Tag: Russian collusion

New Transcript Shows Trump Adviser Michael Flynn Colluding With Russia in 2016

Michael Flynn, the former Trump national security adviser, pleaded guilty in federal court to the charge of lying to FBI officials about a conversation he had with the Russian ambassador. Flynn’s defenders have insisted his lie was innocent and immaterial.

Late Friday afternoon, the Trump administration released the transcript of that conversation. The timing itself does not indicate much confidence that the transcript would support Flynn’s interpretation (late Friday afternoons not being the customary time to drop favorable news stories). And indeed, the transcript makes Flynn’s call look even less innocent.

On December 29, 2016, President Obama announced economic sanctions against Russia to retaliate for its interference in the presidential elections. Flynn, Trump’s incoming national security adviser, quickly got on the phone with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. When word of the phone call leaked, the administration announced that the call had merely served the purpose of touching base and exchanging pleasantries. “On Christmas Day, General Flynn reached out to the ambassador, sent him a text, and it said, you know, I want to wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, I look forward to touching base with you and working with you,” announced Press Secretary Sean Spicer. “The call centered around the logistics of setting up a call with the president of Russia and the president-elect after he was sworn in.” Continue reading.

Manafort filing accidentally reveals damning evidence of collusion

Paul Manafort’s attorneys accidentally revealed that their client is accused of sharing polling data from the 2016 election with a Russian operative.

Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort have accidentally revealed information about their client that could provide the strongest evidence yet of direct coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Due to an apparent filing error, Manafort’s lawyers let slip that special counsel Robert Mueller’s team has accused Manafort of sharing polling data from the 2016 presidential election with a Russian operative — while Manafort was working with the Trump campaign — and later lying to Mueller about it.

Manafort’s attorneys submitted a new court filing Monday in response to special counsel Robert Mueller’s allegation that Manafort broke his September 2018 plea agreement by lying to federal investigators.

View the complete January 8 article by Carolin Orr on the ShareBlue.com website here.

EXCLUSIVE: Former Fox News reporter says Russians colluded with Trump campaign through Roger Stone

The following article by Joe Romm was posted on the ThinkProgress website June 5, 2018:

New book details Russians’ decisive role in making Trump’s campaign messages go viral.

Roger Stone, a longtime political adviser and friend to President Donald Trump, speaks before signing copies of his book at the Boca Raton Marriott on March 21, 2017 in Boca Raton, Florida. Credit: Joe Raedle, Getty Images

In a series of exclusive interviews, former Fox News Channel chief political correspondent Carl Cameron explained to ThinkProgress how the Russians coordinated their cyber attack on the 2016 election with the Trump campaign.

“Trump confidant Roger Stone’s success was having the connections and creating the opportunities for [Russian intelligence officer] Guccifer2.0 and other Russian groups to really start taking advantage of social media and pounding these negative memes that Hillary’s a crook, et cetera,” Cameron explained to ThinkProgress’ Joe Romm — as related in the new book, How to Go Viral and Reach Millions. Continue reading “EXCLUSIVE: Former Fox News reporter says Russians colluded with Trump campaign through Roger Stone”

Mueller levels new claim of bank fraud against Manafort

The following article by Josh Gerstein was posted on the Politico website February 16, 2018:

Prosecutors say they’ve found ‘additional criminal conduct’ by the former Trump campaign chairman.

The special counsel’s office told a judge it has new evidence of bank fraud against Paul Manafort. No charges have been filed stemming from the new allegation. Credit: Andrew Harnik/AP Photo

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office has told a federal judge it has found evidence that Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, committed bank fraud not addressed by the indictment last October in which he was charged with money laundering and failure to register as a foreign agent.

As legal wrangling continues over a $10 million bail package for Manafort, prosecutors this week accused him of submitting false information to a bank in connection with at least one of his mortgages.

“The proposed package is deficient in the government’s view, in light of additional criminal conduct that we have learned since the Court’s initial bail determination,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing submitted on Tuesday and made public in a redacted form on Friday evening. “That criminal conduct includes a series of bank frauds and bank fraud conspiracies.” Continue reading “Mueller levels new claim of bank fraud against Manafort”

Half of Americans believe Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia

The following article by Eugene Scott was posted on the Washington Post website January 24, 2018:

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Jan. 23 that President Trump “is going to be fully cooperative with the special counsel.” (Reuters)

President Trump regularly claims that there was “no collusion” between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia to interfere in the election.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

The single greatest Witch Hunt in American history continues. There was no collusion, everybody including the Dems knows there was no collusion, & yet on and on it goes. Russia & the world is laughing at the stupidity they are witnessing. Republicans should finally take control!

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Just Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was pressed on what the president means when he says “no collusion.” Continue reading “Half of Americans believe Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia”

Watergate Prosecutors Believe Russia Collusion Evidence Exists

The following article by Chris Riotta of Newsweek was posted on the National Memo website November 14, 2017:

There is definitive proof of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election — and it exists in the email inboxes of Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller, Hope Hicks and others.

That’s what several former Watergate prosecutors believe, telling Newsweek that evidence of collaboration between the Kremlin and the president’s top campaign aides could literally be at Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s fingertips. It just has to be uncovered.

“The key difference between this and Watergate is … at the time, you certainly didn’t have computers,” said Nick Ackerman, one of the prosecutors who probed the 1972 break-in at the Democratic party’s Watergate offices. “Rather than use burglars to break into the Democratic National headquarters, they used Russian hackers. … The question is whether that was coordinated in any way with the Trump campaign. Their emails will answer that question, once the special counsel gets its hands on them.” Continue reading “Watergate Prosecutors Believe Russia Collusion Evidence Exists”

George Papadopoulos’ “limited” role in Trump’s campaign may have just gotten a whole lot bigger

The following article by Eric Lutz was posted on the mic.com website November 11, 2017:

Stephen Miller — a top aide to President Donald Trump — was reportedly in regular contact with George Papadopoulos, contradicting the White House characterization of the former foreign policy adviser as having played an “extremely limited” role on the campaign.

According to the New York Times on Friday, Papadopoulos kept Miller updated about his contacts with Russians, telling the senior adviser that the then-Republican candidate had an “open invitation” to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that he had “some interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right.” Continue reading “George Papadopoulos’ “limited” role in Trump’s campaign may have just gotten a whole lot bigger”

Top campaign officials knew of Trump adviser’s outreach to Russia

The following article by Rosalind S. Helderman and Tom Hamburger was posted on the Washington Post website October 30, 2017:

George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in early October to lying to federal officials about his contacts with Russian nationals. He is one of three former Trump campaign officials facing criminal charges. (Elyse Samuels/The Washington Post)

Several weeks after Donald Trump secured the Republican presidential nomination, his national campaign co-chairman urged a foreign policy adviser to meet with Russian officials to foster ties with that country’s government.

“Make the trip, if it is feasible,” Sam Clovis wrote in an August email to George Papadopoulos.

The email, included in court papers unsealed Monday, shows how an otherwise low-profile adviser has become a focus of the federal probe into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Continue reading “Top campaign officials knew of Trump adviser’s outreach to Russia”

Trump Jr., Russian Collusion, And The Pro-Trump Media’s Bad-Faith Attack On The Press

The following article by Matt Gertz was posted on the Media Matters website July 12, 2017:

Credit: Sarah Wasko, Media Matters

Pro-Trump media outlets are attacking the mainstream press in response to the devastating news that the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., met during the 2016 presidential campaign with a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer after he was promised she would provide information that would damage Hillary Clinton as part of a pro-Trump effort by the Russian government. More than any other incident in recent memory, this eagerness to hide from reality within the comfort of anti-media rhetoric shows that the right-wing’s media critique is not offered in good faith, but instead is an effort to undermine journalists in the public eye in order to maintain political power.

Over a four-day period, The New York Times’ journalists painstakingly reported out the story. While their initialstories piecing together the meeting and how it came about were based on anonymous sources, yesterday the reporters produced the actual email chain between Trump Jr. and a Kremlin-linked associate. The messages confirmed the accuracy of their previous reports, as well as Trump Jr.’s eagerness to collude with the Russian government in order to influence the election. Continue reading “Trump Jr., Russian Collusion, And The Pro-Trump Media’s Bad-Faith Attack On The Press”