Tag: Mueller investigation

A Partisan Combatant, a Remorseful Blogger: The Senate Staffer Behind the Attack on the Trump-Russia Investigation

The following article by Robert Faturechi was posted on the ProPublica website March 28, 2018:

Jason Foster, chief investigative counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, once blogged under the handle “Extremist,” expressing worry about a Muslim takeover and whether Joe McCarthy got a bum rap. Today, as he helps lead an explosive investigation, he says the blogging was satire and asks for forgiveness.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Sen. Grassley and ranking member Feinstein listen to testimony during a hearing on Capitol Hill in July. Jason Foster is chief investigative counsel to this committee. Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Jason Foster, chief investigative counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, fits a classic Washington profile: A powerful, mostly unknown force at the center of some of the most consequential battles on Capitol Hill.

For the last year, Foster — empowered by his boss, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the committee’s chairman — has been the behind-the-scenes architect of an assault on the FBI, and most centrally its role in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, according to interviews with current and former congressional aides, federal law enforcement officials and others. Continue reading “A Partisan Combatant, a Remorseful Blogger: The Senate Staffer Behind the Attack on the Trump-Russia Investigation”

Grand Jury Indicts Russian Nationals for Election Interference

The following article by Todd Ruger was posted on the Roll Call website February 16, 2018:

Operatives targeted Clinton, Rubio and Cruz, while largely supporting Trump and Sanders

Updated 3:25 p.m. | The Justice Department charged Russian operatives Friday with a sweeping effort to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, spending millions of dollars to wage social media campaigns, buy political advertisements and pose as grass-roots organizers to spark political rallies on American soil.

The grand jury criminal indictment of 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies landed like a bombshell in Washington, where the debate has raged over the extent of Russia’s influence in the election while President Donald Trump has waged a campaign to quell special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation. Continue reading “Grand Jury Indicts Russian Nationals for Election Interference”

Schiff Says He Fears Mueller’s Findings Won’t Become Public

The following article by Gopal Ratnam was posted on the Roll Call website February 16, 2018:

Top Intelligence Committee Democrat concerned about politicized decision-making

House Intelligence ranking member Adam B. Schiff is concerned the findings of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into Russian meddling in the 2016 election won’t be made public. Credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo

The complete findings of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections may not become public when the probe is completed, California Rep. Adam B. Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Friday.

“One of the issues I have raised with the deputy attorney general” Rod Rosenstein is “how are we going to deal with this when the investigations come to an end?” Schiff said, referring to findings of the Mueller probe. “Will there be a report to Congress and what will Bob Mueller be able to disclose publicly?”

Schiff’s comments came at an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. Continue reading “Schiff Says He Fears Mueller’s Findings Won’t Become Public”

Lawyers for Rick Gates ask to leave Mueller-probe case, citing ‘irreconcilable differences’ with their client

The following article by Spencer S. Hsu was posted on the Washington Post website February 7, 2018:

Rick Gates, center, arrives at the Prettyman Federal Courthouse on Jan. 16. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Lawyers for Rick Gates, the co-defendant of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, cited unspecified “irreconcilable differences” with their client in asking to leave the case, but a federal judge did not immediately rule on their request after a sealed hearing Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Washington took the matter under advisement after a nearly 90-minute hearing, held behind closed doors to preserve the secrecy of attorney-client communications.

Gates’s attorneys Shanlon Wu of Washington and Walter Mack and Annemarie McAvoy of New York moved Feb. 1 to withdraw as counsel in a shake-up in the pending prosecution by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Continue reading “Lawyers for Rick Gates ask to leave Mueller-probe case, citing ‘irreconcilable differences’ with their client”

Trump Propagandist Devin Nunes May Release 5 More Memos Trying to Discredit Justice and State Departments

The following article by the AlterNet staff was posted on their website February 4, 2018:

The chilling plan plays right into the president’s authoritarian hands.

© Getty Images

According to a new Axios report, the propagandistic memo from Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) is just the beginning of Republicans’ war on government agencies that don’t fall into line behind President Donald Trump’s authoritarian administration.

“The House Intelligence chair and his team have told members and associates they’ve found other examples of politically motivated ‘wrongdoing’ across various agencies, including the FBI, the broader Justice Department, and the State Department,” Swan writes.  Continue reading “Trump Propagandist Devin Nunes May Release 5 More Memos Trying to Discredit Justice and State Departments”

How Trump’s Allies Fanned an Ember of Controversy Into Flames of Outrage

The following article by Mark Mazzetti was posted on the New York Times website February 2, 2018:

Outside a meeting room used by the House Intelligence Committee on Friday. Credit: Eric Thayer, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The release of the memo mattered less than #releasethememo.

After weeks of buildup, the three-and-a-half-page document about alleged F.B.I. abuses during the 2016 presidential campaign made public on Friday was broadly greeted with criticism, including by some Republicans. They said it cherry-picked information, made false assertions and was overly focused on an obscure, low-level Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page. Continue reading “How Trump’s Allies Fanned an Ember of Controversy Into Flames of Outrage”

The Trump White House’s laughable spin that releasing the Nunes memo is all about ‘transparency’

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website February 2, 2018:

After releasing the Nunes memo on Feb. 2, President Trump said that “A lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and much worse than that.” (Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

The Trump White House and GOP leaders have zeroed in on one main justification for releasing the controversial Devin Nunes memo: It’s all about transparency. “I’ve always believed in the public’s right to know,” Vice President Pence saidThursday. “We have said all along, from day one, that we want full transparency in this process,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told CNN Wednesday.

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly leaned into it even harder Wednesday on Fox News Radio: “Frankly, in every other case that I can remember in my lifetime where a president was in some kind of trouble, the president, the White House attempted to not release things. This president has said from the beginning . . . ‘I want everything out. I want this thing, I want the American people to know the truth.’” Continue reading “The Trump White House’s laughable spin that releasing the Nunes memo is all about ‘transparency’”

Did Trump just reveal the real reason this memo was written?

The following article by Amber Phillips was posted on the Washington Post website February 2, 2018:

President Trump on Jan. 30 told Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) that he will “100 percent” release a memo alleging misconduct by the FBI. (The Washington Post)

Republican leaders in Congress have one main defense for releasing a controversial memo on the FBI’s Russia investigation: It reveals mistakes and even bias at the FBI, not with the separate, independent special counsel investigation set up by the Justice Department.

The memo, said House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) on Thursday, isn’t “an indictment of the FBI, of the Department of Justice.” Continue reading “Did Trump just reveal the real reason this memo was written?”

A process that tarnishes the House

The following commentary from the Editorial Board of the Washington Post was posted on their website February 1, 2018:

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.). (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

“WHAT THIS is not is an indictment of our institutions, of our justice system,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said Thursday about the now infamous “Nunes memo.” “It does not impugn the Mueller investigation or the deputy attorney general,” the speaker insisted. Is this cynicism or naivete?

Discrediting law enforcement is the memo’s transparent purpose and why it has been embraced by President Trump. Written mainly by the staff of Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the loose-cannon chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the memo reportedly makes the case that the FBI abused spying authorities as it sought permission to surveil a former Trump adviser. The Justice Department called its potential release, which Mr. Trump reportedly intends to approve, “extraordinarily reckless.” The FBI released its own startling public statement citing “grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.” Adam Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, wrote in a Post op-ed that the Nunes memo “cherry-picks facts, ignores others and smears the FBI and the Justice Department.” Continue reading “A process that tarnishes the House”

Ryan defends release of memo on alleged surveillance abuses but warns against tying it to Mueller probe

The following article by Karoun Demirjian was posted on the Washington Post website January 30, 2018:

After the House Intelligence Committee voted to release a classified memo, Republicans lauded the step while Democrats criticized it as a political deception.(Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Tuesday defended the way that Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes handled a politically divisive vote to publicize a classified memo detailing alleged surveillance abuses by federal law enforcement agencies, but he warned against using it to discredit the special counsel’s probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Ryan (R-Wis.) said Nunes (R-Calif.) was following a well-established process when the committee voted Monday to release a GOP-drafted memo to the public, provided President Trump does not block its efforts within five days. The panel also voted to make a memo drafted by Democrats rebutting the GOP’s document available to House members to read in a secure facility, as the panel had done with the GOP memo 11 days earlier along party lines. Continue reading “Ryan defends release of memo on alleged surveillance abuses but warns against tying it to Mueller probe”