Tag: Russia

Trump blasts former FBI official McCabe after explosive interview

President Trump on Thursday lashed out at Andrew McCabe after the former FBI deputy director revealed he opened a probe into whether Trump obstructed justice when the president fired James Comey as FBI chief in 2017 amid the Russia investigation.

In a string of morning tweets, Trump wrote that the “disgraced” McCabe “pretends to be a ‘poor little Angel’ when in fact he was a big part of the Crooked Hillary Scandal & the Russia Hoax” and “a puppet for Leakin’ James Comey.”

The president added that an internal watchdog report that was used to justify McCabe’s ouster was “devastating.”

View the complete February 14 article by Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.

Drama hits Senate Intel panel’s Russia inquiry

Drama is building around the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation after the panel’s top Republican and Democrat clashed over what their findings reveal two years after they opened their inquiry.

The Senate probe is viewed as the most bipartisan congressional investigation into Russian interference, with committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) walking in lockstep on most matters.

However, fractures have emerged recently after Burr publicly stated that none of their evidence indicates the Trump campaign conspired with Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign.

View the complete February 14 article by Olivia Beavers and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

On Russia, Trump Is Still In Deep Trouble

Trump Tower Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

If Donald Trump believes his own tweets, then he must be feeling a huge sense of relief. According to the besieged president, he has been exonerated; the hoax has been disproved; and the witch hunt has been canceled.

“The Senate Intelligence Committee: THERE IS NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA!” he exclaimed in the predawn hours on Feb. 13, a theme he and his minions repeated throughout the day.

Sadly for Trump, he knows that that statement — like thousands of others littering his Twitter feed — is fakery. The Senate Intelligence Committee, composed of Democrats as well as Republicans, has made no such finding and cannot credibly offer any conclusion because its investigation is not complete. And the Democrats, led by ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va., are waiting until they hear again from such key witnesses as former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who lied to the committee when he first testified.

View the complete February 14 article by Joe Conason on the Creators website here.

How Manafort’s 2016 meeting with a Russian employee at New York cigar club goes to ‘the heart’ of Mueller’s probe

Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort had a meeting with Russian political operative Konstantin Kilimnik, just blocks away from Trump Tower on Aug. 2, 2016. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)

The 2016 nominating conventions had recently concluded and the presidential race was hitting a new level of intensity when Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, ducked into an unusual dinner meeting at a private cigar room a few blocks away from the campaign’s Trump Tower headquarters in Manhattan.

Court records show that Manafort was joined at some point by his campaign deputy, Rick Gates, at the session at the Grand Havana Room, a mahogany-paneled space with floor-to-ceiling windows offering panoramic views of the city.

The two Americans met with an overseas guest, a longtime employee of their international consulting business who had flown to the United States for the gathering: a Russian political operative named Konstantin Kilimnik.

View the complete February 12 article by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger on The Washington Post website here.

John Bolton is a serial arms control killer

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton attended a press conference at the Interfax News agency in Moscow on Oct. 23, 2018. Credit: REX

John Bolton relishes in targeting nuclear arms treaties. He is very good at it.

The U.S. national security adviser’s latest hit is the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, but his list of victims goes back decades. He had a hand in either the U.S. withdrawal or repeal of Richard Nixon’s Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, Bill Clinton’s Agreed Framework with North Korea and Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal.

Now he has helped put the knife into Ronald Reagan’s landmark treaty, one that broke the back of the nuclear arms race in 1987. It was the first time that the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to destroy, not just limit, nuclear weapons. Together they destroyed almost 2,700 perfectly good nuclear weapons that they had spent billions of dollars and many years building. It began the process of massive reductions in global nuclear arms that continued until the current administration.

View the complete February 1 commentary by Joseph Cirincione on The Washington Post website here.

Joseph Cirincione is a nuclear weapons policy expert and president of the Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation. 

Here’s how Russia apparently tried to join Trump’s attacks against Robert Mueller

Credit: FBI

When filing documents in a federal case, special counsel Robert Mueller revealed new information about the election 2016 hackers. According to Bloomberg News, more than 1,000 of the confidential files Mueller obtained prove a friend of Vladimir Putin footed the bill.

The information came from a filing involving Concord Management and Consulting LLC, which is controlled by so-called Putin chef Yevgeny Prigozhin.

“In the filing, Mueller’s team said ‘non-sensitive’ evidence that had been shared exclusively with Concord’s U.S. law firm, Reed Smith, had wound up being disseminated, purportedly as a result of a hacking operation targeting the law firm,” Bloomberg reported.

Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said that he expects the investigation to be wrapped up soon, but judging from FBI Director Christopher Wray’s face, that might not actually be the case.

View the complete January 30 article by Sarah K. Burris of Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

Hacked emails list right-wing fundraiser partying with Russian fascists and oligarchs

Hacked emails list a vice president at the right-wing Bradley Foundation as partying with Russian fascists and oligarchs,some of whom are now sanctioned by tje US. Credit: Diana Ofosu

A new database of hacked emails reveals attendance at a 2014 gala in Russia.

Last month, a new leak site called Distributed Denial of Secrets went live, compiling a cache of hacked emails and documents of Russian officials, confidants of sanctioned Russian oligarchs, and those steering Russian interference efforts.

Among the revelations: A higher-up at the Bradley Foundation, one of the main financiers of right-wing groups in the U.S. — including the Daily Caller News Foundation and anti-immigrant organizations — apparently attended a notorious “pro-family” conference in Russia in 2014, held shortly after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.

Dan Schmidt, who worked for decades at the Bradley Foundation, was serving as one of the foundation’s vice presidents in 2014. That same year, according to leaked emails, Russian operatives involved in cultivating the American religious right listed him as attending a swanky gala alongside Russian fascists like Alexander Dugin and now-sanctioned Russian oligarchs like Konstantin Malofeev. The emails indicate the gala also included Igor Shchegolev, who was then working as an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Sergei Rudov, who helped host leaders of the National Rifle Association (NRA) during the gun group’s notorious 2015 trip to Russia.

View the complete January 30 article by Casey Michel on the ThinkProgress website here.

Russia leaks secret US meeting with Putin to keep Trump in his place

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, bids farewell to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of their press conference after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, Monday, July 16, 2018. Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP Photo

Putin just reminded Trump that he has saved all the receipts from their interactions — and he’s not afraid to use them.

Russian President Vladimir Putin fired a warning shot at Trump this week, strategically dropping compromising information to remind Trump that he has saved all the receipts from their interactions — and he’s not afraid to use them.

Citing a Russian government official, The Financial Times reported Tuesday that Trump met with Putin at last year’s G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, without a translator or anyone from his administration present during the exchange.

The revelation provides the most detailed account to date of Trump and Putin’s interactions during the November summit — and the details don’t line up with the White House’s description of the event.

View the complete January 29 article by Caroline Orr on the Shareblue website here.

White House Lied About Having No Contacts With Russia — They Had More Than 100 Contacts

Trump and his White House repeatedly denied that there were any contacts between members of the Trump campaign and Russia. They were lying.

NOW:

Trump and at least 17 of his campaign officials and advisers had more than 100 contacts with Russians before his inauguration.

New York Times: “During the 2016 presidential campaign and transition, Donald J. Trump and at least 17 campaign officials and advisers had contacts with Russian nationals and WikiLeaks, or their intermediaries, a New York Times analysis has found. At least 10 other associates were told about interactions but did not have any themselves.”

Top Trump officials have been accused of lying to investigators about their Russian contacts. They question is why did they all feel the need to lie?

Washington Post: “Trump’s former campaign chairman, deputy campaign manager, former national security adviser, personal lawyer and a campaign foreign policy adviser have all been accused of lying to investigators exploring Russia activity.”

THEN:

Trump denied any campaign contact with Russia, “with a firm ‘no.’”

Jim Acosta: “Fortunately ABC’s Cecilia Vega asked my question about whether any Trump associates contacted Russians. Trump said no.”

NBC News: “Trump did not specifically address questions regarding whether members of his staff were in contact with Russian officials during the campaign. When a reporter repeated that question to Trump afterwards as the president-elect approached the elevator to exit the room, he answered ‘No.'”

Trump said that nobody he knew of on the campaign had contacts with Russians.

Trump: “‘I have nothing to do with Russia,’ he told reporters on Thursday. ‘To the best of my knowledge, no person that I deal with does.’”

Question: “Can you say whether you are aware that anyone who advised your campaign had contacts with Russia during the course of the election?”

[…]

Trump: “No. Nobody that I know of. Nobody…”

Mike Pence on whether there was any contact between Trump or his associates and anyone associated with the Kremlin: “Of course not.”

Question: “Was there any contact, in any way, between Trump or his associates and the Kremlin or cutouts?”

Pence: “Of course not. Why would there be any contacts between the campaign?”

Kellyanne Conway on whether any members of the Trump campaign had contact with Russians: “Absolutely not.”

Question: “Did anyone involved in the Trump campaign have any contact with Russians trying to meddle with the election?”

Conway: “Absolutely not.”

Sarah Sanders said “no contacts took place” between the Trump campaign and Russians.

Sanders: “‘This is a nonstory because to the best of our knowledge, no contacts took place, so it’s hard to make a comment on something that never happened,’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said on Monday.”

Hope Hicks: “There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.”

Hicks: “It never happened. There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.”

Reince Priebus said there were no contacts between Trump associates and Russia during the 2016 campaign.

Question: “One, do you flatly deny any contact, any coordination between Mr. Trump, his campaign, his associates and the Russians in interfering?”

Priebus: “Even this question is insane. Of course, we didn’t interface with the Russians.”

DNC on Roger Stone Arrest and Indictment

DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement after longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone was arrested and charged with obstruction, witness tampering, and giving false statements:

“The Trump campaign was a willing and active participant in a conspiracy with Russia and WikiLeaks to influence the 2016 election. There are more conspirators yet to be held accountable – and at least one of them is named Donald Trump.”