The following article by Jefferson Morley was posted on the the Alternet website April 21, 2017:
Says one former business partner, “The headline will be ‘The Kazakh Gangster and President Trump.'”
The words were positively polite, at least for a man convicted of assault and racketeering. It was the implied target of his blackmail threat that was unusual: the president of the United States.
The threat came from Felix Sater, a Russian-American businessman who partnered with Donald Trump in launching the Trump Soho, a hotel-condominium project in New York City. The building was funded by Sater’s boss, Tevfik Arif, a mogul from Kazakhstan. In 2007, Trump’s children, Donald Jr., Eric and Ivanka attended the unveiling ceremony for the 46-story luxury tower in Manhattan. Continue reading “Trump’s Organized Crime Ties Bring Blackmail To The White House”
A Moscow-based think tank linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin created a plan to swing the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
The following article by Natasha Bertrand was posted on the Business Insider website April 19, 2017:
The FBI reportedly used the explosive, unverified dossier detailing President Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia to bolster its case for a warrant that would allow it to surveil Carter Page, an early foreign-policy adviser to Trump’s campaign.
It’s a key signal that the FBI had enough confidence in the validity of the document to work to corroborate it and present it in court.
The following article by Luke Harding, Stephanie Kirchgaessner and Nick Hopkins was posted on the Guaradian website April 13, 2017:
Britain’s spy agencies played a crucial role in alerting their counterparts in Washington to contacts between members of Donald Trump’s campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives, the Guardian has been told.
GCHQ first became aware in late 2015 of suspicious “interactions” between figures connected to Trump and known or suspected Russian agents, a source close to UK intelligence said. This intelligence was passed to the US as part of a routine exchange of information, they added. Continue reading “British spies were first to spot Trump team’s links with Russia”
The following article by Artiz Parra and Raphael Satter of the Associated Press was posted on the Boston Globe website April 10, 2017:
FBI Director James Comey confirmed his agency was investigating alleged Russian interference in the presidential election when he testified in front of US House committee in March.
MADRID — An alleged Russian hacker has been detained in Spain at the request of American authorities, an arrest that set cybersecurity circles abuzz after a Russian broadcaster raised the possibility it was linked to the US presidential election.
Pyotr Levashov was arrested Friday in Barcelona on a US computer crimes warrant, according to a spokeswoman for Spain’s National Court, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with court rules.
Such arrests aren’t unusual — American authorities typically try to nab Russian cybercrime suspects abroad because of the difficulty involved in extraditing them from Russia — but Levashov’s arrest drew immediate attention after his wife told Russia’s RT broadcaster that he was linked to America’s 2016 election hacking. Continue reading “Alleged Russian hacker arrested in Spain”
The following article by Adam Entous, Greg Miller, Kevin Sieff and Karen DeYoung was posted on the Washington Post website April 3, 2017:
The United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting in January between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a Russian close to President Vladimir Putin as part of an apparent effort to establish a back-channel line of communication between Moscow and President-elect Donald Trump, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.
The meeting took place around Jan. 11 — nine days before Trump’s inauguration — in the Seychelles islands in the Indian Ocean, officials said. Though the full agenda remains unclear, the UAE agreed to broker the meeting in part to explore whether Russia could be persuaded to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, a Trump administration objective that would be likely to require major concessions to Moscow on U.S. sanctions. Continue reading “Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel”
It is jarring to see pro-Trump conservatives indifferent or even hostile to investigations of Russian intervention in the 2016 campaign. Just a few years ago (it feels like an eternity), conservatives were jumping all over President Barack Obama for his Russian “reset” and his first-term eagerness to negotiate with Moscow.
Even further back, conservatives hailed President Ronald Reagan’s description of the Soviet Union as “an evil empire.” Reagan ran a brilliant ad during his 1984 reelection bid that showed a bear roaming through the woods. Without mentioning the words “Russia” or “Soviet Union,” an announcer intoned: Continue reading “The right’s jarring drift toward Russia”
The following article by Jo Becker, Matthew Rosenberg and Maggie Haberman was posted on the New York Times website March 27, 2017:
Senate investigators plan to question Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and a close adviser, as part of their broad inquiry into ties between Trump associates and Russian officials or others linked to the Kremlin, according to administration and congressional officials.
The following article by Devlin Barrett and Adam Entous was posted on the Washington Post website March 28, 2017:
Then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates is pictured at the Justice Department on May 15, 2015. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post)
The Trump administration sought to block former acting attorney general Sally Yates from testifying to Congress in the House investigation of links between Russian officials and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, The Washington Post has learned, a position that is likely to further anger Democrats who have accused Republicans of trying to damage the inquiry.
