Tag: Russia

Trump demoralizes his own team with dizzying Russian moves

The following article by Jordan Fabian and Morgan Chalfant was posted on the Hill website July 20, 2018:

Andrea Mitchell and Dan Coats Credit: ABC Screen Capture

President Trump’s bungled effort to warm up to Russian President Vladimir Putin has driven a wedge between him and his own administration as it seeks to crack down on Moscow’s hostile activities.

Rank-and-file intelligence and national security officials feel demoralized by the president’s failure to publicly call out Putin for interfering in the 2016 election, according to sources inside and outside the federal government.

“It’s just another day in paradise,” said one former White House official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “Russia narratives have been a daily ordeal for two years. Nobody knows what the president will do or say and nobody knows what they don’t know.”

View the complete article here.

Trump vows to hold second meeting with Putin

The following article by Brett Samuels was posted on the Hill website July 19, 2018:

President Trump on Thursday said he wants to have a second meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, even as he endures days of stark, bipartisan criticism over his performance at his first summit with the Russian leader Monday in Helsinki.

Trump, who at the summit appeared to put equal weight in Putin’s denial of involvement in the 2016 election with the findings of his intelligence agencies that Russia did interfere in the election, pronounced the summit a huge success and said he was looking forward to meeting Putin again.

“The Summit with Russia was a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media,” Trump tweeted.

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Roger Stone has lied or contradicted himself regarding Russia probe matters on countless occasions

The following article by Eric Hananoki was posted on the Media Matters website July 18, 2018:

Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to President Donald Trump, has repeatedly lied or contradicted himself on numerous issues related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Stone is a vicious racist, misogynist, liar, and conspiracy theorist who describes himself as “a 40-year friend and advisor of Donald Trump.” He worked as a paid consultant to Trump’s campaign for part of 2015 and has since advised him in an unofficial capacity.

He was banned from CNN, MSNBC, and even Fox News in 2016 because of his vitriolic rhetoric. However, all three networks have since welcomed him back as a guest. Stone also writes commentaries online and works for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ Infowars network.

View the complete article here.

GOP seeks separation from Trump on Russia

The following article by Alexander bolton and Jordain Carney was posted on the Hill website July 19, 2018:

Republicans on Capitol Hill are scrambling to distance themselves from President Trump’s controversial comments on Russia earlier this week.

With less than four months before the election, Senate Republican leaders say they will likely act on legislation sponsored by Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) this year. That measure would impose stiff economic penalties on Russia if it meddles in a U.S. election in 2018 and beyond.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has indicated to colleagues that he may bring the bill straight to the floor, skipping the committee process to save time. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday declined to say whether the administration supports the Rubio-Van Hollen bill.

View the complete article here.

As Russians describe ‘verbal agreements’ at summit, U.S. officials scramble for clarity

The following article by Karen DeYoung, Missy Ryan and Anton Troianovski was posted on the Washington Post website July 19, 2018:

President Trump said that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin made “significant progress,” on problems in the Middle East and nuclear proliferation. (Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Two days after President Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, Russian officials offered a string of assertions about what the two leaders had achieved.

“Important verbal agreements” were reached at the Helsinki meeting, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, told reporters in Moscow Wednesday, including preservation of the New START and INF agreements, major bilateral arms control treaties whose futures have been in question. Antonov also said Putin had made “specific and interesting proposals to Washington” on how the two countries could cooperate on Syria.

But officials at the most senior levels across the U.S. military, scrambling since Monday to determine what Trump may have agreed to on national security issues in Helsinki, had little to no information Wednesday.

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This email from accused Russian spy Maria Butina did not age well

The following article by Josh Israel was posted on the ThinkProgress website July 18, 2018:

“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but there is no international conspiracy at work…”

Mariia Butina, leader of a pro-gun organization, at a press conference in Moscow. Credit:  STR/AFP, Getty Images

Maria Butina, the founder of the Russian equivalent of the National Rifle Association and a key ally of Vladimir Putin’s central bank deputy governor Alexander Torshin, was indicted on Tuesday on charges of conspiracyand for failure to registered as a foreign agent. According to the Department of Justice’s application for criminal complaint, Butina worked to “arrange introductions to U.S. persons having influence in American politics, including an organization promoting gun rights” and to “infiltrate those groups” to advance the Russian Federation’s agenda.

Nearly two years ago, ThinkProgress first reported on Butina and her group’s mysterious connections with the National Rifle Association and the 2016 elections. Experts at the time suggested that her connections with the Trump campaign and the gun-rights movement could be cover for a larger effort to undermine American sanctions against Russia. Among the connections noted were that Butina had somehow been able to ask Trump a question about trade with Russia at a Las Vegas campaign event and that her organization had helped pay to bring Trump surrogate and then-Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke to Moscow.

The arrangement caught the attention of federal prosecutors and Senate Democrats investigating the Putin regime’s meddling in the 2016 elections. The alleged ties were widely dismissed and mocked by conservatives.

View the complete article on the ThinkProgress website here.

Trump says Russia doesn’t pose threat, contradicting intelligence director

The following article by Jordan Fabian was posted on the Hill website July 18, 2018:

President Trump on Wednesday said Russia does not pose a threat to the United States, contradicting his director of national intelligence on a critical security issue and deepening a political controversy that began at his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump, besieged with criticism over his perceived deference to Putin at the summit, for a second day sought to do damage control on the crisis, stating that no one had been tougher than he on Russia.

“There has never been a president as tough on Russia as I have been,” Trump told reporters before a Cabinet meeting at the White House.

The president said his administration is “doing very well” in countering Russia, citing U.S. sanctions on Moscow and the expulsion of Russian nationals accused of being spies.

View the original article on the Hill website here.

Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina ordered to remain in custody after prosecutors argue she has ties to Russian intelligence

The following article by Tom Jackman and Rosalind S. Helderman was posted on the Washington Post website July 18, 2018:

The Russian woman arrested this week on charges of being a foreign agent has ties to Russian intelligence operatives and was in contact with them while in the United States, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.

Maria Butina, 29, also cultivated a “personal relationship” with an American Republican consultant as part of her cover and offered sex to at least one other person “in exchange for a position within a special interest organization,” according to a court filing.

After a hearing on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson denied Butina’s request to be released on bail, finding that no combination of conditions would ensure her return to court.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.

Meet the Republicans who want ‘Tax Reform 2.0’ as Russia controversy rages on

The following article by Tana Ganeva was posted on the RawStory.com website July 17, 2018:

President Trump and Russia’s President Putin shake hands in Helsinki, Finland July 16, 2018. Credit: Kevin Lamarque, Reuters

On Tuesday, as the controversy continued to rage over President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, some Republicans are going back to business as usual: pushing forth tax reforms most likely to benefit corporate interests and the wealthy.

According to the White House pool report, President Trump is slated to meet with Republican members of Congress today to discuss “tax reform 2.0.”

The President plans to meet with the following congresspeople, many of whom, like Rep. Diane Black (R-TN), have previously issued soft critiques of the President on issues like trade policy but nevertheless signal their support for most of Donald Trump’s agenda:

Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX)
Rep. Mike Bishop (R-MI)
Rep. Diane Black (R-TN)
Rep. George Holding (R-NC)
Rep. Jim Renacci (R-OH)
Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL)
Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN)

View the complete article on the RawStory.com website here.

The growing Trump-Putin kompromat question

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website July 17, 2018:

At their summit in Helsinki on July 16, President Trump appeared to wink at Russian President Vladimir Putin at least twice. (Jenny Starrs /The Washington Post)

There was a time when the Steele dossier’s alleged, lewd tape of Donald Trump in a Moscow hotel room was Something We Didn’t Talk About. Then James B. Comey made it not-so-taboo.

Now the broader idea that Russia has compromising information, or kompromat, on Trump has moved even more to the forefront. And it’s all thanks to Trump’s decision to hold a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin — and then practically bow to him.

The thing about Trump’s posture toward Putin isn’t just that it’s highly controversial and questionable given Russia’s 2016 election interference; it’s also totally counter to Trump’s brand. This is the guy who wrote the “Art of the Deal” and, just days before his meeting with Putin, was wrecking shop at a NATO summit in hopes of getting fellow members to kick in more for the common defense.

View the complete article on the Washington Post website here.