Tag: Russia

Kushner arrives at Senate for closed-door questioning on Russia

The following article by Philip RUcker and Karoun Demirjian was posted on the Washington Post website July 24, 2017:

Jared Kushner, President Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, walked into Senate offices Monday morning to begin answering questions behind closed doors about his contacts with Russian officials.

In written remarks made public prior to his appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Kushner denies any improper contacts or collusion. The 11-page statement by Kushner details four meetings he had with Russian officials during the 2016 campaign and transition period — including one set up by Donald Trump Jr. with a Russian lawyer. Continue reading “Kushner arrives at Senate for closed-door questioning on Russia”

Congress breaks impasse on bill to slap sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea

The following article by Mike DeBonis and Karoun Demirjian was posted on the Washington Post website July 22, 2017:

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) left, speaks with reporters during the Speaker’s weekly news conference on June 8 on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) is to the right. (Cliff Owen/AP)

A weeks-long impasse over imposing new financial sanctions on Iran and Russia broke late Friday, with the House preparing to vote next week on a measure that would prevent President Trump from lifting measures against Moscow.

House leaders agreed to vote on an expanded version of the bill after incorporating sanctions aimed at freezing North Korea’s nuclear program and draining the government of revenue it uses to fund it. The measures against Pyongyang, which passed the House 419 to 1 as a stand-alone bill earlier this year, were inserted at the request of House Republican leaders.

While some details have yet to be finalized, congressional aides said, the bill is set for a vote Tuesday, according to a schedule circulated Saturday by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). It will proceed under special expedited procedures for noncontroversial bills expected to pass with a two-thirds majority.

Continue reading “Congress breaks impasse on bill to slap sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea”

Citing Recusal, Trump Says He Wouldn’t Have Hired Sessions

The following article by Peter Baker, Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman was posted on the New York Times website July 19, 2017:

WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Wednesday that he never would have appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions had he known Mr. Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation that has dogged his presidency, calling the decision “very unfair to the president.”

[Read excerpts of The Times’s interview with President Trump.]

In a remarkable public break with one of his earliest political supporters, Mr. Trump complained that Mr. Sessions’s decision ultimately led to the appointment of a special counsel that should not have happened. “Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job and I would have picked somebody else,” Mr. Trump said.

Continue reading “Citing Recusal, Trump Says He Wouldn’t Have Hired Sessions”

Trump Tweets ‘That’s Politics!’ About Son’s Meeting With Russian Lawyer

The following article by Maggie Haberman was posted on the New York Times website July 17, 2017:

WASHINGTON — He ran on a promise to end politics as usual.

But on Monday morning, President Trump posted a defense on Twitter of his son’s meeting with a Russian lawyer promising sensitive government information that could be damaging to Hillary Clinton by saying that it was simply politics as usual.

In Mr. Trump’s newest tweet about his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and a meeting on June 9, 2016, at Trump Tower, he described the gathering as routine and something almost anyone in politics would have wanted to attend. Continue reading “Trump Tweets ‘That’s Politics!’ About Son’s Meeting With Russian Lawyer”

Trump campaign paid firm of lawyer representing Trump Jr. before emails were made public

The following article by Mark Berman and Matea Gold was posted on the Washington Post site July 15, 2017:

Donald Trump Jr. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

President Trump’s campaign committee made a payment to the law firm of an attorney representing Donald Trump Jr. last month, nearly two weeks before it was announced that the same attorney would be representing the president’s son in Russia-related probes, according to a campaign finance report filed Saturday.

The committee reported in the filing to the Federal Election Commission that it paid $50,000 to the law firm of attorney Alan Futerfas on June 27. That payment was made 13 days before it was publicly revealed that Futerfas would represent Trump’s eldest son in the Russia investigations. Continue reading “Trump campaign paid firm of lawyer representing Trump Jr. before emails were made public”

Trump’s Russia Lawyer Isn’t Seeking Security Clearance, And May Have Trouble Getting One C

The following article by Justin Elliott and Jesse Eisinger was posted on the ProPublica website July 11, 2017:

Marc Kasowitz speaks to the press on June 8, responding to the testimony of fired FBI Diector James Comey. Credit: Jim Watson, AFP, Getty Images

The ongoing investigations into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia involve reams of classified material. Yet Marc Kasowitz, the New York lawyer whom President Donald Trump has hired to defend him in these inquiries, told ProPublica through a spokesman that he does not have a security clearance — the prerequisite for access to government secrets. Nor does he expect to seek one.

Several lawyers who have represented presidents and senior government officials said they could not imagine handling a case so suffused with sensitive material without a clearance. Continue reading “Trump’s Russia Lawyer Isn’t Seeking Security Clearance, And May Have Trouble Getting One C”

Donald Trump Jr. Hires Crime Mob Lawyer for Russia Investigation

The following article by Celisa Calacal was posted on the AlterNet website July 10, 2017:

Credit: A Katz / Shutterstock.com

Donald Trump Jr. has hired New York lawyer Alan Futerfas to represent him in ongoing investigations regarding his father Donald Trump and his potential ties to Russia, according to Reuters. Futerfas, a criminal defense lawyer, has had experience in the past representing members of organized crime mobs, particularly the Gambino, Genovese, and Colombo families.

The hiring of Futerfas comes on the heels of a New York Times investigation revealing that Trump Jr. had met with a Russian lawyer in the midst of the 2016 presidential election who offered to hand over potentially damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Futerfas has a history of representing members of organized crime rings. In 1993, Futerfas represented a member of the infamous Genovese crime family, Salvatore “Sally Dogs” Lombardi from Staten Island. Lombardi and a number of other defendants from the family were facing trial for attempting to illegally expand gambling operations into Atlantic City. A jury ultimately found Lombardi guilty of racketeering, extortion and illegal gambling. Continue reading “Donald Trump Jr. Hires Crime Mob Lawyer for Russia Investigation”

Even in the take-no-prisoners world of opposition research, Trump Jr.’s meeting was highly unusual

The following article by David A. Fahrenthold was posted on the Washington Post website July 11, 2017:

Donald Trump Jr. has defended his meeting with a Russian lawyer and said he did nothing wrong. (Richard Drew/AP)

Donald Trump Jr. said Tuesday that he agreed to a meeting with a Russian lawyer during last year’s campaign because he believed that the individual had information about Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

“I thought [the information] was Political Opposition Research,” Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter, in a statement explaining why he’d agreed to meet the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya.

At the same time, Trump Jr. released emails showing that he was told Veselnitskaya was a “Russian government attorney” whose information about Clinton was part of “Russia and its government’s support” for his father. Continue reading “Even in the take-no-prisoners world of opposition research, Trump Jr.’s meeting was highly unusual”

A revelation unlike any other in the Russia investigation

The following article by Dan Balz was posted on the Washington Post website July 11, 2017:

There have been other moments in the lengthy investigation of Russian government interference in the 2016 presidential election that have registered on the legal and political Richter scales, but none with the power and explosiveness of the email chain involving Donald Trump Jr. that became public Tuesday.

The emails between President Trump’s oldest son and an intermediary for the Russians provide the clearest indication to date that Trump campaign officials and family members were at least prepared to do business with a foreign adversary in the mutual goal of taking down Hillary Clinton. Continue reading “A revelation unlike any other in the Russia investigation”

‘Category 5 hurricane’: White House under siege by Trump Jr.’s Russia revelations

The following article by Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker was posted on the Washington Post site July 11, 2017:

The White House has been thrust into chaos after days of ever-worsening revelations about a meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and a lawyer characterized as representing the Russian government, as the president fumes against his enemies and senior aides circle each other with suspicion, according to top White House officials and outside advisers.

President Trump — who has been hidden from public view since returning last weekend from a divisive international summit — is enraged that the Russia cloud still hangs over his presidency and is exasperated that his eldest son and namesake has become engulfed by it, said people who have spoken with him this week. Continue reading “‘Category 5 hurricane’: White House under siege by Trump Jr.’s Russia revelations”