger Stone in 2016 draw scrutiny in Mueller probe

Roger Stone speaks to members of the media after testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on Sept. 26, 2017. Credit: Andrew Harnik, AP

The calls almost always came deep into the night.

Caller ID labeled them “unknown,” but Roger Stone said he knew to pick up quickly during those harried months of the 2016 presidential campaign. There would be a good chance that the voice on the other end of the line would belong to his decades-long friend — the restless, insomniac candidate Donald Trump — dialing from a blocked phone number.

Those nocturnal chats and other contacts between the man who now occupies the Oval Office and an infamous political trickster have come under intensifying scrutiny as special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation bores into whether Stone served as a bridge between Trump and WikiLeaks as the group was publishing hacked Democratic emails.

View the complete November 28 article by Manuel Roig-Franzi, Carol D. Leonnig, Rosalind S. Helderman and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Giuliani’s bizarre bragging about the Manafort-Trump alliance highlights new obstruction questions

This post has been updated.

The first two paragraphs of this New York Times story are remarkable enough: Despite Paul Manafort having agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation, his lawyer, Kevin Downing, continued to brief President Trump’s legal team. That’s a highly unusual setup, and one that is generally frowned upon in legal circles.

The next two paragraphs, though, might take the cake. In them, Trump lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani practically brags about having pulled one over on Mueller by gleaning key information from the arrangement.

Via Times reporters Michael S. Schmidt, Sharon LaFraniere and Maggie Haberman: Continue reading “Giuliani’s bizarre bragging about the Manafort-Trump alliance highlights new obstruction questions”

Roger Stone Sought WikiLeaks’ Plans Amid 2016 Campaign, Associate Says

Jerome Corsi, an associate of the longtime Trump adviser Roger J. Stone Jr., said he might be indicted in the special counsel investigation. Credit: Shannon Stapleton, Reuters

WASHINGTON — An associate of the former Trump campaign adviser Roger J. Stone Jr. released documents on Tuesday showing that as the presidential campaign heated up in the summer of 2016, Mr. Stone tried to dispatch him to find out what information WikiLeaks had that could prove damaging to Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

The associate, Jerome Corsi, said in an interview that he might be indicted on a charge of lying to federal investigators because he told them that he refused Mr. Stone’s request when in fact he passed it on to an intermediary. He said he had refused a plea deal offered by the office of the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, because he did not intentionally lie, but merely forgot events of more than two years ago.

Mr. Corsi’s dealings with Mr. Mueller’s prosecutors have caused alarm among the president’s legal team, who were informed of developments by Mr. Corsi’s lawyer. President Trump’s lawyers were especially troubled by a draft statement of offense against Mr. Corsi that was passed on to them, according to people familiar with the situation. In it, prosecutors claimed that Mr. Corsi understood that Mr. Stone was “in regular contact with senior members of the Trump campaign, including with then-candidate Donald J. Trump” when he asked Mr. Corsi in late July 2016 to “get to” Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks.

View the complete November 27 article by Sharon LaFraniere and Maggie Haberman on The New York Times website here.

Mueller says Manafort lied after pleading guilty, should be sentenced immediately

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said on Nov. 26 that former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort lied to investigators and breached his plea agreement. (Reuters)

Prosecutors with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III said Monday that Paul Manafort breached his plea agreement, accusing President Trump’s former campaign chairman of lying repeatedly to them in their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Manafort denied doing so intentionally, but both sides agreed in a court filing that U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the District should set sentencing immediately.

The apparent collapse of Manafort’s cooperation agreement is the latest stunning turnaround in his case, exposing the longtime Republican consultant to at least a decade behind bars after he pleaded guilty in September to charges of cheating the Internal Revenue Service, violating foreign-lobbying laws and attempting to obstruct justice.

View the complete November 26 article by Spencer S. Hsu, Rachel Weiner and Devlin Barrett on The Washington Post website here.

Want to Know More About: Mueller’s Russia Investigation?

David Gregory: “The President Has Demonstrated Over And Over Again He Will Do Whatever He Can Do To Undermine The Investigation Short Of Firing Mueller. The Game Is Not Over Yet.” DAVID GREGORY: “The president has demonstrated over and over again he will do whatever he can do to undermine the investigation short of firing Mueller. The game is not over yet. He fired Jim Comey because he did not like how he was handling the investigation, and he deliberately brought on a new attorney general that had been outspoken in his criticism of this investigation and he is now making it clear that in his opinion the special prosecutor is pressuring people to lie and to flip against him. He’s been engaged in a political attack on this investigation from the very beginning and now it’s not just a message to manafort but others out there, whether it’s Flynn, whether it’s Michael Cohen, that if you can stay strong, obviously, Flynn already cooperated, that he may come to the rescue.” [New Day, CNN, 11/29/18; Video]

Nia Malika Henderson: “The President Seems To Have Some Sort Of Window Into The Mueller Investigation That He Might Not Have Had Weeks Ago.” NIA MALIKA HENDERSON: “Manafort’s lawyers are talking to Trump’s lawyers and the President seems to have some sort of window into the Mueller investigation that he might not have had weeks ago.” [New Day, CNN, 11/29/18; Video]

David Gregory: “Whatever, The Conclusion Of The Investigation, The Stunning Disregard Of How To Behave As A Presidential Candidate Is What Leaps Off The Page When You Look At This History.” DAVID GREGORY: “The fact there was this flirtation with Russia that was very open, that the president was talking about it on the campaign trail and there was nobody around the president to say how incredibly inappropriate it would be to get opposition research from a foreign government, to say nothing that, in fact, it would come from Putin’s Russia is astonishing. Whatever, the conclusion of the investigation, the stunning disregard of how to behave as a presidential candidate is what leaps off the page when you look at this history.” [New Day, CNN, 11/29/18; Video] Continue reading “Want to Know More About: Mueller’s Russia Investigation?”

Want to Know More About: Paul Manafort Plea Deal Collapse?

Jeffery Toobin: President Trump “Is Telling Paul Manafort In Effect, Hang In There, You Don’t Have To Cooperate And You Don’t Have To Worry About Mueller Because You May Be Getting A Pardon Is Wildly, Wildly Inappropriate.” JEFFERY TOOBIN: “This is an incredibly inappropriate thing to say. Whether it’s actually an obstruction of justice or part of an impeachable offense, you know, that requires greater analysis and knowledge of the full facts but the fact that he [President Trump] is telling Paul Manafort in effect, hang in there, you don’t have to cooperate and you don’t have to worry about Mueller because you may be getting a pardon is wildly, wildly inappropriate.” [New Day, CNN, 11/29/18; Video]

Willie Geist: “Just Days After We Learned The Special Counsel Wants To Scrap Paul Manafort’s Plea Deal, President Trump Is Now Publicly Discussing A Possible Pardon For His Former Campaign Chairman.” WILLIE GEIST: “Let’s dive right in. Just days after we learned the special counsel wants to scrap Paul manafort’s plea deal, president trump is now publicly discussing a possible pardon for his former campaign chairman. In an oval office interview, president trump left open the possibility of a pardon telling the paper, it was never discussed, but I wouldn’t take it off the table. Why would I take it off the table?” [Morning Joe, MSNBC, 11/29/18; VIDEO]

Willie Geist: “The President Floating The Idea Of A Pardon When He Was Asked. He Said It’s Not Off The Table. That Has To Be Music To Paul Manafort’s Ears Who Is Now Without His Cooperation Deal.” WILLIE GEIST: “In that interview, the president criticized Robert Mueller’s investigation claiming that manafort, Roger stone, and stone associate Jerome Corsi were all asked to lie. If you tell the truth, you go to jail, trump said. You know this flipping stuff is terrible. But I had three people, manafort, Corsi, I don’t know Corsi, but they refuse to say what he demanded. It’s actually very brave, the president said, of the trio and I’m telling you, this is McCarthyism. We are in the McCarthy era. This is no better than McCarthy, says the president of the united States talking about the special counsel’s investigation. Joyce, let’s pick through that a little bit and start with you on the president floating the idea of a pardon when he was asked. He said it’s not off the table. That has to be music to Paul Manafort’s ears who is now without his cooperation deal.” [Morning Joe, MSNBC, 11/29/18; VIDEO] Continue reading “Want to Know More About: Paul Manafort Plea Deal Collapse?”