The following article by Cody Fenwick was posted on the AlterNet.org website August 2, 2018:
The president knows it’s not true — but he said it anyway.
Credit: CNN Screen Grab
President Donald Trump introduced a new lie to his repertoire Thursday night at a campaign in Pennsylvania, even as he attacked the media for supposedly spreading lies about him.
While defending his much-derided summit in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump said, “Russia’s very unhappy Trump won, that I can tell you.”
But this is a blatant lie, and we know Trump knows it’s a lie. First, we know this because the U.S. intelligence community unanimously concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 election in order to help Trump win.
The following article by Sharon LaFraniere and Emily Baumgaertner was posted on the New York Times website July 29, 2018:
Paul Manafort after his arraignment hearing in March at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va. Credit: Al Drago, The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Paul Manafort, the veteran Republican political operative and lobbyist who helped run President Trump’s 2016 campaign, is scheduled to go to trial on financial fraud charges starting on Tuesday in United States District Court in Alexandria, Va.
The main points to be aware of:
It is the first trial stemming from charges brought by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating Russia’s interference in the campaign.
The following article by Oliver Willis was posted on the ShareBlue.com website July 28, 2018:
Senators are demanding that Donald Trump Jr. return to testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee after Michael Cohen exposed that his father knew in advance about the meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives.
Donald Trump, Jr., Credit: Alec Tabak, The Daily News via AP, Pool
Senators are demanding that Donald Trump Jr. come back and testify to the Senate Judiciary Committee — this time under oath — after new revelations that his father knew about the clandestine campaign meeting with Russian operatives.
According to Trump’s former personal lawyer and “fixer,” Michael Cohen, the elder Trump knew in advance about the meeting at Trump Tower. At that infamous gathering, Don Jr. was among the senior campaign advisers who met with Russian operatives offering up dirt on Hillary Clinton.
But when he testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of the ongoing probe into Russian election interference, Don Jr. reportedly said his father did not know about the event.
The following article by Nick Fernandez was posted on the Media Matters website July 26, 2018:
Secretary of State Pompeo echoed right-wing media talking points on Trump’s toughness. In reality, Trump has undercut a number of actions Congress and his administration have tried to take against Russia.
Credit: Melissa Joskow, Media Matters
Following President Donald Trump’s disastrous bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, the president’s administration flacks and conservative media lackeys quickly scrambled to his defense, arguing that Trump has been “tough” in his “actions against Russia” and rattling off a series of actions he has taken since 2017 that supposedly support such a claim. The president himself and administration officials have also parroted the talking points in an attempt to dispel the idea that he is somehow in the pocket of the Russian government. But a closer look at the actions Trump shills have pointed to reveals a foreign policy that is more concerned with posturing for media than being “tough” in the face of Russian aggression.
On July 16, Trump met with Putin for a meeting behind closed doors in which no other American — except an interpreter — was present, and they emerged more than two hours later to give a wide-ranging press conference. When asked whether he holds the Russian government accountable for its multifaceted interference campaign during the 2016 elections, Trump repeatedly denied Russia’s involvement, saying, “I don’t see any reason why it would be” Russia. (The president would later claim to have gotten “would” and “wouldn’t” confused.)
To counter the deluge of negativepress in the wake of the meeting, right-wing media and administration officials pointed to various foreign policy and military responses to Russian aggression that the United States and its allies have undertaken during Trump’s presidency to argue that the president’s “actions” actually “have been tough.” About a week after the bilateral meeting, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo echoed Trump’s conservative media defenders as he faced senators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, insisting Trump “has taken a truckload of punitive actions against Moscow” and that he has been “tough on Russia” as president. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeated the meme, as did the president himself.
The following article was posted on the Axios website July 26, 2018:
Michael Cohen walking down Park Avenue. Credit: Timothy A. Clary, AFP via Getty Images
Michael Cohen, former personal attorney for President Trump, claims Trump approved “going ahead with” the 2016 Trump Tower meeting, in which Donald Trump Jr. and other Trump campaign officials met with Russians to offer the Trump campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton, reports CNN.
Why it matters: Cohen’s claim contradicts denials by Trump, Trump Jr., their lawyers and administration officials who say then-candidate Trump was unaware of the meeting until he was approached about it by the New York Times in July 2017. Cohen said he is willing to testify in the Mueller investigation, but does not have any corroborating evidence other than his claim.
The details: Cohen claims that he, along with several others, was present when Trump was informed of the offer from the Russians and then-candidate Trump approved going ahead with it.
Donald Trump, Paul Manafort and Ivanka Trump check the podium at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, July 21, 2016. Credit: Bill Clark, CQ Roll Call, Getty Images
Here are some things to remember as we watch the Manfort trial unfold and Donald Trump vent his rage on Twitter:
Paul Manafort, Trump’s ex-campaign chairman and friend of nearly four decades, is on trial for charges related to his work for the former pro-Kremlin regime in Ukraine.
Contrary to what the president claims, Trump has a long history with Manafort, and he played an intricate role in the Trump campaign.
Manafort was the chairman of the Trump campaign and worked on the campaign for nearly five months.
Manafort continued to be a part of Trump’s inner circle after Election Day.
Manafort and Trump have known each other for nearly FOUR decades and have a business relationship dating back nearly that long.
The charges in the Manafort trial fall under the purview of the special counsel and are relevant to the Russia investigation.
Manafort’s work for the pro-Kremlin regime in Ukraine was bankrolled by a Putin-tied Russian oligarch.
Manafort’s right-hand man in Ukraine was suspected former GRU agent Konstantin Kilimnik. The FBI believes Kilimnik maintained his ties to Russian intelligence during the 2016 presidential campaign, when he was in regular contact with Manafort.
Republican and Democratic lawmakers concerned over the uncertainty swirling around President Trump’s foreign and trade policies will press Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for answers Wednesday, but there are doubts about how much he can answer.
Pompeo is scheduled to testify at 3 p.m. before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, an eagerly awaited appearance for lawmakers hungry to know more about Trump’s two-hour private meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week in Helsinki.
There are also questions about the status of diplomatic talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and what the administration’s next moves are after pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal in May.
Senators want Pompeo to explain Trump’s persistent criticism of European allies, something they fear has eroded trust within NATO.
The following article by Cody Fenwick was posted on the AlterNet.org website July 23, 2018:
A new Vanity Fair article reports on sources close to the president’s lawyer who say Cohen has information about the Trump Tower meeting.
Michael Cohen arrives with his lawyers at the United States District Court Southern District of New York. Credit: Spencer Platt, Getty Images
FBI investigators have obtained 12 recordings from President Donald Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen as a part of the investigation that led to raids on several of Cohen’s properties, according to multiple reports Monday.
But Emily Jane Fox of Vanity Fair reported Monday evening that, at least according to one of his friends, Cohen believes his own testimony is much more valuable than the recordings themselves.
“It’s not the recording that is valuable,” one person told her. “It’s the backstory.”
The following article by Karen DeYoung was posted on the Washington Post website July 20, 2018:
President Trump and Russian President Putin arrive Monday for a press conference in Helsinki, Finland. Credit: Chris McGrath, Getty Images
Russia provided additional details Friday of what it said were agreements made at the presidential summit in Helsinki this week, shaping a narrative of the meeting with no confirmation or alternative account from the Trump administration.
Not surprisingly, the Russian story line tended to favor the Kremlin’s own policy prescriptions, at times contradicting stated administration strategy.
Russia already has sent formal proposals to Washington for joint U.S.-Russia efforts to fund reconstruction of war-ravaged Syria and facilitate the return home of millions of Syrians who fled the country, following “agreements reached” by President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, the three-star head of the Russian National Defense Management Center, said Friday.
The following article by Julian E. Barnes, Eric Schmitt and Katie Benner was posted on the New York Times website July 20, 2018:
Pres. Trump’s pursuit of warmer relations with Russia is increasingly at odds with his administration’s policies of isolating Moscow. Credit: Al Drago for The New York Times
WASHINGTON — When President Trump directed aides to ask President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to the White House this fall, the invitation was his latest attempt to use personal diplomacy in the pursuit of better relations with the Kremlin.
But it was also at odds with moves by the rest of the Trump administration that served as blunt reminders that the national security establishment appears to be following a radically different Russia policy than the commander in chief.
The Pentagon declared on Friday that it would provide $200 million in assistance to Ukraine to help fight the Russian-controlled separatists in the country’s east. “Russia should suffer consequences for its aggressive, destabilizing behavior and its illegal occupation of Ukraine,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a statement.
