Tag: Russia

7 eye-opening comments about Russia from James Comey’s ABC News interview

The following article by Ryan Koronowski was posted on the ThinkProgress website April 16, 2018:

Kompromat, Papadopoulos, and golden showers all came up during the five-hour interview.

Credit: Screenshot/ABC News

It’s possible that Russian officials have collateral on President Donald Trump, former FBI Director James Comey said during an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.

On Sunday night, ABC News aired a one-hour special featuring segments from a much longer interview with the former intelligence official, along with other vignettes and backstory setting the stage for Comey’s blockbuster book which is set to be released on Tuesday. The network also published a transcript of the full five-hour interview.

In it, Comey made some stunning statements about President Trump’s relationship with Russia. Continue reading “7 eye-opening comments about Russia from James Comey’s ABC News interview”

Five things to know about Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska

The following article by Max Greenwood was posted on the Hill website April 7, 2018:

© Getty Images

The Trump administration’s decision to hit dozens of Russian oligarchs, companies and government officials with sanctions on Friday took direct aim at those close to President Vladimir Putin.

Among those hit by the penalties was Oleg Deripaska, a billionaire aluminum magnate who once had ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Continue reading “Five things to know about Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska”

Mueller has evidence that Trump supporter’s meeting with Putin ally may not have been a chance encounter: Sources

The following article by Pierre Thomas and James Gordon Meek was posted on the ABC News website April 6, 2018:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained evidence that calls into question Congressional testimony given by Trump supporter and Blackwater founder Erik Prince last year, when he described a meeting in Seychelles with a Russian financier close to Vladimir Putin as a casual chance encounter “over a beer,” sources told ABC News.

Well-connected Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, a key witness given limited immunity by Mueller, has been interviewed seven times by prosecutors on a wide range of subjects. He told investigators that he set up a meeting in the Seychelles between Prince and Russian sovereign wealth fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev, mere days before Trump was inaugurated, sources familiar with the investigation said this week. Continue reading “Mueller has evidence that Trump supporter’s meeting with Putin ally may not have been a chance encounter: Sources”

H. R. McMaster delivers a parting shot to Russia as he prepares to bow out as national security adviser

The following article by Ellen Nakashima and John Hudson was posted on the Washington Post website April 4, 2018:

National security adviser McMaster Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post

Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, in his last public remarks as President Trump’s national security adviser, strongly denounced Russia for its increased aggression around the world and declared: “We have failed to impose sufficient costs.”

His comments come a little more than a week after he was ousted by Trump, who is replacing him with conservative firebrand and former U.N. ambassador John Bolton.

They came hours after Trump, in a White House news conference with Baltic state leaders, stated, “Nobody has been tougher on Russia than I have.” Continue reading “H. R. McMaster delivers a parting shot to Russia as he prepares to bow out as national security adviser”

Corruption, Not Russia, Is Trump’s Greatest Political Liability

The following article by Jonathan Chait was posted on the New York Magazine website April 1, 2018:

Credit: Tony Millionaire/New York Magazine

“My whole life I’ve been greedy, greedy, greedy,” declared Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign. “I’ve grabbed all the money I could get. I’m so greedy. But now I want to be greedy for the United States.” To the extent that Trump’s candidacy offered any positive appeal, as opposed to simple loathing for his opponent, this was it. He was a brilliant businessman, or at least starred in a television show as one, and he would set aside his lifelong pursuit of wealth to selflessly serve the greater good. This was the promise that pried just enough Obama voters away from Hillary Clinton in just enough upper-Midwest states to clinch the Electoral College. Continue reading “Corruption, Not Russia, Is Trump’s Greatest Political Liability”

Businessman with ties to United Arab Emirates is cooperating with Mueller probe

The following article by Devlin Barrett, Sari Horwitz and Rosalind S. Helderman was posted on the Washington Post website March 7, 2018:

Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

A Lebanese American businessman who has acted as an adviser to the United Arab Emirates has been cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, after he was hit with a subpoena upon arriving in the United States in mid-January, according to people familiar with the matter.

The businessman, George Nader, was served with a grand jury subpoena shortly after landing at Dulles International Airport, these people said. Investigators are interested in Nader’s role at a January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles between Erik Prince, a supporter of President Trump, and a Russian official close to President Vladi­mir Putin, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Continue reading “Businessman with ties to United Arab Emirates is cooperating with Mueller probe”

What Trump left out of his tweets about Facebook and Russia

The following article by Callum Borchers was posted on the Washington Post website February 19, 2018:

As President Trump emerged from the White House Feb. 16, 2018, he declined to answer reporters’ questions about Russia. (The Washington Post)

President Trump’s weekend tweetstorm included a shout-out to Facebook executive Rob Goldman, who in his own tweets had argued three points that Trump found supportive to his claim that there was no collusion between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign.

  1. Most of the 3,300 Russia-linked Facebook ads that the social network discovered and disclosed last fall were designed to sow discord in the U.S. political system, not to swing the 2016 presidential election in Trump’s favor.
  2. Most of the Russian ad spending occurred after Election Day.
  3. The media does not cover these points.

Continue reading “What Trump left out of his tweets about Facebook and Russia”

Five key takeaways from the Russian indictments

The following article by Niall Stanage was posted on the Hill website February 17, 2018:

Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein Credit: Mary Turner/Reuters

New indictments of 13 Russians who allegedly meddled in the 2016 election set the political world abuzz on Friday.

The charges were first posted on the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) website but were fleshed out by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosensteinat a hastily convened news conference.

What are the key political ramifications from the new charges?

Fire and fury from Trump?

President Trump is hypersensitive to any suggestion that his victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 was illegitimate. These new indictments are sure to get under his skin for precisely that reason. Continue reading “Five key takeaways from the Russian indictments”

Cracking the Shell

The following article by Diana Pilipenko was posted on the Center for American Progress website February 13, 2018:

Trump and the Corrupting Potential of Furtive Russian Money

People walk on Red Square past the Kremlin in December. (Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images)

Overview

Donald Trump’s finances are almost hopelessly opaque, exacerbating concerns that the wealthiest president in American history—and the first in decades not to meaningfully divest from his business holdings—may be even more financially compromised than is already thought, and in ways that may impact his decisions in office.

“What lingers for Trump may be what deals—on what terms—he did after the financial crisis of 2008 to borrow Russian money when others in the west apparently would not lend to him.” —Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of Britain’s MI61­

“To keep kompromat on enemies is a pleasure. To keep kompromat on friends is a must.” —Yulia Latynina, Russian writer and journalist2 Continue reading “Cracking the Shell”

Democratic senators pressure Trump on Russia sanctions

The following article by Elana Schor was posted on the Politico website February 12, 2018:

“The lack of seriousness shown by the administration in the face of a clear national security threat and even clearer congressional intent is alarming and cannot continue,” Sen. Ben Cardin said in a statement.

Three senior Democratic senators on Monday introduced a resolution pushing President Donald Trump to use the new authority over Russia sanctions that Congress overwhelmingly gave him last year.

The symbolic measure from Sens. Ben Cardin of Maryland, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Robert Menendez of New Jersey marks the latest Democratic effort to pressure the Trump administration on its delay in implementing a bipartisan Russia sanctions bill — designed in part as a response to Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 election — that the president signed only reluctantly.

The administration’s decision last month to hold off on new penalties targeting the defense and intelligence sectors of President Vladimir Putin’s government infuriated Democrats, who pointed out that the bipartisan bill Congress approved with only five opposing votes last year had designed the sanctions as mandatory. Continue reading “Democratic senators pressure Trump on Russia sanctions”